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I was asked recently to sum up my year — my biggest successes and most memorable moments. Perhaps because so much of my work is about planning ahead, reflection isn’t something that comes easily to me, but considering the highs and lows of 2019 turne

An engineer who got into furniture through restoring it, Sitting Pretty’s Josh Milward makes seating, tables and headboards that reference art deco and mid-century design. He works and lives his dream in rural Bay of Plenty but hits the beach on the

1. Texture brings soul to spaces — and not just interior ones. To create these limewashed-look courtyard walls and bench seat, apply a basecoat of Resene Lumbersider tinted to Resene Half Spanish White. Allow to dry, then apply a second coat. 2. Mix

Finding great books devoted to New Zealand architecture is as easy as pie, but when it comes to those on contemporary New Zealand interiors, it can be a different story. As editor of online journal The New and owner of Waihi Beach homeware store Sund

Artist Grace Bader’s studio is on Auckland’s Karangahape Road, but she always has sketch books with her so, actually, the world is her workplace. Having moved to Auckland in 2014 after some time spent living in London, she says her environment and th

Tried-and-true instructions for a family-friendly kitchen often begin with an L-shaped configuration. Formed by two connected runs of cabinetry, it creates an efficient working triangle that allows uninterrupted movement from sink, to cooktop, to fri

It’s a gigantic geographical and cultural leap from Auckland’s leafy Titirangi to the gritty buzz of Berlin, but material designer Sophie Rowley’s calling — turning waste into designer objects — would be much appreciated in her childhood stomping gro

For Helen and Timothy Manson, the saying ‘Home is where the heart is’ couldn’t be more true. After spending half their married life in Aotearoa, the remarkable couple relocated their love to the most unexpected of places — Uganda, East Africa. Home t

When a covetable clifftop property overlooking the ocean goes up for sale for the first time in 35 years, eyes near and far fall on the prize. In the case of this beachside beauty in Australia’s Portsea, it was a lucky local couple who ultimately str

Vertiginous hills and mad access issues don’t usually faze Wellingtonians — but this site was a tad different. When Amélie Goldberg and Karl Wakelin came to investigate building on this 700m2 section in Wadestown, it had been on the market for 25 yea

When hunting for a bach on the coast north of Auckland, Joanna and Neil Cowie had one main requirement: simple pleasures. The property they found near Matakana fit the bill. “We took a drive up from Auckland to look at this place one weekend, and whe

The road from Christchurch to the West Coast takes us past the patchwork fields of the Canterbury Plains, over the bush- clad Southern Alps via Arthur’s Pass, then down the Otira Viaduct before skirting Lake Brunner and delivering us to our final des

Some would look at a small, derelict 1940s house and decide to demolish it. Christchurch’s Kate and Daniel Sullivan of Architects’ Creative opted to celebrate this in-situ concrete building’s unique character and work within the existing framework on

The concept of luxury no longer exclusively refers to the lifestyles of the rich and famous. In today’s world, it’s often simply about making life easier and clawing back time from the never-ending busyness. For designer Annika Rowson — director of R

It was almost by accident that Napier’s Eva Bradley and Brad Turfrey ended up in their forever home. “We’d been looking for something on the hill overlooking the water, but when someone told me about this section and I suggested it to Brad, he said,

You could hide away at home wearing any old thing, but there’s an art to doing nothing much, and it includes dressing the part. Pleasingly affordable in restful zinc and rose, Penney & Bennett’s latest collection of 100% cotton loungewear spells the

Bailey Meredith and Anna Fahey met nearly two decades ago, in high school. In the years since, their conversations have often veered towards combining their strengths to begin a business — and now they’ve made it happen with their new brand, Baina. R

Close your eyes, take a calming breath and picture yourself where you’d rather be — in Menorca. This unspoiled Spanish idyll has been a UNESCO-protected biosphere reserve since 1993, preserving it as a juniper- and pine-fringed paradise where a diver