Object of desire
Her artistic eye drew the current owner to this architectural specimen but it’s also the reason she’s leaving, writes
Yvonne Sanders is a dedicated art collector who yearned for this striking architectural specimen she noticed in Matakana when it was completed about a decade ago. Her fascination with the Ken Crossondesigned home never waned, still under her skin when she was farewelling a property near Leigh two years ago.
Yvonne, who shares the same name as a wellknown antiques dealer, says: “It wasn’t on the market so I had my agent door-knock it. The owners at the time, who I understand were its second owners, eventually came round and sold it to me.”
Explaining her fascination with the home Yvonne says: “I was just taken back by its big, striking, Corten steel facade. I love the fact that from the street you’d have no idea what’s behind it.
“Once inside, you feel total privacy. It’s a home with beautiful views and so much glass that you almost feel like you’re living outside, suspended over all the bush.”
Sharp Rd is most recognised as the turn-off to the right about two-thirds along the Warkworth to Matakana route, signposted as leading to Sandspit and Snells Beach and boasting attractions including Plume the vineyard restaurant and Heron’s Flight winemakers.
Matakana Village, Warkworth and Sandspit Marina are within 10 minutes’ drive.
Yvonne says: “I’m retired but I still go down to Auckland often, which takes 30 to 40 minutes offpeak. When I lived in Remuera, it could take me an hour just to get across town.”
Behind number 221’s strong Corten steel facade, its location a good distance down Sharp Rd towards Sandspit Rd delivers fine upper views over its own native bush and out past Sandspit Harbour.
Downstairs, a carpeted double garage and an office-gym room accompany the entry foyer. Its timber-battened staircase ascends to the upstairs landing and views.
The long steel, timber and glass building sits across a ridge. The upstairs expansive glass windows and doors open to wedge-shaped decking, a patio and immediate views.
Yvonne says: “The views are everything. They go right along the house.”
A ply-lined floating roofline and under-floor heated polished concrete floors help define its open-plan living-dining-kitchen spread with Cortens steel-sheathed wood-burning fireplace.
“I feel like it’s a modern take on mid-century architecture, given its cleanliness of lines and simplicity of materials.”
Previous owners include a food magazine editor who had food shoots in the kitchen. Hoop pine cabinetry conceals a second stainless bench with sink, along with some appliances.
Tasmanian oak floors all three bedrooms, one currently claimed by one of Yvonne’s adult children.
The master suite with walk-in-wardrobe projects forward hovering over the site and bush, accompanied by a striking slat-floored en suite with superbly positioned freestanding bath.
“In the bath, it’s totally private but you feel like you’re floating above the bush.
“At night you’ve got all the twinkling lights of Sandspit and the hill and during the day you just feel like you can touch the water. Everything feels so close.”
There’s a family bathroom and reading nook upstairs, and a workshop under the deck.
Grounds, fenced alongside the house for Yvonne’s schnauzers, include some two hectares of protected native bush, a mature boutique orchard and flat pasture. This houses an outdoor living room with pizza oven but may invite future development if desired, something previous owners advanced before selling.
Ironically, Yvonne’s artistic eye, which drew her here, helps explain why the mega-collector with 80 per cent of her collection still in storage is selling.
She says the home would accommodate a normal art enthusiast’s collection but not hers. Rather than build an additional gallery she’s decided to find a dwelling already suitable for more of her collection.