Home profile
Meet and greet: Danni Duncan (content creator) and Alex Duncan (technical project manager), and their two cats, Stanley and Billie.
The property: A three-bedroom 1960s home in Christchurch.
Owning your own home offers you stability and investment. And notably, it is a place entirely yours to nest and make your own. While Danni Duncan and her husband, Alex, were renting in Sumner, Christchurch, the pull to buy their first home was clear. So were the stars that aligned their way.
With the government’s First Home Grant ending in mid-2024, the couple wanted to use this help (with a deposit for a home) before it ended.
After viewing “heaps” of open homes and putting forward offers on two properties, this 1960s beauty stood out. “We were drawn to its original wooden floors and how bright it was with all the windows. It had character.”
The home also has original windows and a floor plan that includes three bedrooms, one bathroom, an open-plan living and kitchen area, and a generous-sized backyard.
“We visited the first open home, telling the agent we were just looking as we didn’t expect to be able to afford to buy it,” Danni says. “The agent asked what our offer would be, and because it was an ‘as is where is’ home (whereby a house is sold and purchased in exactly the condition it is presented), we got it, and our offer was accepted. Everything happened quickly from there.”
“With it being a recently renovated ‘as is where is’ home, there was no competition as we already had the prior approval.” They were lucky, Danni says, as although they had viewed other houses, they were nowhere as good as this.
What makes a home
“Homely” sums up the look and feel Danni and Alex wanted to capture in the home. “We are the type of people who move in and intend to stay for a long time,” Danni says. “So, we painted one bedroom blue and the other pink. Some would say this is no good for resale, but we never thought about resell; we want to make it homely for us.”
The blue paint in the main bedroom is Accolade by Aalto, and the pink paint in the spare room is by Wattyl to colour match Treaty by Aalto. The previous owners painted the rest of the house, but Danni and Alex injected a colourful surprise of burgundy recessed shelves in the living room in Generate by Aalto.
Danni turned to Pinterest and YouTube for inspiration for her home accents, which gave her the idea for bursts of dusky colour. “I had seen a lot of pink bedrooms online, so I got plenty of paint samples. It’s the perfect hue – not too girly or overpowering but warm and cosy.”
“These colours bring a lot of personality and make the spaces feel more like us; they give the rooms life. Beforehand, I spent much time on Pinterest looking for inspirational photos of blue and pink bedrooms, i.e. how people style them and what feeling they evoke.
I also wasn’t afraid of giving it a go. The pink room was previously a different colour. I left it for five months, by which time I knew I didn’t like it, so I painted over it. Paint isn’t permanent, and it doesn’t cost much to make a big difference.”
A treasure trove
While Alex works for The New Zealand Merino Company, Danni has worked full-time as a content creator for four years. Her Instagram account @our1960shomenz details her home’s evolution and @danni_duncan is inspired by her choice to be child-free. “I love working for myself and being creative,” she says. “My job varies a lot and allows plenty of flexibility and a lot of perks.”
You’ll see plenty of vintage finds on her house account, proving her liking for secondhand furniture, which has helped turn this house into a home. With so many good secondhand furniture stores in Canterbury, Danni constantly looks for the perfect piece to capture her “mid-century eclectic and cosy aesthetic”.
Most of their homewares and furniture are vintage. “Secondhand goods seem cheaper here in Christchurch than in Auckland, so the pieces I find are more affordable,” she says.
“I shop regularly, and if I’m working on a new room, I thrift a lot. It’s something I’m simply doing all the time.”
Danni says that having vintage furniture and decor in the home gives it personality and character. “It makes a home unique and adds value to each piece. You’ve spent time looking for it; you haven’t gone out and bought it quickly; you’ve spent a lot of time going around different shops. As a result, you come to value your vintage find a lot.”
The great outdoors
From the kitchen, a door leads to what was once a bare patch of lawn. With a few shrubs, it has been completely reinvigorated. “Alex redid this area and transformed it into an urban garden with vegetables,” says Danni. “Alex took out the shrubs, framed where he wanted the garden beds to be and started sowing seeds. He always looks after the soil and works on the garden.”
Such dedication shows the couple’s love for this property, which keeps growing. They have a vision for the front exterior of the property, turning it into something more usable. They’d also like to upgrade some of the untouched parts of the interior.
“We’re going to turn the front into an outdoor dining space with a pizza oven. Then we want to save up to renovate the bathroom and laundry. We want to do it well, with savings, rather than doing it cheap and not enjoying it.”
Home truths
Best lessons learned?
Danni Duncan: You are capable of doing a lot yourself. I had never painted before, but I painted two of the bedrooms myself. It saved us a lot of money, and although it’s not perfect, I think it turned out well.
What’s one thing you would change about your home?
DD: The bathroom. It’s boring. I have so many beautiful mid-century-inspired photos saved to my Pinterest and can’t wait to one day design and have something that I’ll be happy to spend more time in. Alex would also love a bath.
Most memorable experience?
DD: I think painting the primary bedroom blue (Accolade by Aalto paint, because I always get asked) and seeing the space transform is my most memorable experience. It was my first time doing a full room makeover, and I felt like I was getting to live my Pinterest dreams.
Renovation budget?
DD: We are just saving what we can and will DIY when the money comes in.
For someone who hasn’t bought vintage items before, where would you suggest starting?
DD: A vintage store (instead of Facebook Marketplace or Salvation Army stores), as they’ve done the hard work and curated pieces so you don’t have to go out and find them. With Marketplace or the Salvation Army stores, you have to look constantly to get the good stuff. But if I want to buy vintage, the vintage stores make life easier.
How can we bring vintage into our home?
DD: Artwork is a great place to start. A lot of people who can’t afford an original work tend to go to a big-box store and end up with a mass-produced item. Vintage artwork is something I’ve always bought.
How do you know which items to buy?
DD: I picture it in my house and where I would put it. I never get something and think I’ll find somewhere for it to go. Otherwise, you end up with all this stuff, and it’s not cohesive.
What’s been your most special purchase?
DD: Our sideboard record player.
Read this next:
- Rachel Soo Thow of The Lit List shows us around her personality-packed townhouse
- A maximalist home marries vibrant colour with mid-century style
- An old student flat in Grafton receives the renovation of a century
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