Home profile
Meet and greet: Sian Godbold (primary teacher), Callum Rawlins (general manager), their children Maisie Mae, three, and Mylah Rose, eight months, and seal point Siamese cat, Pippi.
The property: Four-bedroom ’70s home with family living and three bedrooms upstairs, and an internal double garage, plus a one-bedroom self-contained granny flat downstairs.
Four pieces of wall art are emblematic of what’s been poured into this two-level North Shore, Auckland, home. The vertical series of heart shapes in shades of purple and pink tell a story of a house that will always be special to Sian Godbold, Callum Rawlins and their girls Maisie and Mylah.
“Callum and I have poured our heart into every detail,” says Sian of the first house they’ve ever owned, their first house-renovation project and a place they’ve brought their girls home to. The New Zealand-crafted glass hearts, from Simon Lewis Ward, are in Maisie’s bedroom and they’re just a taster of the couple’s style choices, which honour the straight-line style of the house, but introduce a freshness and airiness as well as contemporary twists.
Love, eventually
When they were hunting for a home in 2020, Sian and Callum had seen advertisements for the 220sqm house but didn’t bother going to the open homes because the CV was outside their budget. After it was passed in at auction, they decided to view the property, fell instantly in love with it and swooped. Yes, it needed a lot of work inside and out, but for Sian, a fan of architecture of the era, it represented an “awesome project”. “I love design and Callum has a background as a builder,” she says. It also helped that Sian is an avid researcher, so decisions were only made after a thorough investigation.
Once they moved in, the couple decided to live in the house before making any changes, something they recommend others do, too. Then they embarked on a programme of renovations as they could afford them. “We wanted to do it up, but keep it in its original style,” says Sian.
They started in the bedrooms, moved to the kitchen, shifted the laundry to the garage, and then began work on the garage itself. Next came the living space, the upstairs bathroom and the downstairs granny flat, which is tenanted.
“The last thing was a huge excavation in the backyard. We wanted a flat lawn for the kids.” Out here, decking that spills from the living space also flows to an outside fireplace and spa pool.
By August 2023, the work was all done. “Callum and I are a great team. We loved doing these projects, but it did take a lot of hours,” says Sian, who was on scaffolding painting at 30 weeks pregnant.
It’s their first house reno, but not their first rodeo. “We’ve done up a house truck before – for my parents,” says Sian.
Retro maestros
With so many straight edges in the property, Sian wanted to introduce softening shapes. You’ll find a curved kitchen island and a floating cabinet with rounded ends. These also work from a practical perspective, explains Callum. They don’t encroach into spaces quite so much, and when the family are on their way between zones, they are less likely to bump up against them.
You’ll also see organic forms elsewhere, including the gold four-leaf clovers in the kitchen, which Sian had custom-made by Kristin Hyde; globe-shaped feature lights, a quartet of chrome-bubble wall pieces; and white outdoor furniture with curves. And when Sian says she’s interested in design, she’s selling herself a little short. Take the floating white cabinet with curved ends in the lounge. She designed it and had it custom-made.
Breath of fresh air
It’s light and bright in the Godbold-Rawlins home. Pale neutrals with timber make for an airy atmosphere – and a wonderful canvas for the punches of colour in art, treasured family pieces and house plants. Restrained use of colour, such as the green Dulux Raymonds Gap on the walls in the main bedroom, was also a nod to the house’s ’70s DNA.
Sian’s responsible for the Resene Energy Yellow painted front-door frame and rectangle on the breeze-block letter box made by Callum – a touch of Palm Springs on the North Shore. She loves concrete blocks, but the three-week stint cleaning, then painting a front wall was “horrific”. “There was stuff growing out of it,” she says. The crazy paving in the entrance is another ’70s touchstone.
Among cherished items you’ll find inside are a Tom Mackie piece, bought when Maisie was born; a framed piece of cross-stitch crafted by Sian’s gran; and a floral piece by Brenda Clews, all in the opening plan living space. In fact, wherever you look you’ll find curated clusters of art or striking single heroes. Some, especially in the girls’ rooms, are hand-crafted gifts from family and friends. The elephant sketch in Mylah’s room was by a good friend of Sian’s who’d been on an African safari.
Talk about coincidence
Every house has an origin story, but not every owner gets to hear it. After the couple had moved in, Callum, the general manager of a building company, was talking to a client about what he and Sian were doing with their ’70s property. Turns out, he knew it well. “His parents built the house,” says Callum. It later became the client’s home, and then an uncle had it for 25 years.
Sian and Callum’s own ownership journey with the house took a happy detour along the way. “We first thought that we’d do it up and then sell it,” says Callum. “And then we thought, ‘this is a family home, let’s keep it for us.’”
Growing gains
The family spends a lot of time between the open-plan kitchen-living space and the secluded outdoor zone that flows from it. Outside, it’s open yet private, and it’s hard to envisage the tree- and agapanthus-filled slope before the couple got cracking. Now, bifold windows open to the outdoors, and you’ll find furniture for dining and lounging, a louvred pergola, an umbrella and veggie garden, as well as the spa and fireplace. Hedging and other strategic planting, both carefully researched by Sian, of course, make it a true tucked-away sanctuary.
The house also provides the opposite. On the street side, there’s a long open deck with an elevated aspect and visual connections to their neighbourhood.
“It’s the perfect family home and the perfect home in which to host people,” says Sian. “A home’s about sharing, too.”
This scrupulously detailed project has been a true labour of love. “Everything has been touched,” she says – but now it’s done, she’s helping her sister with her renovation.
It’s not forever
Looking towards the future, and after all the hard work put in by Sian and Callum, is this their forever home? “Although we’ll eventually move on when the time is right to take on another transformation of some sort, this home will always hold a special place in our hearts,” she says. “It’s our first project, and more importantly, the place where we brought both of our girls home to.”
Home truths
What did you save on? We took on a lot of the labour ourselves to save wherever possible.
Any splurges? Our kitchen and living area because it’s the heart of our home.
Lesson learned? You don’t need the best of everything when renovating. Be strategic about where to splurge and where to save.
Anything you’d never do again? There’s nothing we wouldn’t do again. Though, we might tweak a few minor details in a future renovation.
Anything you’d change? I would change our bifold kitchen window so that it could fully retract. At the time, we opted to save money.
Best advice? Live in the house first to get a true feel for it and understand its quirks. We chose to renovate in stages, allowing us to achieve the high standard we both envisioned for our family home.
Your budget? All I can say is that we’ve well and truly overspent. But this is our family home, and we absolutely love it. We feel so lucky to be raising our two beautiful girls here.
Shop Sian and Callum’s ’70s home style
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