A Labour of Love /
Renovation perfection in Lyttelton
At just under 90 square metres in size, this once drafty, cold weatherboard bungalow has been transformed with love, passion and an eye for detail into a warm,
modern family home.
I’m a bit of a fan of the Wright-Stow family. And who wouldn’t be? This is a Canterbury family with creativity and design flair running through their veins. While the name might not be familiar to you, their ventures will be – Angela and Stuart (the parents) are the visionaries of the Little River Gallery and Silo Stay, and Pippin (one of the three brothers) is an award-winning architectural designer and mastermind behind many of the interactive gap fillers that adorn Christchurch – think the Dance-O-Mat and his most recent venture the #chchswing, a giant swing in the heart of the city.
This time, however, the focus of my Wright-Stow love is the baby of the family, Ella Fitzgerald (nee Wright-Stow) and her beautiful home. I knew from the moment she started sharing photos on Instagram of her renovation that it would be a story I would want to share with you, and stepping inside her and husband Lewis’s Lyttelton abode, my instincts were confirmed.
The decision to renovate was made when they discovered the front of the house had no piles. ‘There was this awful smell and we eventually narrowed it down to the tiny deck
where we found the house was sitting on nothing,’ shares Ella. ‘The smell was the least of our worries at that point!’
They loved the location of their two-bedroom cottage, but were starting to outgrow it, with their children, Lola (seven), Cleo (five) and Lewis’s daughter Saskia (12) needing more space. ‘We really needed a bedroom for Saskia,’ explains Ella, ‘so we took the opportunity to transform a good house into a great one.’
This was achieved by reorienting the internal floor plan to maximise the views and sun in the living area, and creating a third bedroom. The aesthetic was modernised inside and out, to achieve an efficient, warm family home.
Perched on the hillside overlooking London Street, the property posed serious challenges when it came to undertaking a major renovation, including a steep site and no road access. ‘We park our cars on the street behind us,’ laughs Ella, ‘so we are lucky we had great neighbours who allowed our builder to access the property through theirs when he needed.’
The renovation began in September 2018 and they worked around the clock in order to be back home in time
for Christmas. Lucky enough to secure a rental property around the corner in Cass Bay, Ella was charged with project managing the renovation and was onsite every day, lending a hand. ‘This meant I could troubleshoot as we went,’ she explains. ‘I remember the day the framing went up for the front of the house [where the living and kitchen connect to the porch] and I noticed the gap for the door was in the wrong place. We were able to get it fixed straight away, but it could have been an expensive mistake.’
While the old weatherboard and tin walls have been replaced with corrugated iron cladding and the rotten components removed, Ella is quick to point out that the ‘good bones’ of the house remain, with the floorboards in the living and kitchen being given a new lease on life. ‘We couldn’t get a floor sanding machine in, so Lewis and I spent countless hours on our hands and knees sanding.’
No strangers to hard work, both Lewis and Ella laugh as they recall that their impressive new deck required two-metre deep piles. ‘Ella and I wheelbarrowed dirt across the property to enable us to landscape flat terraces into what was a sloped site,’ shares Lewis. But the hard work paid off, with the deck acting as an extended living area and providing a sun trap in which to soak in the harbour views.
Back inside and the clever floor plan sees the open-plan kitchen and living area run the width of the house and offer plenty of space in which to cook, relax and entertain. ‘One of my favourite parts, and something I didn’t foresee,’ offers Ella, ‘is that at night we can sit on the couch or at the dining table and watch TV and the port.’
Stepping up into the hallway from this central space, it is hard to believe the house is only 90 square metres. It is a striking example of how efficient planning can transform how we live and interact with space.
The open-plan kitchen and living area run the width of the house and offer plenty of space in which to cook, relax and entertain.
The master bedroom includes a study nook, while Lola and Cleo’s bedroom – once the dining room – is a little girls’ paradise, with adjoining beds raised off the floor to create plenty of play space beneath. At the end of the hallway, the old kitchen has been transformed into a private haven for Saskia.
The laundry and bathroom remain in their original location but have been modernised with new fittings and custom-joinery to once again create a more efficient use of space. Despite the condensed floor plan, storage is in abundance. ‘There are cupboards and storage everywhere!’ shares Ella. ‘At every turn I was asking myself, where can we gain space?’
Coming from such a creative family it should come as no surprise that Ella undertook much of the spatial design in the home herself. ‘I would design things, like the girls’ beds and then call on Pippin and our contacts to help me transform them into a reality.
‘When Pip and I ran F3 [a product design/architectural/ graphic design business], Rikki Berger used to make all of our tables – he was the “pipe man” so I knew I wanted him to help with the girls’ beds and our bathroom and laundry joinery.’
Also working alongside the couple on the renovation was local builder David Radzyner. ‘I think at times he thought I was crazy,’ shares Ella. ‘I had a piece of brass fabricated for our kitchen benchtop and he was a bit daunted by the thought of installing that! The sheet of brass was a contact adhesive, so we literally had one shot to get it right!’ It is Ella’s fearless approach to design that has resulted in such a beautiful and captivating result.
While the brother and sister creative duo, F3, is no longer, Ella still produces and sells their most popular item, Guywire. Hand-made by Ella and Lewis, they have grown the offering of this industrial jewellery collection from just bracelets to that of personalised pieces, kids ranges and soon to be released pendants.
Not ones to rest on their laurels, Lewis also works in his family trade as a shipping provedore and is about to launch his own gin label, Fitzgerald & Daughters. Ella runs successful graphic design business Ellabobella Design and is looking to once again collaborate with Pippin on an upcoming project where she will offer her spatial design services alongside his architectural design, allowing us all to get a little touch of her creativity in our own homes!