“Now some of the original features that I disliked when we moved in are some of my favourite things – I’d never want to change them.”
Jannine Hodgson of Nene’s Upholstery. “I love how much personality and uniqueness they bring to a home, and I’ll always be attracted to the thrill of the find,” says Erena.
The 60s G-Plan dining suite is a case in point. Erena discovered it on Trade Me filed under a strange category with hard-to-identify pictures, but she knew it was a design classic, so she stripped back the varnish and had the chairs reupholstered in soft brown leather.
This confidence to experiment has seen the couple relocate the master bedroom into the living-area wing of the house for the duration of the renovation, into the space that was the lounge. With freshly painted walls, including one housing an original built-in fireplace, and windows screened with floor-to-ceiling linen curtains, it’s a lovely romantic retreat.
For Erena, the biggest surprise to date has been realising “how much of the place we love as it is, when initially we thought we’d be changing quite a bit of it. We now intend to work with these features and retain as much of them as possible – but perhaps still put our own spin on them.”