Spring pick-me-ups

Bold homes, funky flowers and fresh flavourful recipes FORMER BLACK CAP SHANE BOND'S SWISH RENO

Ten years after building a family home and with three children heading into the teen zone, Tracey and Shane Bond were facing a “love it or list it” dilemma. The house the Bonds built in the Styx Mill subdivision on the northern outskirts of Christchurch was their third house in the area. The former Black Cap’s life as an international cricket coach takes him round the globe but this is his home ground. “I’ve lived in Belfast since I was nine,” says Shane, who met Tracey at the local high school.

Custom-built as a practical home for a young family, the 282sqm plastered block and schist house has a kitchen flanked by two living rooms on one side with a hall and four bedrooms wrapping around behind. “It’s like a lap,” says Shane. “We used to leave the doors open and the kids would run around and around.”

Ever-practical, they chose a synthetic brown carpet, neutral furnishings and laid the backyard with artificial turf. The house had had a good innings, but Katie, 14, Hayley, 12, and Ryan, 10, were moving into a different stage of life and the house was tired.

“It was great when the kids were younger, but we needed to replace the carpet and appliances, our furniture was mismatched and we were bored with beige,” says Tracey.

At the end of the day, they decided they were happy with the house and location. “There are things about living here that would be hard to walk away from,” says Tracey. Ticks on the “love it” list included access to a residents’ gym and 25m pool, the nearby reserve where Wally the spoodle could stretch his legs and the subdivision’s reticulated gas supply.

“It’s a very safe neighbourhood which is good as I’m away a lot,” says Shane, who spends two months a year coaching in India and much of the summer season in Australia.

“It’s a busy time of our lives,” adds Tracey, who does some relief teaching between shuttling the children between schools and sports fields.

With the decision made to stay put, the next was where to start with the revamp. “We went around some shops but had no idea when it came to making choices,” says Shane. >

“In the end I googled ‘interior design’ and read a few reviews and thought Frobisher looked good,” says Shane. The selection was made, and Ryan Twomey and Vashti Hammond were assigned to the job.

“They had a good look around and came back and said ‘this is what we think we should do’ and we were like ‘oh… ok’,” says Shane, who hadn’t been planning such a major overhaul. “In the end we thought, ‘let’s just do it’ and it was the best thing we ever did.” While his strong suit may not be interior design, Shane has always been interested in houses and studied property valuation before being accepted into the police force, where he spent two years before cricket kicked in. >

The Bonds’ brief was for a more interesting makeover that would take them through the next decade.

“They’re a sporty Cantabrian family, practical and unpretentious,” says Ryan from Frobisher, who had his own brand of coaching, and coaxing, to offer. “We didn’t want them walking into a house that didn’t feel as though it belonged to them, but we also wanted to push them out of what they thought was their comfort zone and show them what could be achieved.”

A year on, and almost everything in the house is new. The revamped kitchen, while always central, is now the social hub. By attaching a tongue-like extension to the bench, the area has been drawn into previously dead space to link the living areas. Light loop-pile wool carpet and French oak parquet have replaced the brown carpet, and the off-white walls covered in deeper shades and patterned papers. Textured fabrics and moody colours have transformed the little-used formal lounge, while the once-drab living room is now an inviting sunny space.

Bathrooms have been modernised and bedrooms tailored to taste, particularly pleasing the girls who had fallen out of love with their childhood quarters.

A small room, formerly a dumping ground for junk, is now a quirky man-cave full of cricketing memorabilia. “We were very conscious of not over-embellishing the house with Shane’s cricketing achievements while at the same time we wanted to showcase them somewhere,” says Ryan. “This way we have limited it to a private room he can open up to people if he wants to.”

Shane and Tracey soon came to trust the design team’s suggestions. “When they first showed us three different materials they were going to use on a chair, I thought ‘that sounds hideous’ but once it was made, it was like ‘wow, that’s so cool’,” says Shane. By the time Ryan suggested they hang rustic Rajasthani gates on their nice new wall, the Bonds’ response was ‘Why not?’

“They absolutely nailed us,” says Tracey. “It’s a much friendlier house that has rejuvenated us and the way we live.”

‘In the end we thought, “let’s just do it” and it was the best thing we ever did’

THESE PAGES (clockwise from top left) Upholstery fabric was used for the living room curtains to give a richness that is enhanced by the textured cushions on the leather and linen-look sofa; metal tables feature throughout the house: “We didn’t want anything too precious and they are easy to move around,” says Tracey. An inset carpet defines a dining zone alongside the kitchen; six posters the children chose in Disneyland have been grouped to brighten the wall of the family-friendly room. Shane and Wally under framed postcards from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. Tracey relaxes at the Nobilia German laminate bench extension, fashioned to resemble weathered Corten steel; the Palazzo kitchen features Corian benchtops and a mirrored splashback; rustic gates from Obelisk can be seen hanging on the hall wall beyond; the French oak herringbone floor is by Metro Floor.

THIS PAGE (clockwise from top left) Katie chose a charcoal and white striped Designers Guild wallpaper and floral curtain fabric for her Paris-themed bedroom. Hayley sprawls in her classic leather butterfly chair. Ryan’s sports medals adorn a vintage industrial locker. His father’s first Black Cap and a signed shirt from his team’s 2002 tour of the West Indies hang on a dark Resene ‘Nocturnal’ wall above Mind The Gap wallpaper by Linwood.OPPOSITE In the living room, shutters were added for a classic look and to give privacy from the street; the walls are painted in Resene ‘Bison Hide’ and the leather ottoman is from Frobisher; Tracey picked up the vases on the mantelpiece from The Warehouse: “Accessories don’t have to be expensive,” she says.

THIS PAGE (clockwise from top) In the master bedroom, Tracey and Shane’s wedding photo hangs alongside a feature wall of grass-cloth by Anthology; the Bianca Lorenne bedding is layered with blue euro pillows from William Yeoward and cushions in liquorice and gold velvet. The formerly brown-tiled bathroom has been modernised with 600cmsquare Italian concrete-look tiles on both the floor and walls. The cricket room sports Howzat! wallpaper by Linwood, framed caps from Shane’s collection and a large tin table that makes an excellent hiding place for Ryan and his friends.OPPOSITE Topiaried pepper trees line a paved path leading to the front door.