Designer met his death in house of his dreams

By KATHERINE HOBY and PATRICK GOWER

David McNee was killed in the house of his dreams that he shared with his two beloved basset hounds, Felix and Jasper.

The designer and television personality had been eyeing the three-storey, angular house in St Mary's Bay for two years before he bought it and put his "heart and soul" into doing it up.

The house was put on the market in December, and was about to go back on this week with Mr McNee understood to be wanting close to $1 million for it.

The spectacular refurbishment featured in the December issue of NZ House & Garden with the tale of Mr McNee instructing tradesmen by telephone as he convalesced in his mother's Waikanae home with a broken ankle.

He was injured as he attempted to rescue a disabled Felix, who had fallen down a bank. McNee fell 8m past his dog.

During his four-month recovery, Mr McNee three times ordered builders to carry him through the house to check their handiwork, which included creating a sumptuous master bedroom suite by combining two bedrooms and squeezing a bathroom into a cupboard.

The magazine reported that "the upside of the accident was the company of Eva McNee which he hadn't shared for any length of time for 30 years".

Mr McNee was a director of the family company Jolly & Mills, a truck dealer in Palmerston North.

At his mother's home yesterday, a spokeswoman said the family were a very dignified, private group of people. "They want to grieve in peace."

As an interior designer in the 1970s, Mr McNee helped elevate Vogel House to prime ministerial splendour in Sir Robert Muldoon's time, scouring the country for furniture to decorate it.

A spectacular stint as a real estate salesman followed, and he put down his design flair as what enabled him to twice hit the top for residential sales in New Zealand. He said he could "sell the dream".

He spent several years in America, shipping his dogs to live with him. There was a stint buying furniture in the Paris fleamarkets, starting at 4am to bargain by torchlight with a pen and paper and lots of cash.

Familiar to viewers of TVNZ's top-rating My House My Castle, Mr McNee advised home owners to play classical music and heat bread in the oven to tempt buyers. When the show first aired four years ago, he was named its "greatest asset" by a Herald reviewer.

"He performs Mission Impossible-like facelifts after striding into a home and invariably reeling in horror at what is meant to be its elegantly neutral palette."

His signature saying was "beige on beige on beige ... boring, boring, boring".

The show's host, Robert Harte, said of Mr McNee at the time that he was "tremendous".

"People adore him. I think he's a national treasure."

Touchdown owner Julie Christie yesterday said they planned to use him in an upcoming special edition of Castle.

"David was an extraordinary talent as a television interior designer," she said. "But there were times that he did not have the patience for the speed television works at."

A long-time friend who would not be named yesterday said Mr McNee was someone who could rub people up the wrong way, but would be remembered for his "brilliance".

"David was a brilliant designer. He was also a brilliant guy as well."