Karen Mills reckons 12 years on, her husband still jokes people can see the marks where she dragged him across Onehunga to check out this grand two-storey double-bay villa.
As she recalls, "We'd only just finished doing up what had been a derelict villa in Arthur St and were having a shandy after putting the last of our plants in. I saw an ad for this place and said 'Oh, they'll be upset, it says Onehunga' because I thought it was in Victoria St in Remuera.
"Graeme said 'No, there's a Victoria St in Onehunga, too' and reckons he could have cut his tongue out as soon as he saw the look on my face.
"My whole life I'd wanted a beautiful, elaborate-looking house, a sumptuous-looking house. I came from a terribly dysfunctional home in Otara and since then my homes have always been my soul and the centre of my universe.
"We came down the sweeping driveway to see this and I thought, 'Oh my God, that's where I belong'."
Karen's drawn on the ornate 18th-century Rococo style to re-invent the magnificent circa-1900 villa, which the couple bought already renovated but in a much less elaborate style. She likes gilding and inbuilt cabinetry so she found painters to replicate scenes from French painter Francois Boucher's classical scenes on panels throughout the grand home, which is secreted away in sprawling grounds down a long, gated driveway.
Karen smiles softly. "You come through those electric gates and you could be anywhere in the world.
"I sit out on the front veranda, hear the birds sing and admire the greenery and it's a piece of heaven."
She understands the Sisters of Mercy once owned the house, which previous owners relocated from Epsom's Mountain Rd and restored. Karen's tastes incorporating French, Middle Eastern and Asian influences were moulded by travelling when she owned a language school.
She describes the ambience she's created here as "character-filled and oozing with atmosphere". The mother-of-two is blissfully unconcerned that some adore it while others find it a little overwhelming.
"I had one lady come here and cry because she liked it so much; she said it just evoked incredible emotion for her."
She grins mischievously as she recounts overhearing two staff members at a textile house when waiting behind another customer to collect an assortment of furnishing fabrics. "One said, 'Oh my God, is that all going in one house?' and I piped up 'No, it's going in one room!'"
Karen's painted the weatherboards a Karen Walker duck-egg blue. The spacious entry room has a French flavour with classical painted scenes recreated around citrine panelled walls incorporating colourful leadlight windows.
Glass-panelled bifold doors access a graceful lounge.
Panels above cabinetry in the large dining room-kitchen further highlight the artistry of Polish painter Jacek Martyniuk, who graduated with distinction from the Polish Academy of Fine Art in Poznan, and New Zealand artist Mark Warboys in recreating the Boucher scenes. Notable features here include caramel travertine benches, a dual Rangemaster oven and decorative ironwork, including that above the doors leading to the salt-water pool.
The lounge with a one-bedroom, one-bathroom downstairs set-up (where a friend has been staying) alternates, when part of the main layout, as a formal lounge with Venetian milieu and library.
Up the grand stairway, a glorious master suite with dressing room, en suite with deep bath and veranda access complements three other big bedrooms. This level's other bathroom illustrates the more pared-down decor previous owners favoured.
Image 1 of 6: Behind this double-bay villa's majestic facade lies an interior filled with French-style hand-painted panels, sumptuous fabrics and decorative joinery.
There's also a self-contained one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with kitchenette above a double garage-plus-carport.
Karen and mechanic husband Graeme married here three weeks after taking possession and have hosted some amazing parties here. But Karen's embarking on new projects and they want more contained living.
She says: "Leaving this place will be one of the hardest things I've had to do in my life but it's the right thing to do at 60."
