Sweet serenity at home with Penny Harwood

Like many would-be home buyers over the past year, Penny Harwood was at her wits' end when she attended an auction to purchase this three-bedroom Epsom apartment, built in the 1950s. It was just before Christmas, she was flatting with a girlfriend - and she'd already missed out on four previous properties that went under the hammer.

Similar to many opportunities in life, timing was crucial. The jingle-bell jollity of the holiday season was just around the corner, so many families had already headed for the hills or packed up for the beach; now she just had to pace herself, give the auctioneer a knowing nod at the correct moment and it would be hers.

Harwood has settled into her new home so completely that it would seem that scenario played out many years ago, not a mere six months gone. The ground-level, concrete-block flat is her to a T.

Airy, with clean-lines and, from the front and rear windows, borrowed views of rhododendrons and established deciduous plants, means the space has a natural serenity.

Harwood's preferred colour palette of white, silver grey and eggshell blue only enhances this peacefulness.

"When I moved in, the walls were a dark, dirty cream and there were olive-green curtains at the windows," she recalls. Although not enamoured with the mushroom-coloured carpeting, the kitchen was, mercifully, crisp white with modern reconstituted stone benchtops - and the bathrooms enjoyed a similar pared-back aesthetic. A coat of Resene "black white" and some new roller blinds at the windows made a world of difference.

"I think you absorb what you are exposed to, and my daughter, who's in fashion, uses that colour in all her Moochi stores around the country."

Even though Harwood's previous home was "cottagey", rather than mid-century, she's kept the same furnishings for decades. "This place is smaller, though, and hasn't the same stud height so my armoires were too tall to fit," she explains. That's when a double garage comes in handy. "One day, I might even re-arrange it so I can get the car in."

It's plain to see that Harwood is simply "fou" about French antiques and that timeless style that relies on ornate painted-wood pieces teamed with pale, pretty objects. "My daughter complains that my look is too feminine," she smiles. "So I've tried to steer away from that." Even though a grouping of black vases from Madder & Rouge now defies the softness, she hasn't succeeded.

A stint living in the warehouse-style Steelworks building has meant that Harwood is accustomed to dealing with open-plan spaces. She knows how to demarcate distinct areas by clever rug and furniture placement. At the front of the living room, an intimate grouping of three couches around a coffee table with a base made from old floorboards is a sun-kissed spot to enjoy a glass of wine with friends. Here, the old and the new mix beautifully; it's chic and stylish, but comfortable, too.

In one corner, orchids bloom atop an iron outdoor table. "I love rust and peeling paint - and you don't have to dust it too frequently," says Harwood. In another area, a delicate dressing table with curvaceous legs plays host to a collection of white ceramics that look like folded paper. "The table belonged to my mum - it has been white and black in its time, but now it's charcoal."

Painting furniture is a pleasing part of Harwood's decorative dalliances. She has transformed many pieces over the years - not just once but twice or three times over. "I love the new Annie Sloan range of chalk paint. It makes it so easy. You can paint over polyurethane, wax or even linoleum - without sanding."

Though the living zone is sociable, Harwood relishes her solitude, too. She's placed a modern wingback chair in a steely grey fabric directly in front of the TV. Viewing for one is such indulgence, plus it means no fighting over the remote.

In the dining area, a table has been made from a garage door that was rotten on the bottom. The legs are French antiques. "I have no problem combining antiques with found objects." A sideboard, again French, and painted a warm grey, started life in the bedroom of a previous home. "It was an ochre colour with gilded decoration."

Many of the curtains in the home also have history. The grey ones in the main bedroom were made from leftover material from a previous flat and the guest bedroom has drapes made of a crinkled dress fabric that Harwood has kept for 20 years. "I bought a taffeta backing for them, which gave them a lovely full look," she says.

In the kitchen, large items of pottery and her dinnerware are in co-ordinated tones of white, grey and "Nigella blue". She's disciplined within this palette and has high hopes that her private courtyard garden, accessed via sliding doors from the kitchen, will dutifully comply. "The camellias have yet to bloom, though," she explains. "I'm hoping they're white, but I think they'll be pink."

If Harwood finds those rosy hues too offensive, she can always turn her attention inwards. Along one wall, a mural of silhouetted trees captures the spirit of the great outdoors - in hues that conform.

A friend, artist Josh Constantine, was called in to contribute this tableau affectionately called "Muriel". "I told Josh we could just paint over it if it didn't work," says Harwood. She had high hopes though, after spotting a similar technique in a European magazine.

Her faith paid off. The mural, which originally was meant for just one third of the living zone, blossomed in stature and size. It now travels a full 10m, across the door that leads to the bedroom wing past the dining area and over another cupboard before stopping short of the kitchen.

Constantine researched the commission by visiting Cornwall Park, where he took photographs of tree varieties before he began to sketch them out. "We started with rimu but, in the end, Penny preferred the gnarly look of the pohutukawa branches," he says.

His first renditions were a miniature template in graphite, then he moved on to a scale drawing before eventually putting brush to plaster. Using test pots of colour, he took four days to complete the mural. In silvers and greys, the trunks that taper off to fine leaves are elegant and ghostly - a painted woodland to capture the imagination.

"I love it," says Harwood, who has never collected art, and has since employed Constantine to paint a twirl of ribbon above her Louis XIV-style bed, a set of angel's wings in the guest room and some insistent ivy that creeps into the small back bedroom she uses as an office. Harwood was concerned, however, that unlike art, when she moves on from this apartment, she needs to abandon Muriel.

"But Josh said he rather liked that idea. It's the Buddhist way." In that case, this fairy-tale forest will become a beautiful gift for the next inhabitant.

• To see more of Josh Constantine's work, visit joshconstantine.co.nz.