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Nestled amongst the trees on Barrier Island, New Zealand is this sustainably built home by Crosson, Clarke, Carnachan. Opening out to the site it embraces the landscape, borrowing its beauty. It is a simple home but its simplicity sits strongly with the majesty of the surrounds. External walls mimic the tree trunks while walls of windows dissolve the barrier between inside and out.
I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that New Zealanders build the best beach houses. This is a big concession coming from an Australian. We pride ourselves on understanding the beach culture and our architects are some of the world's best but it just seems that the Kiwi's just do it better with the bach. For those of you who don't know bach is the kiwi for beach house. But it means more than just the building. It's the memories. It's the summer days and the salt spray and the barbeques and the fun. It's about summer rituals and roughing it and making do and fishing and wet swimsuits and sandy towels. Even when it's a luxury bach. It's stunning but it is still not overly precious. After all it really is about the sand and sea and the view and those long days with family and friends. A series of connected pavilions on a dramatic site at Kuaotunu by Auckland based architects Crosson, Clarke, Carnachan.
Kiwi stylist LeeAnn Yare really got her hands dirty at the Signature Prints factory in Sydney when she was lucky enough to be given a lesson in screening her own roll of Florence Broadhurst Horses Stampede in tangerine. Despite the 40 degree heat in the factory on the day, the result was near perfect, and is now gracing LeeAnn's sons' bathroom walls. A long time fan of FB designs, LeeAnn is a huge fan of anything handmade, and this experience has only made her appreciate the handmade process even more. Check out LeeAnn's own concept store Collected at BLOC, opening on the 22nd March in Auckland New Zealand, where she will be selling FB wallpaper and fabric, and some one off limited edition surprises.
Photos by Larnie Nicolson Photography. Collected's website will be live this weekend.
Just for our Australian and New Zealand readers. A sneak peek at the new Freedom Winter collection. My Freedom insider sent me a teaser of what is in store in the coming weeks. "A lot of the homewares are arriving in the next week or so – and furniture March 5 onwards." That black and white and colour pop rug is definitely coming home with me and I'm still hankering after the Drum coffee table and side table from last season. As for the chaise below ... yum. Wonder if I can ditch my table and chairs and move it into my dark blue dining room? Change it into a library? Friends can surely eat on their laps when they come round for dinner. Styling for the catalogue is by Megan Morton so I can't wait to see how she puts the collection together.
It's Spring in New Zealand (lucky b*stards) and Sammy, a Kiwi and regular reader of this here blog kindly sent along some more links to homes there as the market is "exploding with gorgeous summery homes" as she put it. *still hatin'* One of the homes she linked to, located in Auckland, caught my attention. It's got some odd decor choices here and there but overall I think the owners did a great job. I love the kitchen and the exterior is adorable (we don't really have cute houses here in Ottawa). Link while it lasts. Thanks Sammy!
Wed, 16 May 2012