Place to be: St Benedicts flat
With a style not unlike that of a New York loft – but without the height – this apartment feels liberated and fresh while still retaining the character that only age can bring.
A uncovered mural painted by street artist Deus was discovered in the entrance area and given a new lease of life.
Sheer curtains provide privacy in the living area; an office space is included in the kitchen design.
The designers repainted the walls, ceilings and floors white to provide a clean backdrop for the lively colours of the furniture.
The apartment includes bedrooms for the home-owner’s grown children.
The bathroom palette is simple and clean; the master bedroom features Fornasetti Cloud wallpaper from Icon Textiles.
A custom Simon James sofa cuts a bold figure in the open-plan living space. The reading lamp is from ECC and the lush rug underfoot is from Artisan.
The dining area features a marble table and vintage mustard chairs. The kitchen cabinetry is blackened steel and the benches are fibreglass and concrete.
The apartment is housed in an iconic building on the corner of Newton Road, which overlooks The Orange building across the road.
An Auckland apartment with grit and street cred is transformed into a cool, urbane version of itself through colour and texture.
Auckland’s Eden Terrace is a gritty, city-fringe suburb on the move. With high-end apartment buildings such as SKHY and The Orange being established and redeveloped in its vicinity, its reputation as a coveted area in which urbanites might live is growing.
This loft apartment, situated across the road from The Orange on the corner of St Benedicts Street, exemplifies the area’s shift. With a style not unlike that of a New York loft – but without the height – the apartment feels liberated and fresh while still retaining the character that only age can bring.
The home-owner, a property developer with several rental homes, wanted to branch out from the neutral palette used in his other properties, and develop this loft apartment to reflect his sense of individuality. He called upon Janice Kumar-Ward of JKW Interior Architecture and Design to create the soft fit-out. This firstly involved a refurbishment of the apartment, which had been partially renovated in the past but never finished.
“It was actually a simple process,” says Kumar-Ward. “They moved out so we could do a complete clean-up. We repainted all the walls and ceilings white to provide a clean palette. His brief to me was that we create a really cool bachelor pad in which he could feel himself, so we tried to do something not overtly masculine, but that has that feeling about it.”
To move away from the beach tones used in many of his other properties, some of which are situated on Waiheke Island, the home-owner requested that there be zones with different colour schemes in his large, open-plan living and dining area. A deep-blue-green velvet custom Simon James couch ticks the masculine and edgy boxes, and, along with the lush Artisan rug underfoot, provides some soft comfort to the centre of the space. At the far end, a marble table – “a rare find,” says Kumar-Ward – is accompanied by mustard-coloured bespoke chairs sourced by local supplier Kylie Willett. This zone has an art-deco feeling, accentuated by framed vintage posters.
At the other end of the long room, a pair of blush-pink, mid-century chairs graces a zone that feels soft and calming. “We created this relaxed beige corner, which works with the two Mandy McIntosh paintings on the wall. These neutral abstract pieces are treasured artworks that the home-owner wanted to display proudly,” says Kumar-Ward. The rug in this area is from Designer Rugs and plays into the neutral palette.
Because the space is so lofty, the luxurious rugs from Artisan and Designer Rugs have acoustic underlays that help with the reverberation of sound in the space. “We also wanted to block out the big Orange Coronation Hall so we did that by way of beautiful acoustic blinds that sit behind the sheers. Curtaining the apartment made a huge difference to the soft fit-out, as did the mood lighting throughout,” says Kumar-Ward.
The entrance area is a contrast with the rest of the apartment. A mural, painted by street artist Deus, was restored by the designers and given a new lease of life alongside two elongated, high-backed chairs.
The bedroom has a palette of soft greys and browns, with walls covered in a Fornasetti wallpaper from Icon Textiles and a bespoke velvet headboard from W. The bathroom floor tile was chosen to match the original antique washstand that was restored as part of the design. This art deco-styled space is finished with a restored Murano glass chandelier.
“One of the things I love is that this client was really open to doing something quirky and left of field,” says Kumar-Ward. “He wanted pieces he loved, not all matching, and a fun and engaging space people would walk into and find unusual and interesting.”
