Deep purple

The daring décor in this home is born of heartfelt intuition.

The daring décor in this home is born of heartfelt intuition.

‘Decisive’ could be interior designer Natalie Parke’s middle name — once her heart is set on something, the die is truly cast. She doesn’t really mind what you, I, or anyone else thinks of her off-the-clock choices, either — and the homes she reimagines for her family are all the more compelling for it.

An innately creative, “compulsive” doer-upper of houses, Natalie was ready for a challenge when she and her husband Gerry happened upon their new home — a neglected century-old villa on a sprawling 900m2 section in Auckland’s Grey Lynn. “It was in quite a state, but I’ve never been one to take the easy road,” she says.

To bring the dilapidated house up to scratch, with the help of CTL Construction, the couple redid the roof, relined the walls, ripped out three fireplaces (resulting in a thoughtprovoking discovery in the walls: stacks of 1941 newspapers filled with political cartoons predicting how easy Hitler was going to be to thwart), put in a new kitchen and heat pump, painted the walls and floor, and reinstated some heritage details. The instant they set foot inside, Natalie had envisaged not a run-of-the-mill villa reno but “some kind of French apartment job — super classical and finely detailed but with quirks. That’s why we put the villa skirtings and architraves back in — I really like the flourish of them, the twirliness and the drama.”

ABOVE The villa is relatively dark, so Dulux Okarito is a good equaliser on the walls. The floor is in Dulux Rabbit Island. Natalie leans on an inherited sideboard beside a Mark Cross artwork, Conclave. In the background, on the rear wall of the dining room, is Direct the Action by Matt Arbuckle. BELOW & RIGHT Visual harmony is achieved on the modular Tomado shelves in the living area with family heirlooms and Trade Me finds. “For me, the art of creating a good collection is choosing stuff you love,” says Natalie. “As long as it’s balanced, it works.”