Stylish surroundings
Ahouse that would facilitate easy entertaining was top of mind for Andrew Forrest when he planned a 294sq m home for a piece of land overlooking the Mahurangi River at Warkworth.
Andrew had been looking for a good location with a spectacular outlook in the area for a couple of years, and found this 1.09ha block in a quiet cul-de-sac.
It offered space, privacy, views across bush and pasture to the Mahurangi River reserve and boatyard, and was just a short walk from Warkworth's main street.
Warkworth was the preferred location because it was where he worked and had family there. He began the building project in 2011. The desire for big indoor and outdoor spaces drove the design, but Andrew had other requirements as well. He wanted a house that felt solid, so he chose a rendered brick exterior, and matched that with a number of elements to create a light, bright interior with an open feel.
“We pushed the roof up in the living areas to create that open feel and then used lots of floor-to-ceiling glass and frosted internal glass doors,” he says.
It's not unexpected that glass features strongly in the house, as Andrew is the general manager of Glasshape Ltd, a company that specialises in providing leadingedge glass solutions for various industries.
Other space-expanding ideas included big, off-white ceramic tiles in the living areas to keep the house bright, and extra-wide hallways for openness. The wide foyer is lit by a chandelier, which reflects light on to a wall of bronze-coloured ceramic tiles.
“Because we were always going to have people here, I didn't want noisy wooden floors, so I chose a concrete slab floor with tiles for the main living areas,” Andrew says. The private sitting room and bedrooms are carpeted, and there are double-gibbed wall linings for good acoustics.
Donna White Interior Design was engaged to do the interiors and worked in tandem with Andrew and his wife.
The designer specified the colours and some of the finishes, and the result of the collaboration was a classic yet edgy style.
The kitchen design was paramount. “My wife and I both enjoy cooking and we have turns,” Andrew says. “There's plenty of room for two to cook at once with no fighting. Whoever squabbles first gets banished to the pantry.”
He says the pantry is a great addition. There's an extra dishwasher in there, and mess can be hidden away. Other highlights of the kitchen are a built-in bar, built-in espresso machine and all Miele appliances.
It was Andrew's choice to keep the kitchen white and use RGB strip lighting — “it can be changed to whatever colour you like, whenever you like”.
The kitchen adjoins a dining area and a sitting area, both of which are glassed on three sides with sliding doors to the terraces outside. An oversized doorway leads to a separate, carpeted lounge, which also opens to the terrace.
Located away from the guest and children's rooms, the master suite enjoys similar views to the living rooms, and has a charcoal-tiled en suite with a white vanity, twin basins and a spa bath.
Less-visible details include the internal laundry, central vacuum system, heated bathroom floors, carpeted double garage, air conditioning and security system.
It's an irony that having designed a house that suited their needs so well, the family lived there for only two years before being relocated to Seattle.
But Andrew says he really enjoyed the building process and, despite a certain amount of stress, he would happily do it again.