ULTIMATE ACT

Facing terminal illness, hairdresser Derek Elvy creates the home of his dreams

There isn’t much that impresses Derek Elvy. The seven-time winner of the NZ Hairdresser of the Year award has, in his own words, “seen it all and done even more”. But wind back the clock four decades or so, and the then 19-year-old Derek was bowled over by a Victorian baptismal font.

“I walked past an antiques shop and felt a presence,” says Derek of the wooden font, which features elaborately carved snakes and crocodiles (see page 75).

So enamoured was the founder and shareholder of one of New Zealand’s leading hairdressing salons, Buoy, that he spent most of his $450 holiday pay on the item. That marked the beginning of a lifelong love affair with Gothic art and religious iconography. Today that font, along with numerous other highly covetable pieces collected over the years, is proudly displayed in the Featherston home that Derek recently moved into after relocating from the capital.

It is the first house the 59-year-old has ever owned. “I always felt comfortable renting big houses in Wellington where artist friends could stay and work while they developed their careers. I couldn’t afford to buy the large houses I rented, so instead I put my money into the business.”

But in late 2016, Derek was delivered a stinging blow when he was diagnosed with terminal spinal cancer.

It was the push he needed to step away from the business he started 30 years ago and relocate to the Wairarapa, a move he’d been considering for some time. “I really wanted to get out of the city and have a project to focus on.” >

He admits friends and family thought him a little ambitious taking on the former chocolate factory in Featherston. Built in 1938 (with a rear addition in the 70s), the 140sqm building has had various lives, including as a haberdashery, butcher’s shop and the home of the local undertaker (the garage once housed the horse and the horse-drawn hearse).

Fortunately Derek could see past the graffiti and the pigeons nesting in the building, which had lain empty for nine years. His vision was a stylish one-bedroom home that mixes his love of industrial and luxe interiors. Given his illness, though, it wasn’t easy, with Derek supervising the renovation from his hospice bed at one point.

The first thing he did was swap around the kitchen and bathroom spaces. Derek started his career as a chef and the original kitchen was too small. The new kitchen’s splashback tiles were imported from the Middle East and feature birds, a common theme throughout his house.

Also on Derek’s wish-list was a generous bathroom. “I’ve always wanted a hotel-style bathroom, so I borrowed space from the living area.” That was a fortuitous move as it turns out: Derek was recently confined to a wheelchair and the larger bathroom and kitchen allow easy access.

Another happy accident: the colour of the walls in the living room and bedrooms. Says Derek: “It wasn’t supposed to be this khaki colour but it turned out like that after the sealant went on. And now I love it.” >

“I really wanted to get out of the city and have a project to focus on”

First-time visitors might be forgiven for thinking the building was once a church, given the rich red stained glass crucifix window in the living room’s northern wall. It came from a church in Eketahuna, which a former hairdressing client stumbled upon.

“She bought it and, knowing of my love for religious iconography, asked if I wanted it. I had nowhere to put it for years so I’m glad it has finally found a home.”

Derek brought most of his furniture from Wellington, but he added a few pieces to help define the open-plan space, including the dining table and the open shelving in the kitchen, which came from Wellington’s California Home and Garden when it was closing. He sourced the brocade curtains and most of the lighting from China, while the Hollywood Regency chandeliers were imported from Belgium.

“That’s the thing about being sick, you have lots of time to spend online,” he jokes.

A keen gardener, Derek brought cuttings from his previous home to plant out the 1240sqm section, which previously housed a villa that burned to the ground before Derek took possession. Four other outhouses are dotted around the property, including a small cottage for overflow guests, which is currently in high rotation as friends and family stay over to care for Derek.

The largest of the outhouses is a dilapidated structure that Derek hopes to turn into a space for artists to work from.

This new home is much smaller than his previous rental, so Derek has had to be ruthless about downsizing, with numerous artworks and 70 boxes of collectables still to be unpacked.

“I can’t fit them all in here but it has been cathartic to pare back my possessions. There isn’t much need for glittery shirts in Featherston!”

THIS PAGE The mahogany religious carving came from a church in America’s Midwest and had been burned in a fire; Derek found it online, loved its blackened and charred character, and had it shipped to New Zealand at a not inconsiderable cost.OPPOSITE (clockwise from top left) Derek Elvy in front of one of his favourite pieces, a huge painting by artist Terrence Handscomb; it hung in Derek’s salon Buoy until someone threw a brick at it through the window, believing it either represented the occult or Nazism, neither of which it does, says Derek. One of two stained glass windows a client of Derek’s rescued from a deconsecrated Eketahuna church that was being used as a slaughterhouse. Boots the cat enjoys the animal print sofa; the religious oil painting above it was bought in Bulgaria – an art conservator spent a year restoring it.

THIS PAGE Derek was thrilled when the manufacturers of the aluminium doors were able to produce them in this intense red colour; the exterior is painted in Dulux ‘Kaikoura’.OPPOSITE (from top) The large painting of a girl with a cat is by Wellington artist Beverly Rhodes and is from her Flower Girl series; Derek bought the gold reproduction Chippendale table in Wellington 20 years ago; as with all the curtains, Derek had the plum drapes in the compact office/library made in Asia. The hand-painted print is of William Haines, an American actor who left Hollywood in the 30s when the studios refused to recognise his homosexuality; the artwork was a 21st gift from Derek’s family and now has pride of place in his bedroom.