HOME FEATURE: Meet the Fernbrook

If you are looking for design inspiration then this is your place, our new showhome in Taranaki features bright and open-plan living areas, with cathedral ceilings through the lounge, dining and kitchen, plus a luxurious interior fire feature, separate media room, and designer kitchen.

The Pacific Collection showhome features three generous double bedrooms (with an ensuite and dressing room in the master bedroom), a study/fourth bedroom, a gorgeous island bench, beautiful indoor-outdoor flow, and cleverly appointed stone block walls to provide privacy to the alfresco dining area.

How do you go about planning a showhome style?

Creating and dressing a showhome is different from assisting someone with their personal build. Thought needs to go into creating a space that’s fun, inspiring and visually different, it also needs to appeal to a broad range of people. Instinctively visitor's first thoughts are all about the visual elements of a house before they look at the floor plan and imagine their own furniture and personality in the space. This house could be furnished in many completely different styles and still look amazing.

What starts you on your creative process?

Sometimes it will only take one piece of furniture to start me on the journey of the look I want to achieve. I think about what’s on-trend to a point and which colours (both in the fixtures and soft furnishings) will inspire the direction of the look.

With this home, it was the dining chairs from Cintesi. I’ve always coveted them but my own home is far too small! They have a mid-century flavour and they led the other purchases with a similar vibe such as the inky blue and burnt orange sofas in both the media and living space. They are both velvet, have strong lines and gorgeous colour that I’ve been able to mix with other strong colour tones. Existing abstract artwork from Freedom Furniture that had been used in a prior showhome fitted these spaces perfectly.

What are some standout features of the home?

The kitchen designed by myself and the ladies at Elite kitchens is a strong standout feature in the open plan living/dining space. The black and woodgrain is in keeping with the mid-century vibe but interpreted in a modern way.

How did you bring colour into this home?

The bedrooms all feature colourful linen bedding, Foxtrot Home (who are NZ based and online only) have supplied all the base elements such as pillowcases and quilt. The patterned feature cushions and pillowcases are from Society of Wanderers. The colours I chose have been dragged through from the living zones so the house has a cohesive feel to it as you walk from one room to another. The fun predominately black and white artworks in the bedrooms were purchased online through Pop Motif.

What do you love most about this home?

One of my favourite parts of this house is the strong exterior. Black features with vertical lines clad in James Hardie Oblique and painted in Resene Bokara Grey. The house is well anchored with subtropical plantings and big black decks, all the dark features make the plants stand out.

Do you have a favourite room inside the showhome?

My favourite room inside is the media room. The burnt orange sofas make this a really cozy, warm inviting space and I like the other strong colours that complement it such as the mustard lamp from Mr. Ralph (where the wall lights in the master suite are also from) and Thread Design cushions which link all the other colours together.

Don’t be afraid to mix up your colours as long as there is something that ties them together - quite often a cushion, rug or artwork will be enough. This zone has surprised me as my first response when I got the sofas on-site was ‘how am I going to make these work?’, sometimes the spaces you overthink and are not sure about become the best of all.

How can our readers give their home a consistent look?

Picking a couple of favourite colours and using them in different ways in different zones, whether it’s in furniture or soft furnishings is a good way of giving your home a consistent look. I’m a fan of keeping your big-ticket items more parred back in colour so you can change cushions, for example, out each season.