Do you ever find yourself marking time with meals? While producing this issue during the latest lockdown, my workdays were scheduled not around the usual office hours or midday meetings, but breakfast, lunch and dinner at home, which also became a major source of entertainment for my whole family — creating lists for my partner Nick to shop with (the perfect excuse to give his vintage Land Rover a run), preparing dishes with our son Ted (lessons in home economics for him and patience for me), exchanging recipes on WhatsApp with my mum and sister (it’s practically become a competitive sport).
Eating every meal together around the table is one of lockdown’s little luxuries, and I’ve found myself appreciating how our kitchen — and home in general — is set up to reflect who we are and make accessible the activities that make us ‘us’. It’s something my long-time Waihi-based penpal, designer Alana Broadhead, supports. In her opinion piece on page 30 of this issue, she says, “Woven together, the ordinary little activities we repeat each day create the fabric of our lives… Good design tailors it, making it smoother, simpler, more beautiful and more meaningful.”
As the heart of many homes, the kitchen feels like a good place to start when actioning your ambition to design a dwelling that caters to your wants and needs, so along with bringing you all the home and style inspiration you pick up homestyle for (plus the talented people we want you to meet), this issue we’re putting the spotlight on this space, along with another favourite for self-care — the bathroom. Flip to the back of the magazine (from page 127) for our edit of small details and big ideas.
On page 38, you’ll see that we’ve dedicated a generous six pages of this issue to cats living the interiors dream. It’s a decision I’d love to blame on lockdown but, actually, it’s one we made well before all that, because despite our earnestness, we also like not to take ourselves too seriously!
We’ve loosely curated this issue around the playful optimism of the new season, because who doesn’t love to think of spring as an opportunity to actively reset? Here’s to realising all your best intentions for your home in the warmer months ahead.

Alice Lines, Editor

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