This one was a genuinely rewarding project. The homeowners had a good bones coastal property at Waihi Beach, but it wasn’t quite living up to its potential; the layout felt dated, the connection to the outdoors wasn’t there, and the exterior had seen better days.
The existing structure of this home had real character, and we were keen to work with that rather than against it. A lot of renovation projects are about subtraction as much as addition, stripping things back to understand what’s actually worth keeping, then building forward from there.
We agreed early on in this project to go with Abodo timber for the exterior reclad. It’s a durable, naturally treated timber that weathers beautifully in coastal environments.
Internally, the home had a full transformation. New finishes throughout, upgraded living spaces, and a lot of attention paid to how the different areas of the house flow into each other. One of the biggest wins was improving the connection between indoor and outdoor spaces.
The detailing is what we’re most proud of. When a renovation is done well, it should be hard to tell where the old house ends and the new work begins; everything should feel considered and deliberate. We think we landed that here.
The project caught the attention of Distinctive Design Magazine, which featured it as an example of high-quality coastal renovation work. It was a nice recognition of what the team put into this one, and a reflection of what the clients were willing to invest in getting right.
