WineNZ Summer 18-19 (1)

feature | wine people’s places
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The Lawrences have framed early photos
of it and other memorabilia, which now
hang in their passageway.
It was still in its original state, complete
with a black Shacklock coal range, which
they’ve had refurbished by the original
factory in Dunedin before it closed, Lucie
said.
The house has been thoroughly
insulated and two of the original five
bedrooms opened up to make a study and
television room. The front door has been
decommissioned and the hall space behind
it turned into a wardrobe for Lucie and
Brook’s bedroom.
You enter the house from what was
originally the back, a sunny verandah
opening into a light-filled kitchen/living
room. There’s a large kauri table at the
kitchen end and comfortable chairs and a
wood burner that heats the whole house
at the other.
“I know it’s small, but it’s well formed
and it suits the way we live. We all live
around the kitchen table; I wouldn’t live
any other way anyway. Round the kitchen
table — that’s how I grew up so it makes
sense to me,” Lucie said.
The house is filled with colour, each room
different. Bright pastels for their daughters
Mathilde’s and Madeleine’s bedrooms,
deep blue for the master bedroom, a shade
of melon for the television room, and a
pale, refreshing green for the kitchen and
living room.
There’s a cosiness and a well-lived in
feeling about Lucie’s soft furnishings and
collections of books and objects in attractive
arrangements — a Welsh dresser with a
display of crockery, lamps and vases and
other treasures, including a kimono on the
wall in the television room, and paintings
and photos everywhere.
Across the lawn and down some steps
flanked by garden beds are the clean lines
of Joan and Tony’s creamy white Oamaru
stone house built in 2015. Tony carved
the year, MMXV, in a block above the
arched window.
At first the two houses appear totally
different, but inside there’s a similar feeling:
antique furniture, the arrangements of
objects — charming vignettes that catch
the eye — a bowl of orange gourds on a
low bookcase alongside a vase of yellow
lilies with a painting above, a bust on a
table covered by a kilim, exotic pottery,
and books and paintings everywhere.
Joan explains, “I think our houses are
quite similar. We have the same tastes,
Lucie and I — bright colours. We like the
same things.”
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❶ An early photo of the villa’s former life as a Queenstown boardinghouse. ❷ The kitchen table, the centre of family living. ❸ Deep blue walls in Lucie and
Brook’s bedroom. ❹ Attractive vignettes that catch the eye are everywhere. ❺ MMXV, the year the house was built, carved by Tony. ❻ The television room is
filled with colour and soft furnishings. ❼ Crockery displayed on the Welsh dresser in the kitchen-living area. ❽ Some of Joan’s crockery collection and walnuts
from their tree, under the central kitchen bench. ❾ Good taste is everywhere. ❿ The sitting area with the recycled full length arched window.
60 WineNZ Magazine | Summer 2018-19