This article was originally printed in the Your Home & Garden magazine. You can view it here.   Learn how to layer lighting in your home for a brighter outlook   Design, furniture, paint colours – these are all important aspects of successful interior design. However, they all rely on one thing to pull them together – lighting. And it’s not just the style of your lighting, but how much and what types of illumination you introduce into each space. Without proper lighting a ‘moody’ living room simply appears dingy and a white bathroom, clinical instead of restful. But above el ..read more

There are around 180,000 character homes in New Zealand; that is, ones built before 1940, and renovating them comes with a minefield of unknown and unexpected costs. I’ve spoken with so many homeowners over the years who have bought the elusive ‘character do-up’ without realising what they’re getting into. Thinking it’s a good way to get a foot on the ladder, and that a lick of paint and some polished floorboards will do the trick, but it’s often a lot more complex than that.   These complex issues? Allow me to elaborate on the most expensive ones that come up – but note that this list is ..read more

This article was originally prepared by Auckland based reporter Miriam Bell, and printed in Stuff. You can find it here.   Changing needs meant Joanna Chiorean’s family was in the market for a larger house, but the decision to renovate their existing home ended up being a no-brainer. The family realised they needed more space after her mother-in-law moved in, and as their teenage son got older and more independent, she says. But house-hunting in last year’s market was a sobering experience, with a low number of properties on the market and huge competition for them. “And we woul ..read more

This article was originally printed in the Your Home & Garden magazine. You can view it here.   How to beat product shortages, unstable pricing and supply chain problems in your 2022 home remodelling. If you’re thinking about renovating your home, you may be wondering how you’re going to navigate the long lead times and constant price increases you keep reading about. Ultimately, it all comes down to planning – which is the 101 of any home renovation, global pandemic or not. Some of the choices you make in relation to materials and design can have a flow-on effect to construction ..read more

This is a column I wrote for the Your Home & Garden magazine. You can view it here.   Consider these 10 helpful tips before making any big changes to your bathroom   1. Reuse the plumbing If your budget’s tight, do your best to reuse the existing plumbing locations. Try not to move the toilet or shower as this can be a costly exercise by the time the water supply and wastewater pipework is repositioned and extended as needed. This means keeping the bathroom layout the same, and refreshing it with new finishes, fixtures and fittings instead. If your budget allows it though, defini ..read more

This article was originally prepared by Auckland based reporter Miriam Bell, and printed in Stuff. You can find it here.   Home improvement work nationwide hit record highs last year as property owners unable to travel spent up large on renovations, new analysis shows. The value of consents for total alterations and additions to existing homes was $1.8 billion over the nine months ending September last year, according to Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee. Her analysis, which used Stats NZ figures going back to 1991, showed this amount was unprecedented over the period an ..read more

This radio interview was originally aired on NewstalkZB with Andrew Dickens, and shared on their website. You can find it here.     If you're a homeowner, chances are, you were doing some home improvement last year.   Turns out we spent unprecedented amounts of money on renovations. A whopping 2.4 billion dollars in consented alterations and additions.  But big jumps in prices and product delays beg the question; how big can things go this year?  Jen Jones from Nine Yard Consulting joined Andrew Dickens.    Keen to get me onto your re ..read more

This is a column I wrote for the Your Home & Garden magazine. You can view it here.   Renovating the kitchen can be a black hole for spending. You’ve got to know where to cut costs and when to splash out    A kitchen can cost anything from around $15,000 for a facelift to $150,000 for an all-new bespoke version, but that doesn’t mean a kitchen at the lower end of the price bracket will look cheap. There are options for all budgets if you keep these save versus splurge ideas in mind.   Kitset or custom Save Cabinetry is the classic off-the-shelf option. You measure ..read more

This article was originally printed in the Your Home & Garden magazine. You can view it here.   How to illuminate your home for a brighter outlook – room by room    Design, furniture, paint colours – these are all important aspects of successful interior design. However, they all rely on one thing to pull them together – lighting. And it’s not just the style of your lighting, but how much and what types of illumination you introduce into each space. Without proper lighting a ‘moody’ living room simply appears dingy and a white bathroom, clinical instead of restful. But ..read more