DESIGN NOTEBOOK

A new gallery in Parnell and how to get the Desert Modern look at home

ORIENTAL EXPRESSION

From the genuine gold-leaf gingko silhouettes tumbling down the streetfront windows of Conqubine Gallery to the orchid- and crystal-filled space within, there’s something magically ethereal and calming about Leigh Pryde’s new Asianinfluenced art and design haven. In the chic Faraday St precinct in Parnell, the long, slim studio aims to be a resource for design specifiers and a luxe retail space for lovers of beautiful things.

Pryde is a true global citizen, born in Scotland and raised in the Middle East, with stints in France and Martinique. She spent her late teenage years and university years between Hong Kong and London and worked on significant hotel and residential projects as an interior designer for a major architecture and design firm before settling in Auckland with her New Zealand Chinese husband.

Her showroom range includes Burmese lacquered pieces, created through a painstaking 26-layer process, beautiful stoneware and ceramic vases, astonishingly realistic imitation phaelaenopsis orchid and other floral installations that she creates herself, antique Chinese furniture and huge mounted crystals. On the walls hang stunning large-scale ink and photographic collage artworks by one of Hong Kong’s foremost Chinese ink artists, Nina Pryde — Leigh’s mother-inlaw — whom she is thrilled to be able to represent in New Zealand. As a place to find the perfect finishing touches for an interior, it’s a jewel box of a store — no bargains to be found here but plenty of genuine treasures.