EMILY BROADMORE
Heft Communications founder Emily Broadmore spent her 20s working in Parliament. Now, with her own company, her focus is on connecting her clients and maintaining a healthy work-life balance for her family. She lives in a 1906 villa in Mt Victoria that she and her husband William renovated themselves, while she was pregnant with their twins, Connie and Hugo.
EMILY: hese da s, wor fro ho e a o t half the ti e M decor st le is an e tension of who a tend to find interesting things l c fa il ts with it
e o ght the ho se shortl after we were arried, and it too s two ears to renovate
here are all these little feat res that chose li e the in and green stained glass in the athroo , and children s edroo and reall l c that was a le to have s ch a free rein on that ind of thing
t was originall owned the ostleshi of the ea, who sed it as a oarding ho se for sailors, so we fo nd a lot of whis ottles nder the ho se so e of the are in the athroo , a ove the ca inet over the sin
t hadn t had an wor done to it for a ver long ti e, so we slowl fi ed it e re ind of rsting at the sea s now, with the ids, t we st love living here e st ta e the o t aro nd the har o r, the waterfront is their la gro nd
he ig ainting on the wall in the living roo is called Rooting Down Under, award winning fashion designer errie ghes he s a
ellington artist, and she does these incredi le,
ite agical, stical landsca es t was a gift to self when the siness hit the two ear ar aid for it over the co rse of a o t a ear tho ght, st so ething s ecial eca se it s een so hard getting the siness off the gro nd here are little details that o have to reall loo to find, there s a little goat hidden in a tree and all sorts of Māori carving within the roots, all these cool little details that the ids love s otting he ortraits a ove the co ch elong to dad e ic ed the in ndonesia ro a l ears ago, and the re ite recio s to hi , t he s got no roo for the , so he loaned the to e st thin the re reall ea tif l he h ng in nana s ho se for ears and when she assed awa , ad said co ld loo after the for hi he ve got senti ental val e, eca se as a little girl sed to loo at the in nana s hallwa , and was alwa s ite drawn to the wor ed on the ho se while was heavil regnant, did gro ting and tiling, that ind of thing loved it t s st that got regnant with the twins halfwa thro gh, and then there was this assive sh to tr and get it finished as o can ro a l i agine
It was a hard one to furnish, too, because with little kids we wanted to retain those old-fashioned individual rooms – so you can shut areas of the house off – and modern furniture is so huge it was hard to find furnishings for some of those spots.
I found the little mid-century couch with green upholstery in a vintage shop that’s gone now. People used to import this stuff from Denmark – it’s by Illum Wikkelsø, from the 1960s. It still has the original upholstery and the cool thing is it’s one of the first modular seats.
Its actually got a third chair that we took out of the middle. You can bolt them back together to make it like a three seater or unbolt them all to have three separate armchairs. There’s a little footstool as well.
It’s probably my favourite little piece of furniture.
In the dining room, there’s an antique pine table I got off Trade Me for $100. The legs had rotted away so much that my husband actually added three inches to the bottom of the legs so that it was high enough to be a dining table.
That’s why I had to paint out the whole base of the legs, because the wood didn’t match.
I think those of us who are communicators as a role, a lot of us tend to be incredibly creative in our private lives as well.
The painting in the kid’s bedroom is a selfportrait. I started painting during lockdown as a mental health hobby. I just thought when I was locked up with the kids back in 2020, “If I’m going to learn to paint I may as well kind of go all out there and try and do something a little over the top”.
It’s half finished. I hope one day I’ll have time to finish it.
We built the window seat ourselves. We spend a lot of time in it. uite often in that early stage of babies, I used to be on there with them, with cups of tea at 5am watching the rubbish trucks go by.
Some people don’t like feeling like everyone can see them, but I quite like being able to watch the world go by, especially when you’re at home with kids, it gives you that connection.
I made all the cushions, too. The big round one was made to be a pouffe for the coffee table, so you can pop your feet up on the coffee table with that as well.