Open home
A concrete slab wall adds texture to the living room of the renovated Mount Eden villa.
The entrance to the Mt Eden house.
The living room features built-in bookshelves.
The living room, kitchen and dining area take up one space at the back of the house.
The living area.
The dining area.
The main hallway dissects the hallway and leads outside.
The sophisticated and subdued master bedroom, designed by Emma Hayes.
The master bedroom features dark and sultry bed linen.
The Mt Eden home’s gate.
The childrens’ bedrooms are personalised with wall treatments and artworks.
Indie’s bedroom.
Built on a layer of dense volcanic rock, this century-old villa in the Auckland suburb of Mount Eden wasn’t easy to transform. In 2011, a year after purchasing the 1,037m², west-facing property, owners Tomi and Gareth Williams commissioned Greg Jones of Jones Architects to redesign the house. They wanted to open up and expand the existing rabbit-warren layout and introduce new spaces at the rear and it had to be done without compromising the heritage, street-front aspects of the house, which remained in solid condition thanks to a relatively recent renovation.
Jones’ plan entailed an extension to the rear of the house to accommodate new living spaces and a larger master bedroom, as well as new covered outdoor areas. On the lower level, a rumpus room and guest bedroom with increased stud height would be built along with a double internal garage; and a rectangular swimming pool would be installed too.
“It was about making the house flow better and ensuring the rooms came off at the right points so there was separation and space. We wanted the house to be able to adapt to the needs of our family as our children get older,” says Tomi Williams (40), who, as an interior designer, worked closely with Jones on the year-long design process.
The redevelopment commenced early in 2012 but, with 100m² of ancient rock to excavate from the lower level and limited site access for machinery, the early stages were onerous.
“Council consent required sign-off from six or seven neighbours because of the noise and the rock-breaking activity. Then there was one guy with a digger, working away for three months. It was a big task,” recalls Jones.
Once the structural changes were complete, Williams focused her attention indoors and on creating a complementary modern aesthetic. Using a Karlee Rawkins artwork purchased from Melbourne’s Flinders Lane Gallery as an inspiration point, she decided on a palette of black, neutrals and natural materials.
“As much as I love villas, I have a modernist slant as well and I really wanted to create spaces that were completely juxtaposed from the rest of the house,” says Williams. “I’m not a glossy person; I’m attracted to sturdy and matte finishes.”
For the kitchen, it was matte, black-lacquered cabinetry and a benchtop made from the darkest Mongolian granite offset by a raised oak section (and with a surprising pop of aquamarine glowing out from the scullery). For the widened living space, a concrete slab wall with an inset fireplace and a custom-made, asymmetric wall shelving unit in oak veneer were chosen to add materiality to the light-filled room. Williams then commissioned a builder and a local steelworker to construct a “grunty” dining table, all chunky timber and heavy steel legs, for the space.
Underfoot, original floors were replaced throughout with a grainy, grey-stained natural hardwood. Overhead, Williams installed a bevy of new light fixtures, including three striking MODO ‘Icaro’ pendants in the hallway and several Christopher Johnson concrete pendants in the kitchen.
It was in the children’s – Levi (8), Luca (6) and Indie (4) – bedrooms that Williams chose to apply colour unabashedly: “I used different wallpapers and furniture for each of the rooms as I really wanted to create spaces that were individual and that they could grow into.” And with newly raised door frames to accentuate the existing high stud, the natural light flow in each room improved.
Wallpaper was also an important feature of the master bedroom, Williams’ favourite spot in the 415m² house, where Emma Hayes’ River print creates a calming effect.
She’s also particularly proud of the downstairs wall decoration; she says: “I commissioned Cut Collective to create a graffiti wall in the children’s downstairs room. I flicked between a few different concepts but I was drawn to the geometry and the idea of the jetplane branching off and forming. When you look back at the house from the pool, you’re hit by these colours. You see the lights and then you see the colours on the wall.”
The simplicity of the garden design encompassing the large pool and reconstructed stone wall is also a highlight of the overall renovation, says Williams. “It’s just a great place to live in now and it feels natural to us. It’s comfortable and has great flow.”
