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Meet & greet: Allanah (chief joy officer) and Dane Tatana (managing director) at digital agency Journey, their sons Cohen, and Wilbur, and Crumble the Labrador puppy.
The property: Three-bedroom, two-bathroom new-build in semi-rural Kumeū.
The lure of giving their children a Kiwi childhood was irresistible for Allanah and Dane Tatana’s kids. Never mind the children were at that point hypothetical, the New Zealand-born, but UK-raised couple (who coincidentally moved to England with their families in the same year), knew what they wanted. So they moved home and now have two very real children enjoying the childhood they’d fantasised about giving them.
Evolving plans
Excited to create their very own home, Allanah and Dane began searching for their version of the quarter-acre Kiwi dream.
The goal was to find a bare section large enough to one day build a secondary dwelling for Dane’s parents. But also one that wouldn’t destroy their budget. After fruitlessly searching for a needle in the haystack of Auckland’s competitive property market, they decided to pivot to a new plan. One of the semi-rural idyll among the picturesque vineyards and lifestyle blocks to the north-west of the city.
“We’d go on weekend drives and we seemed to be drawn to this area. After a year or so of searching in suburban areas without any luck, we had to cast our net further and it became our new dream. It’s so beautiful out here, we’re 10 minutes from Muriwai, so we’ve got the best of beach and countryside, and the chance to become part of another kind of community as well. It’s the dream we didn’t know to have,” says Allanah.
Committing to a rural property search opened up the possibilities, though finding their dream section still had its challenges, particularly as they negotiated through Auckland’s open/shut series of Covid lockdowns. Eventually, though, they found their little slice of paradise: 1.3 hectares of former vineyard in scenic Kumeū.
Breaking ground
A lifestyle block throws up exciting possibilities for a life on the land, but priority one was putting a roof over their heads.
Signing up with turn-key construction group Signature Homes promised an easier journey for their first new-build, but Allanah says they wanted to balance the convenience of a group home build with interesting design elements that would make the space feel unique to them.
As design devotees (“We love Grand Designs, we’ve got a thousand home magazines, we just love interior design”), they wanted something that would stand out from the crowd and reflect their own playful style.
To achieve this, they called on the interior design group Inherent, who worked within a design template to create a home that’s a bespoke fit for their family, tweaked to their way of living, and that manifests their warm and fun-loving personalities.
Tailored to fit
Some of the changes to the template were purely practical. For example, the ceilings were set high and the kitchen bench height was raised to accommodate Dane’s 1.95m frame. Some changes were made to suit how they live as a family, including connecting the boys’ bedrooms. “Rather than having separate bedrooms, we have a connecting sliding door. It’s actually never shut, it’s always open,” says Allanah.
The most dramatic departures from the group home norm come from the materials chosen. The designers gave the modern barn a Scandi-chic facade with pinky-pale Abodo wood cladding at the gable ends and off-white Colorsteel on all other sides. Matching white aluminium windows blend seamlessly into the cladding, except for a couple of statement picture windows in black.
“It was really funny. Signature was a bit freaked out, like ‘What are you doing, are you sure?’ But we liked the striking effect of the black, the way it ties into some of the black elements inside the house and it also breaks up the uniformity.”
The couple also sourced some items themselves, saving a bit of money in the process and allowing them the freedom to make some excitingly off-piste choices, such as the peach bathroom tiles and matching concrete basin, the globular copper pendant lights and boldly industrial-style extractors in the kitchen.
Living in colour
Making daring design choices is much easier when you’re both on the same page, and Allanah says she and Dane were lucky enough to align on most design questions and on the overall feel they wanted from the space. “We wanted it to be really warm and inviting, not cold and stark. A lot of modern barn homes can be very white and clean, whereas we wanted a twist of eclectic warmth.”
Colour plays a huge role in giving the home its personality-packed tone, from the peach-toned bathroom and daring red WC to the spectrum of soothing greens in almost every room. “It’s our favourite colour, and the greens make you feel really calm and relaxed,” says Allanah.
Farm life
Cleared of grapevines, the land around the house is now a giant playground for the couple’s two small boys and energetic puppy. But there are also plans for animals (chickens to start with, and some lawn-mowing sheep), perhaps a little guest cottage, and one day a secondary house for Dane’s parents.
“Maybe some cool stuff for the kids – a zipline would be great,” says Allanah. “Phase one was just getting the house and surrounding landscape done, and we’re doing everything else in small stages.”
In the short term, anyway, it’s all about soaking up the bucolic splendour of the New Zealand countryside, particularly after the contrasting urban sprawl of London and Auckland. “It’s so nice having more sky. You can take it for granted, but it’s so beautiful. It’s nice to be able to breathe a bit more,” says Allanah.
The overall effect of the new build is of serenity and welcome – it’s comfortable for their family, but also guests, too. “You know how you go somewhere and you can feel the presence of the people who live there?” says Allanah. “People have said that they feel at home here and that it doesn’t feel new. It feels lived in.”
Allanah’s tips for a successful new-build
- When building a house, you have to make hundreds of decisions – and reasonably quickly. We would mock things up in Photoshop to see how things would look. We could recreate what things would look like. This helped us to really visualise things.
- Also, be on-site as much as possible, especially after the framing goes up. Being in the space helps when considering decision-making. We would make mock-ups of pendant lights, cut them out of cardboard and hang them up. We would also make some of the cabinetry out of boxes, to see how everything would work.
- Considering how you live is really important. What are your most common journeys around a house, what order do you tend to do things during the morning and evening routines? We mapped these out over the plans to make sure the house and positioning of things were really efficient and an easy place to live.
- We used an architect and interior designer to lead the project design (Inherent). Their guidance really helped make the house unique for a new build and add our personalities to it. Starting something completely from scratch can be overwhelming as the decisions and options are endless. But, when you have a pro on hand to give you choices based on your style, it makes it a lot easier.
Home truths
What areas did you save on?
Allanah: We ordered items such as bathroom sinks, tapware and handles, etc ourselves – and used laminate instead of timber on the cabinetry. Our window and door joinery is APL’s cheapest range, but we wanted them to be floor-to-ceiling, so we opted for the low range but at the biggest size. The tiles were sourced online and they were cheaper than some of the local upmarket stores, but have a similar look. We built the outside fireplace area ourselves. We were quoted $50k to do it, so we ended up doing a lot of it ourselves. We’re really happy with the result and it cost us about $12k.
Where did you splurge?
The ceiling height. Dane is 6’5” (1.95m)and has always wanted an extra-high ceiling so he can feel normal. The bedroom and bathroom wing is 2.7m and the living room is vaulted at 6m. It gives the living room a greater sense of space despite not having a huge floor square meterage. We also splurged on the main kitchen bench height and Aalto paint.
Best lessons learned?
Patience. Submitting the plans to get started takes a long time and it becomes a bit all-consuming.
What would you never do again?
Purchase land during the Covid-19 lockdowns. We felt like criminals sneaking out to look at paddocks.
Any disasters?
Dane made a table out of wooden pallets for our outside area. it’s very wobbly and gives us splinters.
What’s one thing you’d change?
We would have a larger living room space and more landscaping.
Most memorable experience?
Building the outside fireplace area. It took months of weekends and saved us a lot of money, but it broke us physically.
Text Shelley Tustin Photography Helen Bankers
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