One woman finds peace in her new Greytown home after an eventful life.

A series of life changes led this Greytown retailer to her treasure-filled sanctuary

Starting over has become a way of life for Greytown designer Pam Wickstead. “I’m a survivor,” she admits. “And I wear my heart on my sleeve.” A patchwork heart on a plain linen sleeve, perhaps, to echo the beautiful cushions she makes for her shop, Tapestry. “I call myself a cushioniser.”

A survivor Pam certainly was one night back in 2008, when her Wellington turn-of-the-century villa, filled with a lifetime’s collection of vintage pieces and op shop finds, burned to the ground due to an electrical fault.

“I woke up to an inferno,” she says. Pam was trapped on the mezzanine and the only way to escape was through the flames. “I couldn’t get out unless I got through.”

Probably most of us couldn’t imagine having to face that moment but Pam did what she had to and went through the fire. The result was burns to half of her body, an induced coma for three weeks and months in hospital. “It wasn’t good.” Saddest of all for Pam, she lost her beloved dog Gus to the blaze.

Not one to be beaten down, Pam rebuilt her inner-city home and filled it with a new array of French-tinged vintage and industrial treasures. But she already knew she wouldn’t stay. She had often travelled over the Remutaka Hill to visit the small

country towns of Martinborough and Greytown and that’s where her thoughts turned. “I wanted to go to a restful, peaceful, rural environment where there were open spaces and trees and birds. I love birds.” It’s a love she attributes to her grandfather, whose wisdom, she says, “made a big impact on my life when I was a child. He taught me about native trees and about the natural beauty of the birds.”

His daughter, Pam’s mother, was just as ardent a bird-lover. “I quite often feel a bit weepy when the tūī come because Mum would be so delighted to know that all these tūī are now all around us. They were just so rare when I grew up.”

So Pam found a house on 3.4ha in remote Longbush, with a creek running through it, and spent her time planting trees. “I was there for three years and that was lovely.” She also decided it was time to give her heart to another dog. “So I got little Tikki here.”

The fire wasn’t the first time that Pam had been forced to pick herself up and dust herself off. Wellington-bred, she found herself a single working mum to her three boys in Hawke’s Bay after her marriage broke up. With few qualifications, but creativity and determination in spades, she threw herself into a series of successful businesses: a restaurant, a cafe and two clothing stores.

Having made old tapestries into cushions, Pam started selling her work and some of her “old bits and pieces” in a friend’s shop in Greytown before

‘You can form your own unique look within a home’

opening Tapestry. Gradually, her lifestyle block began to feel a bit too remote. “I thought, I need to meet the community.” And then there was this appealing empty section she kept driving past. “I thought, why is it just sitting here, what’s wrong with it, has it got sinkholes or something?”

Long story short, Pam bought it. Luckily, no sinkholes. Instead, the perfect location opposite Soldiers’ Memorial Park, and a beautiful old wisteria on the boundary that creates a green wall between Pam and her neighbours for nine months of the year and a torrent of blossom in the spring. She commissioned architect Victoria Read and Thistle Building Company to create her new home. Pam knew what she wanted: “Open plan, high stud, beautiful high windows and lots of light.” And something else that came very high on the list – comfort. Double glazing, good insulation and underfloor heating made short work of that requirement.

“Communication is huge when dealing with building a home,” says Pam. Don’t leave it to chance, she adds, don’t just assume that you and your architect or builder are on the same page.

Something else Pam advises is creating a mood board using images you adore from magazines or online as well as samples from joiners and flooring suppliers. “Put it somewhere in your house where you’re passing it all the time and let it simmer. What you’re doing is slowly building a vision in your mind.” Then, when shopping, you’ll instinctively know whether something you’re tempted by fits the design palette, says Pam.

Ever the collector, Pam has no problem combining a new house with her vintage aesthetic. These older pieces, with their faded worn look, “soften the starkness” of the new, the bright and the modern, Pam says. “Now we can combine them all. That’s how life moves on, and it’s a wonderful thing for me because you can form your own unique look within a home.”

Which is undoubtedly what Pam herself has done. “I feel blessed that I’ve got this place,” says Pam. “It’s special.”

THIS PAGE The textured concrete finish in the living area satisfies Pam Wickstead’s yen for the industrial; Ghost chairs by Philippe Starck take up little visual space while Pam has had the comfy velvet couch for at least a decade; a cactus in a vintage white ceramic flour container and an old green glass demijohn jar flank the open fireplace. OPPOSITE This rustic bench came from Vintage European in Greytown, the lamp is from Backhouse and the silver vase is a mid-century original from Pam’s aunt, Patricia Coleman, who came home with a collection of the latest designer pieces from Europe and Scandinavia after studying fashion design in Paris in the 1950s.

THESE PAGES (from left) Pam beside her desk against the dramatic dark charcoal of the living area’s back and side walls. The open-plan living, dining and kitchen area looks out onto Pam’s “green wall” of wisteria and subtropical plants; the dining table, where she likes to work, is from Corso de’ Fiori while her macrame pendant light shades are from Annabelle’s in Havelock North.

THIS PAGE (clockwise from top) The wall of wisteria gives Pam privacy from her neighbours and was one of the reasons she fell in love with the section. Pam’s kitchen, she says, is “just totally and utterly perfect”. Her collection of vintage apothecary bottles and glass cloches is displayed on a French cabinet bought from a Wellington antiques store; her coffee table is made from an old French door, with remnants of original paint, bought from Madder & Rouge. OPPOSITE Pam asked architect Victoria Read to incorporate recycled wooden shelving into the kitchen to soften the industrial look; the bar stools are from Backhouse.

THIS PAGE (from top) Floral still lifes from op shops and butterflies in a case from Dunbar Sloane hang above the desk; the circular work is by friend and artist Merryn Simmons. Taxidermy birds feature in Pam’s bedroom; the narrow table and bench stool came from France. OPPOSITE (clockwise from top) The bedlinen is from Thread Design, the long cushion is made from vintage Indian fabric, the large artwork is by Jen Sievers and the smaller one is by Paula Coulthard. A Raymond Ching bird print in the guest bedroom. White subway wall tiles and marbled ceramic floor tiles in the bathroom were chosen for their timeless look.

THIS PAGE The old French cast-iron table in the courtyard came through the fire with Pam, though the intense heat rippled its surface so she had to have it levelled out; olives and palms add to the courtyard’s green wall while potted bay trees stand by the house. OPPOSITE In the guest bedroom, a vintage French wrought iron and glass table does duty as a nightstand; a print of the South Island black robin joins two Beswick china flying birds and a botanical photograph by Stacey Weaver; the woven piece above an antique cabinet is by Jodie Wilson.