Style: July 06, 2017

STYLE | home 27
“The home has focal points that bring us all back together.”
– homeowner Peter Lange
With a vision for the house now clear in
their minds, the thing they hadn’t planned on
doing now presented itself as a opportunity to
create their dream home: a home replete with
warmth and personality, and bursting with
those “oh wow” moments.
Over the next year, the 320sqm twostorey
house, comprising five or six bedrooms
and three bathrooms, took shape. When it
came to the exterior, Peter explains, “we
ummed and ahhed over the cladding; but in
the end we went with Plan A: half cedar and
half Rockcote cladding system.” The horizontal
cedar boards wrap around the front of the
house, tucking neatly into the white Rockcote
cladding – the configuration achieving a
perfect balance of contrasting materials and
tones. With a backdrop of hills and trees, this
home has a commanding presence.
Of the details that make this home
compelling, project manager Brayden McGuire
remarks on the “oak flooring that leads you
through the entranceway and into the familyliving
area”, and commends the “stunning”
oak veneer beams, which offer definition
and distinction to the living spaces on the
ground floor, whilst drawing the eye upwards.
Between these beams, a staircase with glass
balustrades leads upstairs, the glass folding
around the corner to frame a bridge that
overlooks the comings and goings below – the
combination epitomising the ingenuity behind
the home’s design.
Brayden also mentions the interesting
internal upstairs window: with its bi-fold cedar
shutters, it bursts through the patterned
wallpaper to create a connection with the
living spaces below – a further example of the
innovative and charming ways that spaces interact.
As Peter points out, “The home has focal
points that bring us all back together.” The
kitchen-dining-family – Peter’s favourite space
in the house – is the nexus of family life,
comprising many such focal points. The openplan
layout, raised ceiling and feature window
mean the space stretches into other areas of
the home, whilst connecting with the garden.
“It is one big area and has great flow,” he says.
When asked to identify one aspect that
makes this house special, Brayden’s response
speaks of the exquisite, seemingly effortless
combination of many features: “There are so
many details – it is simply a beautiful house,
inside and out.”
Looking back on the process, Peter
emphasises that “it was pretty daunting”, but
that they have come out of it ‘rapt’ with what
has been achieved.
Brent loves reading
the newspaper.
So we designed an extra wide bench for him
to stop his paper falling into the sink.
Start your own story
03 348 1994 | www.peterrayhomes.co.nz