Auckland House Renovation

This project for repeat clients required a comprehensive reconfiguration of the upper floor of a city fringe house. The first stage of a larger piece of work, it involved reimagining the master suite, including ensuite and separate ‘his and hers’ walk-in wardrobes, as well as kids’ bedrooms and bathrooms. Generally, the design concept establishes an elegant framework upon which carefully selected and handled materials and details sing. Soft tones of grey and white, and the warmth of built-in wooden cabinetry, predominate throughout the furnishings and furniture – a recessive palette to draw attention to marble surfaces that are a delight of complex colours and veining. In the ensuite, the marble surfaces represent a rare play in contrasting stonework – the trilogy of stone types providing a visual reference point for details in other rooms.

As with all Bureaux projects, it is the bespoke elements that heighten aesthetic quality and narrative of a building. Here, for instance, the custom-designed lights flanking the mirror are made from bronze – melted and re-cast from a disused propeller – while the custom-made bi-fold screens that separate bedroom from dressing area are faced with a Jim Thompson fabric-print of a classic New York Central Park scene – an oasis in the chaotic bustle of the city that speaks clearly of the client’s overall brief for their home.

Photography by Jackie Meiring