Houzz Tour: Dark and Moody Moves Bring Cocktail Chic to the Suburbs
A family home in Auckland makes the most of a difficult site and has mysterious good looks to boot
Amped-up glamour, achieved from the use of dark-timber elements juxtaposed against cool concrete floors, means this newly built Auckland home gets top marks as the perfect pad for entertaining. A clever layout by architect Andrew Meiring ensures that the house, which does double duty as a family haven, makes the best use of its narrow, suburban site, while offering its occupants privacy from the cheek-by-jowl neighbours.
“Although there are a lot of bungalows in this suburb, this is not a heritage area so it was more important to respond to the specific restrictions and opportunities of the site,” explains Meiring. By placing the home assiduously on the section, Meiring not only ensured privacy from neighbours but created a friendly, layered entry set back from the footpath. “There is no front fence, which means the home engages more directly with the street and almost shares its garden with the immediate community.”
Photos by Jackie Meiring
“Although there are a lot of bungalows in this suburb, this is not a heritage area so it was more important to respond to the specific restrictions and opportunities of the site,” explains Meiring. By placing the home assiduously on the section, Meiring not only ensured privacy from neighbours but created a friendly, layered entry set back from the footpath. “There is no front fence, which means the home engages more directly with the street and almost shares its garden with the immediate community.”
Photos by Jackie Meiring
Meiring designed the home within existing planning rules in terms of height-to-boundary and land coverage, which streamlined the process as no extra consents were needed. “It meant we had to reduce the volume of the upper level to comply,” says Meiring.
The upper level of the two-storey dwelling is pulled away from the side boundaries to comply with regulations. A set of triple sliders in the living zone can be positioned in three ways to allow direct access to the outdoors from either the dining area, the kitchen or both. At night, the striking geometric forms of the home are highlighted. “The owners love to entertain and asked for a covered courtyard with a barbecue that they could use at any time of year,” says Meiring.
The upper level of the two-storey dwelling is pulled away from the side boundaries to comply with regulations. A set of triple sliders in the living zone can be positioned in three ways to allow direct access to the outdoors from either the dining area, the kitchen or both. At night, the striking geometric forms of the home are highlighted. “The owners love to entertain and asked for a covered courtyard with a barbecue that they could use at any time of year,” says Meiring.
An over-scale pivoting door beyond the wide entrance hall swivels open to reveal a view across the dining zone to the north-facing back courtyard. “It acts as a barrier to seal off the adult zones from the kids bedrooms and courtyard, which are located at the front of the home,” explains Meiring. The concrete floors are polished but not ground. “We wanted them to have a screeded feel, which makes them soft and luxurious, rather than cold like an art gallery.”
In the sunken formal living area, a built-in tan leather sofa is perched on a concrete plinth. Dark-stained cedar cladding combined with grey shag-pile carpet and lustrous leather is akin to that of a member’s club – it’s modern and masculine. “The owner wanted a slightly lounge bar feel,” says Meiring. A narrow, horizontal window is precisely placed to provide connection with the outdoors, without compromising privacy. “I prefer low slot windows because that way they bring in views of the boundary planting.”
The double-thickness of the wall that backs the media room allows it to act as a bookshelf, but also houses the cavity sliders that seal off the space for womb-like movie viewing. This is a space that both the adults and children in the household love to retreat to.
The combination of concrete flooring, a fireplace, timber elements and white walls is crisp and sophisticated. The fireplace wall separates the dining zone from the sunken living area.
There’s something hotel-like about the bathrooms in the house. Meiring splayed out the wall of the upstairs ensuite in order to gain light and views of the sea, without looking directly into the neighbour’s property.
The terrace is a covered space that is closed off on three sides, but opens to the deck, garden and pool. Vertical louvres bring a strong linearity to the design but are practical and can be shut in times of windy or inclement weather. The kitchen bench extends seamlessly into this area to become a built-in barbecue. Bench seating provides a sheltered place to sit in this indoor-outdoor environment.
Industrial in style, the kitchen is a sharp-lined study in stainless-steel and dark-stained cedar. The fridge was moved to a closed-off scullery area and the rear benchtop is a 3mm sheet of steel with a fine welded edge. “It’s almost like a catering kitchen,” says Meiring. “It’s very easy to keep clean.”
Continuing the exterior cedar cladding inside and wrapping the sunken lounge in a dark timber case on two sides has brought a glamorous, dramatic feel to the space. “We used band-sawn timber for the shuttering on the concrete fireplace,” explains Meiring. “It has a wonderfully rough-textured finish as a result.”
Making full use of the available floor space, Meiring added a 1m projection off the stairwell lobby on the upstairs level. This was in order to create an efficient, yet compact, office area with a built-in desk. “You are essentially making use of a dead zone,” he says.
Skylights above the bathrooms allow light to enter the space. Skylights are practical in bathrooms, which can often be in the centre of a home with no windows. They’re a practical device here, unlike in bedrooms, where there is also the need to cover them.
The children have their own separate courtyard at the front of the home where their bedrooms are located but also love to spend time in the north-facing back garden or in the pool. The layout ensures that their parents can easily keep an eye on them at play while working in the kitchen. The vertical louvres that book-end the covered terrace throw an ever-dynamic pattern of light and dark stripes onto the concrete floors.
Location: Westmere, Auckland, New Zealand
Who lives here: Professional couple and their 3 young children
Main house size: 235 square metres; 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 office, 2 living areas, 1 kitchen, double garage
A surprise inside: A stepped down lounge with built-in seating atop a concrete plinth is like a contemporary version of the sunken conversation pit of the ’70s. A luxurious shag-pile rug completes the back-to-the future mood.
Architecturally, this design is mysterious and coquettish in that all is not revealed at once. A pathway of concrete pavers set between rambling groundcover invites visitors to explore an indirect route to the front door. This, in turn, is hidden from the street by the cube-like form of the double garage. “The garage is in a concrete block and has an overhang of a metre so that the door is set back and not the first thing you see on approach to the home,” says Meiring.