This renovation draws on holistic thinking to craft a cohesive, authentic design response that can be appreciated moment by moment.
Once an awkward, plaster-clad 1990s build with a jumble of tiled hip roofs, this Mount Eden home bore little resemblance to the elegant, gabled form it is today. Architect Guy Tarrant doesn’t mince words. “The roof forms were the really ugly thing about the house,” he says. “They had to go.”
Set on a generous section, the place had space on its side and owners ready to make it work harder. Early on, when the owners mentioned their intended budget, Guy didn’t sugarcoat it: the figure wasn’t going to cover what they had in mind, but economies were achieved by maintaining the floor slab and most plumbing.
The first move was decisive: strip away the muddle of roofs and replace them with three clear gables stepping down the site. This new geometry unified the exterior and unlocked interior volume. From there, the footprint barely shifted. A modest extension along the southern boundary allowed for a defined entry, a new laundry and an expanded kitchen and dining area. Inside, the flat 2.4-metre lid gave way to space and air. “If you’ve got a gable, you should express it inside. I’m not a fan of fake ceilings,” says Guy.
The double-height hall now anchors the plan and pulls daylight into the centre of the house, while exposed timber structure runs above an L-shaped kitchen, dining and living area — a configuration that creates diagonal views and pockets to occupy, rather than one long, echoing rectangle. A glazed wall of louvres creates a conservatory-like mood, allowing the house to breathe in balmy weather.
Upstairs, small changes deliver outsized gains. Squaring off an awkward corner adds a fourth bedroom. A former ceiling void becomes a second living area for rainy weekends and kids’ sleepovers. The family bathroom stays put, saving on plumbing costs, but borrows volume from the gable to gain light and elbow room.
Materially, the renovation is calm and confident. Cream brick made from Canterbury clay grounds the single-storey elements and softens through the day — chalky under a grey sky, warm and honeyed in the sun. The central two-storey form wears dark corrugated steel, a tonal counterpoint that gives the roofline definition. The brick welcomes you at the entry and continues in the kitchen, so the threshold between outside and in feels less like a line and more like a conversation. Maple joinery warms the kitchen, with the island reading as furniture.
Construction by Hargraves Homes carries that clarity through in the making: crisp junctions at the gables, tidy flashings, brickwork with true courses and clean returns.
Furnishing choices keep pace with the architecture. Working with Guy’s partner Debra Millar, the owners selected pieces with texture and tactility, rather than gloss. The lived experience shows up in small scenes. A window seat overlooking perennial planting is morning coffee territory; in the afternoon the dining nook offers space to stretch out, with the louvres cracked for air. Come evening, cedar lining and low-key lighting in the lounge draw you into this cocooning space.
Sheltered on two sides and oriented for sun, an outdoor living space feels like a natural extension of the interior, and is used most months of the year, with heaters doing their work in winter. “Covered outdoor rooms are really important in Auckland… it’s warm and humid a lot, and rainy. So they’re not things that are tacked on to the building — they’re carved out of a bigger volume. I prefer that rather than a pergola,” says Guy.
The garden is no afterthought either. Brought into the project early, Xanthe White Design shaped a framework of green that changes with the seasons — fresh and floaty in summer, pared-back structure in winter. Paths wind between beds, planting softens the perimeter, and the house sits in this living landscape, rather than on it. A raised pool, edged on two sides by a floating deck, solves the issue of public drainage lines that run through the site and gives the water a strong visual presence.
A curved brick wall lends privacy around the pool without cutting off outlook, its arc carrying the eye along planting and back to the house. “The architecture needed to work with the garden from day one,” says Guy. That’s clear in how the kitchen and dining connect with outdoor living, the rhythm of the rafters carrying through.
Performance details hum along in the background: acoustic treatments keep full-house gatherings comfortable; ducted air conditioning and cross-ventilation maintain steady temperatures. Low brick nib walls and considered levels have already done their job during a major storm as a practical line of defence from an overland flow path.
The renovation also shows restraint where it matters. The plan, broadly, made sense from the start. Structure was retained where it could be. The brief looked ahead — life with teenagers, working from home — without bloating the house. “All good architecture should respond to the context and the brief,” says Guy. “You’re not bringing preconceived ideas into a situation where they’re not appropriate.”
What reads as simplicity comes from many aligned decisions. The roof is legible. Volumes feel proportionate. Materials carry through from outside to in. Furnishings speak the same language without shouting. The garden grounds the building into the landscape and softens its presence across the seasons.
As Guy puts it, “Houses aren’t objects — they’re containers for people’s lives.” That ethos is felt rather than declared here, in a home that sits comfortably in its setting and suits the way its owners live, now and in the years ahead.
Words Alice Lines
Photography Simon Wilson
The post A considered renovation by Guy Tarrant brings light and volume to a 1990s Mount Eden home appeared first on homestyle magazine.
