Grey Lynn: Praise be . . .

A house that looks like just another villa from the street has an awe inspiring new addition, writes Estelle Sarney.

15 Grosvenor Street, Grey Lynn.

Interior designer Sonya Cotter has found herself specialising in Grey Lynn villas, so she wanted to do something different with this one.

From the front it looks like the dozens of others in this suburb, but enter the living area at the back and your breath is taken away by its cathedral-like ceiling, rising 5m at its peak.

"I like how the front belies what's behind," says Sonya. "The cathedral ceiling also gives the living area so much more volume and sense of space."

This is the fourth Grey Lynn villa makeover Sonya has tackled in the six years since she moved into interior design with her company, Insitu. She works on properties as far afield as Waiheke Island and Howick, but is happy to keep coming back to projects on her home turf. She lives just along the ridge in one of the other streets off Great North Road.

"It's a great area because it's so elevated. You get heaps of sun, and views."

This house faces north and you can see the Skytower through trees off the back deck. Because it's higher than the house on its western side, it also looks down to the western arm of the Waitemata. Edged by houses on the Te Atatu peninsula, the harbour looks like a lake.

When Sonya first saw the house it had an illegal pop-top and a lean-to. Both were demolished, and building began from the original rear. It's hard to imagine the front section, which now has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, was once the whole house - it was a cottage when it was built in 1900.

More than 60 per cent of the house is now brand new. This comprises the kitchen, dining and living area, the back deck, and a downstairs section containing a bedroom, bathroom and second living area with a servery/wet bar. There are porcelain tiles on the floor down here to give a sense of the indoor-outdoor flow - the space opens through sliding doors to a tidy back yard.

"We call these areas granny or nanny flats now," laughs Sonya. "Or it could be used for an adult child still at home, or as a rumpus room for younger kids. There's room out the back for a trampoline."

Back upstairs (there's a handy side entrance halfway up) is the kitchen with Miele appliances, including a 700mm wide gas hob.

The living area features one of the last open fireplaces of its kind allowed to be built before the Auckland City Council brought in new environmental regulations.

The kauri floorboards in the original front part of the house have been stained dark to match the Fijian kauri in the rear section.

A clawfoot bath that has probably been in the house since it was built has been resurfaced, and takes pride of place in the main bathroom.

Sonya also retained the kauri fire surround in the master bedroom. "Someone had gone to an awful lot of trouble to strip it back to the wood," she says.

"So we left it like that and just put a little hearth in front of it."

Sonya credits her success with properties like this one to the team approach she takes with her client, the architect (she often works with Ken Davis), builders, real estate agent Tim Collins Smith, and, lately, home staging company Interior Concepts.

Vital Statistics

SIZE: Land 481sq m, house 240sq m.

PRICE: Interest above $1 million. Set sale date September 28.

INSPECT: Sat/Sun 2.30-3.30pm.

CONTACT: Tim Collins Smith, Ray White Ponsonby, ph 376 2186 or 021 909 149.

FEATURES: Stunningly renovated 1900 villa with two living areas, including one off a downstairs bedroom and bathroom. Open fire. Attic space with hideaway ladder. Elevated with views north and west.

* No garage but parking for 3 cars behind a security gate.