The owners of a renovated ’50s house with cool art deco features prepare for a festive day of fun
Meet & Greet
Erica Jane Wilson (artist and photographer), Colin Wilson (concrete layer) and children, Kyla, 12, Leon, 10, Mahli, five, and Nash, two.
The Property
A four-bedroom, 1950s art deco home in Welcome Bay, Tauranga.
On Christmas morning, Erica and Colin Wilson’s kids wake up to the smell of fresh waffles, soon to be devoured with sweet summer berries. Their home, a renovated ’50s pad burrowed into the coastal suburb of Welcome Bay, is the perfect backdrop for a festive day full of family time and fun.
“I love decorating my home for Christmas,” says Erica. “It’s such a beautiful time of year and you don’t have to go crazy with decorating to make your house look festive.” This year, the Wilson’s Yuletide theme is all about embracing minimalism, due in large part to their overly curious toddler, Nash, who “gets into everything”.
A large, snowy tree takes pride of place in the living room, which on first glance you wouldn’t even notice is devoid of the usual baubles and swag of tinsel. “A tree can look amazing with just a few layers of pom-pom lights from the hardware store, it looks so nice and bright,” Erica says. Underneath, a cluster of thoughtfully wrapped presents await the children to be opened after their breakfast, but they’re far from the main occasion of the day. “We don’t go too hard on presents at Christmas, for us it’s more about family time,” Erica says. “I love to use craft paper with ribbons for wrapping gifts, or reusing fabric carry bags for presents, to reduce waste.”
A place to call home
The home has seen quite a few renovations to become the Christmas haven it is today. Aucklanders Erica and Colin moved to the Bay of Plenty in 2015 soon after starting a family. With a deposit at the ready, they were on the hunt for that quintessential first home to call their own.
After missing out on two houses, the couple soon stumbled upon a unique art deco home in Welcome Bay. The ’50s home was all original, with four spacious bedrooms on a large semi-rural section with two garages providing plenty of storage space. With two kids and loose plans to have a few more, the house was a great find but would need a lot of work. Their offer was successful, and their dream character home was theirs, ready for their vision and hard mahi to begin.
First things first
The existing layout worked well for the family, with no walls requiring moving or consent needed. The essential work to complete in the home immediately was the kitchen and laundry; both high-use functional spaces that were in bad condition but areas that Erica and Colin could DIY themselves.
“The laundry was literally a timber shack that had been added as a shed with a joint door to the house, it was completely rotten,” Erica says.
“As soon as we moved in we pulled it apart and got stuck into retiling it and installing cabinetry.” They installed the secondhand tiles themselves, learning on the job.
Rookies in the reno space, Erica and Colin didn’t hold back from pulling up their sleeves. From doing the laundry, they learnt a few valuable lessons they were able to take on into their kitchen renovation. “We used a Formica benchtop in the laundry to keep costs down, but we quickly realised things like that don’t last so it’s worth spending money on things like benchtops that are high use. When we did the kitchen renovation, we spent more on these and tapware to ensure durability and quality were prioritised,” Erica says.
The starting point in the dated kitchen was uncovering the beautiful rimu timber flooring hidden under thick lino. “There were three layers of lino, then MDF stapled down, and then another layer of glue. We removed all of that ourselves, which was fun,” says Erica. “But the timber floors are amazing, so it was worth it.”
With a degree in visual arts and a natural eye for design and functionality, Erica designed their kitchen layout and style, using Project Kitchens to put the kitchen together through her vision. “The house is so old and wonky, we didn’t think it was worth investing in a kitchen designer, and I knew what I wanted,” she says. “The kitchen came in a kitset, which we put together. Anything we can do ourselves, we will do it to keep our costs down. The first cabinet we installed was a bit tricky to figure out, but after that, it was smooth sailing.”
They continued the timber flooring in the kitchen, ripping up all the well-worn carpets throughout the home. Hiring a floor sander, they sanded the entire house and re-oiled the floors themselves. Erica says, “It’s not something I would recommend in hindsight, as I can see now how imperfectly we did this job. Although with four kids and a lot of bangs and knocks to the floors, you wouldn’t notice the imperfections now.”
Room by room
Over the past few years Erica and Colin have transformed the home, room by room, as time and finances have allowed, as well as adding to their family with two more children, Mahli and Nash. The very green, very old wallpaper was stripped off, with the interior painted largely in Dulux Ōkārito, a darker, creamier white “because the kids always seem to get the walls so dirty”.
The kids have adjusted well to living in a constant series of renovation projects. “Life is pretty busy with four kids and our work lives, so we took on a room to renovate in any spare time we could find on weekends or late afternoons and evenings. The kids are used to us renovating and are really good at fending for themselves. There’s a lot of mess and fitting in cooking around renovating, but that’s normal life for us,” says Erica.
Inside out
To make the most of their backyard, the couple added a swimming pool and pool house. Colin, a concrete layer by trade, hired a digger to create the hole and used a pump to line it with concrete. They engaged a local builder to frame up a pool house with joinery, then, in the spirit of DIY, clad the guest house with weatherboard themselves, even adding a deck. The outdoor areas are feature a variety of cacti, adding a Californian retro touch to the blissed-out space.
Words by: Holly Jean Brooker. Photography by: Alice Veysey.
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