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Meet and greet: Angela (owner of Miss Vintage) and Julian Fairmaid (operations manager at Hunter Civil), their daughters Georgia, eight, and Isabel, four, and Cleo the cat.
The property: One-bedroom new-build with two living rooms in semi-rural Ōhoka,
Angela Fairmaid spends a decent amount of time in secondhand stores, scouring the shelves for cute vintage plates she can paint with quirky quips for her business, Miss Vintage. During these foraging forays, she can’t help but find treasures that invariably come home with her – it’s an occupational hazard.
It wasn’t until lockdown in 2020, when her youngest daughter was 10 weeks old and Angela was struggling a little mentally, that she looked around her home and realised her vocation for vintage had gotten out of hand.
Decluttering journey
“I can pinpoint the moment I looked around our house and realised how cluttered it was. I’ve always loved markets and op-shopping, and when I started Miss Vintage, I started frequenting those places every week and found many lovely wee finds. But at that moment, I immediately knew I needed to get rid of the clutter,” she says with a laugh.
At the time, Angela and Julian were living in a new-build in Christchurch, which featured in Your Home and Garden in 2018. Today, they’re in their new home – another new property that has a completely different vibe to the previous – and much, much less clutter.
“I started my journey of decluttering and did some research, where I discovered there was a whole culture behind living a minimalist lifestyle. I’ve delved into that in the four-and-a-half years since then and have overhauled our entire life,” Angela says.
“I still go through phases where I’ll collect more decor and then I’ll decide it’s too cluttered again and remove things – it’s hard finding the perfect balance.”
As a result, their new four-bedroom, two-living room home in Ōhoka, 25 minutes north of Christchurch, has a calm, restful feeling to it. Secondhand furnishings still feature prominently, but they’ve earned their place.
The retro sewing cabinet in the home theatre room hides the family’s full surround sound system – “not very pretty but excellent for movie nights” or the leadlight double doors that lead into the separate lounge, which were kept in storage for two years. The large floral rug was a $150 Marketplace score and adds warmth to the all-white open-plan space, as well as conveniently hiding any spills from the girls, who enjoy eating their snacks at the coffee table.
“I love bargain buys of quality vintage. I prefer to avoid purchasing furnishings from cheap retailers, where I can – as tempting as it can be. It just won’t last and will eventually end up in a landfill, so if the budget is tight, I will purchase secondhand. Apart from our coffee table from Bohzali and our art deco swivel chair, not much else is very high-end, as I was concerned about buying expensive pieces when we have young children.”
Keep to the classics
Creating a more pared-back vibe was top of mind when the couple designed this home, as well as going with classic choices they knew they wouldn’t regret.
“I kept everything neutral as I didn’t want to hate a coloured kitchen in 10 years, so we played it safe with key components. In every design style I have evolved through, I have always tried to create a warm, inviting, cosy home. This home has a lot of honey timber tones with warm neutrals. A lot of the timber is oak, as that is my favourite and a classic. For a while, I considered warm walnut as an alternative. I very much wanted herringbone walnut flooring, but I just couldn’t make that leap from what I knew I really loved, and would continue to love long-term,” she shares.
Angela also knew that while she didn’t want to try to fully recreate a character home, she did want to incorporate some of her favourite elements and features of the Art Deco era, so they added decorative skirting and Art Deco-style plaster ceiling roses made by a local business, Plasterart, for the entry and main bedroom.
“I wish I had put in more, but I was worried about overdoing it,” says the former interior designer.
Angela also custom-designed the bathroom vanities, after struggling to find one she liked.
“I’d seen a vanity I liked on The Block Australia, but it wasn’t available in New Zealand, then I talked to the owner of Primo Bathroomware here in Christchurch, and he told me they could pretty much make any design on the front. I knew I wanted diamonds because I have a bit of a diamond motif throughout, and I went with the three as this ties in with Art Deco motifs. I just love the result.”
Key factors
Because this is their forever home, quality and longevity were two key factors in all of the couple’s build decisions – Angela and Julian didn’t mind investing a little more in the things they felt were important long term.
“We don’t want to be replacing cheap fittings in 10 years. And absolutely top of the list was creating a warm and efficient home, so a lot of our budget went on things you can’t immediately see, like 140mm external walls with higher grade insulation (as opposed to the standard 90mm) and thermally broken window joinery with Low-E and argon gas glass.
“We have an insulated waffle slab foundation and double-layer insulation (7.2 instead of 3.6) in the roof cavity. In New Zealand, we really need to move focus towards this with new-builds – it’s so important in the environment we live in here.”
They chose thermally efficient cladding – the Resene Graphex plaster system – and added The Brickery’s Aged Red bricks to the lounge walls by the entrance to the house to avoid having an all-plaster look. It also ties in with Angela’s vintage styling from the interior to the exterior, so the difference between new and old isn’t so stark.
“We didn’t spend money on built-in architectural features because neither of us felt like that was a necessity – I would get bored with it eventually. I love furniture, so I wanted to use furniture to furnish, not built-in bookshelves or nooks,” she says.
The couple had bought their 4000sqm (one acre) section back in January 2021, before Canterbury land prices soared. They rejoiced in finding land that let the kids run and a garden flourish, without needing animals to manage the grass. With an abundant section, they could design a home without space limitations, but they made sure not to build big just for the sake of it.
“It was important to us not to build a huge home, knowing one day it would likely just be the two of us here, so we built room sizes large enough to feel spacious but not too big. We only have our two girls with no plans for more, so they needed a bedroom each, and we wanted a guest bedroom for Julian’s parents and friends to stay.
“We were able to design any layout we wanted, as we weren’t limited by the boundaries of the section. A big must-have was all-day sun in the main living space, particularly morning sun – it’s good for the soul to have sun on your face first thing in the morning.”
Julian’s brother, Adam from Green Architecture, designed the house. He sketched out a rudimentary design, and the Fairmaids immediately knew it was perfect for them.
“The flow of this house works so well for us as a family. Everything connects to a central point; it was important to us not to have lengthy hallways to walk down all the time,” she says.
The couple have a plan for the landscaping that includes garden beds, a vegetable garden, a small orchard and trees around the border of the section, but the couple are happy to take their time rolling these out.
“We weren’t even sure we wanted to do another build, but we decided to go for it when we saw this section – and we’re so pleased we did. It can be a mentally draining process, but with the right people involved – builder, electrician, joiner, interior designer – it’s so exciting being able to build something that suits you and your family perfectly,” Angela says.
See more of this new build below
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