Mid-Century Dealer Jodi Newnham’s Point Chevalier House Is A Modernist Dream

Inspired by the work of Kelly Wearstler, creative powerhouse Jodi Newnham’s Point Chevalier home is an alchemy of art, mid-century furniture and bold design flourishes.

Every so often, Jodi Newnham hits the refresh button, transforming the interior of her home in an instant. It’s an occupational hazard her husband and children have become used to over the years.

“Sometimes Paul gets home from work and finds the house is completely different. I’m quite good at lugging heavy pieces of furniture around by myself so when I get an idea for a new combination, I can’t help myself. I have to see what it will look like. Paul’s very good about it and the kids have grown up with things being moved around a lot.”

Jodi’s ever-changing home is more than a roof over her head: it’s an assertion of her personality and a tangible form of self-expression. Building from scratch gave her an opportunity to create a space that’s the purest form of her well-honed aesthetic.

“I loved having the opportunity to design a home that came directly from my imagination,” says Jodi, who worked with Michael Macfie, from Macfie Architecture, to help transform her ideas into bricks and mortar. When it was done, Jodi took to the interior as she would a blank canvas, building layers of colour and texture with unique furnishings and contemporary art.

As a mid-century dealer and owner of Mid Century Swag, she sees a lot of stunning pieces — and some inevitably come home with her, at least for a while. But there are a few things in her home that will never change. The vintage Sputnik light above the dining table — brought back in Paul’s luggage from a trip to Australia — is a keeper, as are the shimmery fireplace tiles, the main bedroom’s cork walls, and the showstopper that would take some demolishing to get rid of — the stunning spiral staircase in the entranceway.

Inspired by the Modernism movement of the mid-20th century, the design of the two-storey home in Pt Chevalier, Auckland, is essentially two white cubes: a large one at ground level, with a smaller white cube on top. Expanses of glass along the length of the front bring sunlight flooding inside. Sliding doors provide easy access to the north-facing courtyard that’s the perfect place for early evening cocktails and lingering summer barbecues. The private outdoor space infuses the house with a stillness, a true sense of sanctuary. It’s easy to forget that this haven, hidden from the busy street by a long private driveway, is in the city.

“We love having family movie nights here. We get takeaways and the kids sit on the floor, eating dinner from the coffee table, while Paul and I relax on the sofa. And Blaze always likes to be part of it, too,” laughs Jodi, referring to the family’s much-loved 2-year-old Staffy, who enjoys chilling out with his favourite people on his favourite chair.

The layout of the home has the public areas on the ground floor and the sleeping quarters upstairs. Construction on the 233sq m house got underway in May 2019, and was completed about 15 months later — though building from scratch was not the couple’s original intention.

They were about to renovate the house next door, which they had bought for that purpose, and were in the process of drawing up plans for a large extension to the back. But one day Jodi had an epiphany.

It dawned on her that instead of adding to the bungalow, there was enough room for them to build their dream home in the large backyard. Renovation plans suddenly morphed into a new build and now the original home is tenanted, providing them with an income.

The home Jodi designed is much like her life: creative and organic, with a sense of purpose. In design and in life, she is obsessed with creativity, with beauty, and with designing spaces that reveal her artist’s eye for colour and composition. She puts together richly layered looks that combine unusual lamps and textured rugs with groupings of bold furniture and striking artworks, including her own metallic sculptures. “There are so many ways we can express ourselves, from the art we surround ourselves with, to how we dress and the spaces we live in,” she says.

Throughout, she’s gone for a muted palette of coffee, caramel, latte and chocolate tones, with some deep red, burgundy, and blue. The furniture is mostly mid-century pieces, but not always. Jodi’s passion for abstract expressionism and texture can be seen in her artwork, and these themes are repeated in the furnishings and objects she is drawn to.

With her self-assured style, she deftly navigates the different worlds she inhabits, all united by her distinctive visual language. “I don’t follow trends. I prefer classic interiors where everything is balanced. It’s the combination of colour and texture that makes a space visually interesting.” She sources a lot of her pieces for Mid Century Swag from the US, mostly from the 1950s to the 1980s, though she’s open to anything that catches her eye.

“I don’t like to limit myself to one era. For me, it’s all about the function and the form,” she says. “I’ve always been drawn to mid-century design. It was a ground-breaking period in architecture and design, a time when creatives like architects, sculptors and artists, were pushing boundaries with materials.”

Creativity is infused into Jodi’s life. Her sculptural artworks explore the possibilities of colour and shape. Like the interior of her home, Jodi’s career has been in constant evolution. She originally studied visual arts, then clothing design, and worked in the fashion industry for a while. Ultimately, she felt that she needed more layers of creativity in her life and studied interior design when she was pregnant with Niamh. She loved it. Shortly afterwards, Jodi founded Swag Design and began combining residential interior design with her work as an artist and her passion for mid-century furnishings.

Jodi admires the work of celebrated American interior designer Kelly Wearstler, a self-titled mixologist who’s well-known for her maximalist approach. She likes the way a Kelly Wearstler-designed room often employs big pieces as focal points to create a buzzy atmosphere, without being overly cluttered, always backed with a thorough understanding of historical reference points. Every layer, every choice comes from a place of intuition, and Jodi shares this gift.

The alchemy she applies to her interiors comes from her imagination, and the confidence she has acquired over the years to listen to her own voice, so she can tell her own story in her own creative way.

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