KEY POINTS:
Fashion designer Trelise Cooper and her husband Jack added a modern edge to this home, with a nod to its past.
8 Lichfield Road, Parnell.
Trelise and Jack Cooper first saw this house 19 years ago when it was a little white weatherboard bungalow around the corner from where they lived.
They watched it transform under architect Richard Priest's guiding hand for its then owner, Gary Langsford of the Gow Langsford gallery, and then for advertising guru Peter Cullinane. Trelise and Jack liked the changes they saw so much that when it came up for sale 11 years ago they bought it.
"Our son Jasper could walk to school up the road, and there was plenty of room downstairs for his friends to stay at weekends," says Trelise. "We'd often have three or four boys camped out in his big bedroom that opens out to the pool."
While Trelise's fashion business grew, she and Jack continued the house's evolution to a style that harks back to its past, with a contemporary edge.
"A bit like my clothes," she smiles.
A path invites you to the oversize metal front door, through a glade of six impressive Washingtonia palms and a collection of dragon trees. Inside, light streams through circular and half-circle windows at the top of a double height foyer. The home's original rimu floorboards have been stained a contemporary black, leading either downstairs or to rooms on the entry level. To your right is a guest bedroom, and straight ahead is the master with a sitting area opening onto a rear deck which stretches the width of the house.
This looks down to the pool area, and out through tall trees to glimpses of Hobson Bay.
"We get kingfishers coming up to wash off the sea salt in the pool," says Jack. "And the trees attract tui, rosellas and lots of other birds."
Turn left off the foyer and you enter the open plan living, dining and kitchen space, which also opens onto the deck. French wooden shutters are a rustic design feature and provide privacy from the road.
The kitchen injects an industrial feel with its big stainless steel benches and tall cabinets of aluminium and frosted glass.
"We had the kitchen designed in Milan and shipped out here," says Jack.
This juxtaposition of rustic and modern industrial design is continued with the application of silver leaf over the wooden joinery - it could be ageing metal or century-old paint.
The bathroom is a touch of luxury in limestone with an Italian plaster finish.
Downstairs is another bedroom, Jasper's former bedroom opening out to the pool area, and a large storeroom with a mirrored wall containing racks of Trelise's designs.
"This room has been a playroom, my yoga room, and it could be a fifth bedroom," says Trelise.
But with Jasper now at university in Melbourne the house is too big for Trelise and Jack. Trelise spends a lot of time overseas with her business, and Jack will be spending more time in France doing voluntary restoration work on a castle.
"We'd like to find a farmhouse to restore in France," says Jack. "Working on the castle is teaching me the skills I'd need."
Their main home in New Zealand has become their substantial beach house at Omaha, north of Auckland, where they try to spend four days a week when they're in the country. They want just a lock-up-and-leave property in the city.
"We've had a lovely time in this house," says Trelise. "It's so quiet, yet so close to the city, and looking out into the trees is like being in the country."
VITAL STATISTICS
BEDROOMS: 4
BATHROOMS: 2
GARAGES: 2
SIZE: Land 685sq m, house 371sq m.
PRICE: $3.7 million.
INSPECT: By appointment.
ON THE WEB: www.grahamwall.com
SCHOOL ZONES: Parnell District School, Auckland Grammar, Epsom Girls Grammar.
CONTACT: Graham Wall, Graham Wall Real Estate, ph 021 951 368.
FEATURES: Two level house modernised to high specifications while retaining some original character features. Large room downstairs could be a gym or fifth bedroom. Pool, glimpses of Hobson Bay through established trees.
