These Taranaki farmers have flipped the holiday home concept with a bolthole in the city.

A Taranaki farming couple reverse the holiday home trend with a getaway in the city

Farmers Jo and Murray Collins never had close neighbours until they bought a house in central New Plymouth. “We are not used to being surrounded by neighbours and dealing with different personalities,” says Jo. Neighbourly relations are intermittent for now, however, as the 1910 Californian bungalow is their holiday home – they usually live on their farm an hour’s drive away, near Ōpunake.

They plan to live in the city when they retire from farming, but for now they use the sturdy four-bedroom home occasionally, along with friends and their three sons and their families.

They bought the home three years ago then rented it out for more than two years. “I had seen the house through its stages of renovation through a friend and I thought then that this is an amazing place,” Jo says. “It is architecturally significant because of the roof line, the ornate ceilings and the arched windows.”

Jo has spent a lot of time working inside and outside the house. “When we bought this, it was a blank canvas. We have had to do all the window treatments, which we have kept neutral and simple. We’ve put blinds throughout the house.”

She has been hard at work painting everything (well, nearly), artfully placing objects like Moroccan bowls, French olive pots and mercury glass ornaments, positioning furniture, plumping pillows and gardening. “I’ve been dividing my time between working on this house and working on our country garden, Boxwood, for the Taranaki Garden Festival.”

A renovation high point for the couple was giving the city garden a tidy up, simplifying it to let more light into the house.

Jo originally thought she’d opt for a relaxed coastal feel for the house, given it sits two blocks away from the shore.

“But then I reverted back to some of my formal elements. I like a curated look.”

There are gold convex mirrors, a large mirror over the fireplace in the lounge and a refurbished highly lacquered sideboard she’d had at the farm for seven years. Paintings from Roger Morris, Jilly Hare and an award-winning original by Karen Danes adorn the walls.

Many treasures have come from the Collins’ country property, including a collection of cow hides, lamb and sheep skins. In the lounge, a farm find sits atop a large blonde cow hide.

“This coffee table was in the garage for a number of years, so I sanded it back with an orbital sander with help from my granddaughter Trelise,” she says. “I had a bit of an edit at the farm home.”

The dining room table is draped with an animal interloper. “This is my springbok hide – I’m quite in love with it,” she says stroking the fur found at interior design store Bijou Eliot.

From the table there are views into the lounge, which has builtin window seats dotted with cushions and an ever-so-soft lamb skin, and through to the kitchen, which stars a large island with a granite bench and sides of deep navy blue with contrasting copper handles.

Jo’s painting handiwork is obvious through the house – but she had to wait to wield her brushes.

The couple regained access to the house after their tenants moved out in May last year – when New Zealand was in level three lockdown. “Covid got in the way of purchasing paint. As soon as we went to level two, I was straight into Resene,” says Jo.

The city store had been inundated by customers, so the paint range was limited. “I got some black exterior paint that I used to repaint the garage, [garden] walls and the back part of the house.”

Inside, she chose an earthy green for the lounge walls and a pale oyster shade offset with antique white for the kitchen and dining room.

Jo’s biggest task was the interior doors. She and Murray didn’t like the originals. “The old doors were reminiscent of hospital doors with the glass panel at the top. Purists may be horrified, but we had new doors made to give the house a more modern feel,” she says. Each of the nine new doors had to be painted three times, a feat Jo is proud of.

In the lounge, the fireplace surround was white, so she painted it black. “Because everything was so white, I thought, let’s give this some presence.”

Her painting didn’t stop at the walls and doors. She also spraypainted many light shades matte black and replaced those in the lounge and dining room with iron and glass lantern lights.

At the back of the house, a small office with an antique Oriental desk opens onto a hallway featuring two lights by Hinkley. “They make an impact out here,” Jo says.

Despite the house being more than a century old, Jo considers

‘I reverted back to some of my formal elements’

it to be eco-friendly: “The house is solid masonry and so it stores the heat and releases it in the evening when it’s cold.”

One of Jo’s favourite places to sit is in the sunroom which doubles as the front entrance. Once a porch, it was covered in by earlier owners. Here, she relaxes among a tumble of velvet cushions on a tan-coloured leather couch admiring the arched stained glass windows. “It’s almost a church window, it’s so divine; I absolutely love it.”

In a corner she had until recently placed a French Louisstyle chair, which came from the Collins’ farm. “People will be wondering, ‘Geez have you got anything left at the farm?’”

Jo says the city house continues to evolve. “I think it’s like anywhere you live; you let the space dictate the direction it goes in. Six months on, it will probably be a lot different from now.”

THESE PAGES (from left) From midday onwards, sun pours through arched windows into the main entranceway of Murray and Jo Collins’ New Plymouth house creating an enticing seating space; the black rattan chairs and Indian drum coffee table topped with a raven are all from Bianca Lorenne, while the leather sofa is from Halo. Planted with white pansies, dramatic cast-iron black urns act as sentries to the city bungalow.

THIS PAGE To complement the ornate ceilings of the century-old bungalow, the couple replaced existing industrial lights with Mr Ralph glass and brass pendants; they illuminate French olive pots, a Moroccan bowl and one of Jo’s flower arrangements on the kitchen island below. OPPOSITE (from left) French linen and leather chairs from Tempt Concept Store flank the black fireplace to give the lounge “a sense of grandeur”. “I have never had black in a house before; it was the direction the house had to go in – a flow-on from painting the Linea boards on the garage,” says Jo, who leans in an open space between the dining room and office.

THIS PAGE (from left) The dining table is decorated with a springbok skin and Moroccan bowl; suspended above is a CC Interiors iron chandelier, sourced from Peta M Homeware & Gifts in H¯awera. Cushions on the linen-covered window seat include a digitally printed one by Vox Populi; gold mirrors hang on a wall painted in Dulux Raymond’s Gap.

THIS PAGE (from left) A work by New Zealand artist Joanne Barrett hangs above a refurbished period sideboard; the wooden horses are from Plantation Design Store. In the hallway, two paintings by Taranaki artist Roger Morris (Remo) join an art deco work by Polish painter Tamara de Łempicka.

THIS PAGE Grounded in natural hues, the main bedroom has a bedspread and comforter from Thread Design, euro pillowcases from Bianca Lorenne and a small calf skin on the window seat. OPPOSITE A photographic artwork by Diana Black gallops on the wall of the office, where a French olive pot filled with eucalyptus branches sits behind replica terracotta Chinese warriors on an Oriental desk; a cane office chair from Bianca Lorenne is draped with a throw from Leopold Hall in Auckland.

THIS PAGE (from left) Soft amber light from the leadlight windows creates a restful bathing space: “I love to have a soak in a nice bath oil,” Jo says. Hinkley lights, moved from the lounge, give drama to the back hall, where a sisal runner adds earthy texture.

THIS PAGE With arched windows, decorative ceilings and leadlight windows, Jo loves the style of the New Plymouth bungalow: “I walk in and see it oozing character – it pulls at my heart strings.”