Houzz Tour: Living Is Easy in an Upmarket Shed in NZ
A young family moves to a country New Zealand home that takes its design cues from two humble building forms
When Auckland couple Mark and Susie Easterbrook made the decision to escape the rat-race and move their young family south-west of the CBD to the suburb of Titirangi, they asked the team at Dorrington Atcheson Architects (DAA) to design them a home that reminded them of carefree days on camping holidays. They also wanted a separate dwelling on the same property where extended family would live. And so a main family pad was created, along with a ‘mini-me’ dwelling that was cousins in aesthetics, but located for privacy.
“We based our design on the utilitarian forms of a tent and a shed,” says architect Tim Dorrington. The main house is a pavilion where the adults’ and kids’ bedrooms are separated by a tent-like timber canopy that shelters the living and kitchen zones. With a footprint of only 120-square-metres, the planning in the house is meticulous. Clever design tricks, such as a ceiling that soars to 3.6 metres and plenty of floor-to-ceiling glass, allow the compact home to feel spacious. Playful blocks of colour are the final artistic touch that enhances the casual mood.
“The structural style of this house is honest and the material palette is humble. It’s a house that tells the story of how it was made,” says Dorrington.
Houzz at a Glance
Location: Titirangi, Auckland, New Zealand
Who lives here: Mark and Susie Easterbrook, with their two young sons (10 and 5)
Main house size: 120 square metres (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 office/sleep-out)
Smaller house size: 53 square metres (1 bedroom, 1 bathroom)
That’s interesting: The owners of this property commissioned the architects to design a mini version of their main house right alongside it, and this is where the maternal grandparents live.
A surprise inside: The owner chose the colour palette and says there is a ‘secret code’ to each colour. For instance, he used yellow for the boys’ rooms because “they are the sunshine of the family”, turquoise on the doors of the wet areas and red on the master bedroom door which acts as a stop sign if it is closed.
“We based our design on the utilitarian forms of a tent and a shed,” says architect Tim Dorrington. The main house is a pavilion where the adults’ and kids’ bedrooms are separated by a tent-like timber canopy that shelters the living and kitchen zones. With a footprint of only 120-square-metres, the planning in the house is meticulous. Clever design tricks, such as a ceiling that soars to 3.6 metres and plenty of floor-to-ceiling glass, allow the compact home to feel spacious. Playful blocks of colour are the final artistic touch that enhances the casual mood.
“The structural style of this house is honest and the material palette is humble. It’s a house that tells the story of how it was made,” says Dorrington.
Houzz at a Glance
Location: Titirangi, Auckland, New Zealand
Who lives here: Mark and Susie Easterbrook, with their two young sons (10 and 5)
Main house size: 120 square metres (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 office/sleep-out)
Smaller house size: 53 square metres (1 bedroom, 1 bathroom)
That’s interesting: The owners of this property commissioned the architects to design a mini version of their main house right alongside it, and this is where the maternal grandparents live.
A surprise inside: The owner chose the colour palette and says there is a ‘secret code’ to each colour. For instance, he used yellow for the boys’ rooms because “they are the sunshine of the family”, turquoise on the doors of the wet areas and red on the master bedroom door which acts as a stop sign if it is closed.
Although the home and its smaller counterpart have just been completed, they appear long settled in their verdant environment. That’s a result of an honest design that harks back to vernacular buildings that were once found in this area. The exterior is cedar board-and-batten – a cladding material traditionally used on sheds. This is not a polished palette. “It’s a house that openly tells the story of how it was made,” says Dorrington.
Humble material choices include plywood wall linings and concrete flooring, which gives the home an industrial feel. High ceilings that slope towards the sky, combined with full-height glazing, allow the low winter sunlight to flood into the main living space through clerestory windows. This warms the thermal mass of the floor which slowly releases the heat throughout the day to maintain a more consistent internal temperature.
More: The Power of Ply: 10 Stylish Uses for Plywood From Floors to Furniture
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The house is made up of the more solid bookends of the bedroom blocks joined by a transparent living zone beneath a tent-like canopy. It has a slender footprint, being only four metres wide. “That’s generally enough space for most rooms,” explains Dorrington who nevertheless delved into his architectural bag of tricks to ensure a result that feels big-hearted on the inside. “The planning was meticulous, so there are no unnecessary passageways or ‘dead’ space.”
Pops of colour throughout appeal to the young and the young at heart. Shades of rich yellow (Resene ‘Supernova’), burnt orange (Resene ‘Chilean Fire’) and sportscar red (Resene ‘Monza’) warm up the space and make the kitchen cabinetry look like something akin to a Mondrian painting. A mix of Gaboon Marine Plywood cabinetry and the MDF spray-finished in bold colour bring fun and no-nonsense functionality to the fore.
Discover more ways to welcome yellow into your home
Discover more ways to welcome yellow into your home
In the stepped-down lounge, bench seats are built-in. The back of the banquette sofa has shelving where books are displayed. The cabinetry is also built-in and acts as a room divider. Here, shelving houses art and other keepsakes along with the TV.
“We designed sliding panels to disguise the television set,” says Dorrington. The homeowner chose to paint them a cheery red and added a bean bag to link the relaxed nature of the home with its decor.
“We designed sliding panels to disguise the television set,” says Dorrington. The homeowner chose to paint them a cheery red and added a bean bag to link the relaxed nature of the home with its decor.
With no plasterboard or plaster to hide the construction, it was a matter of finessing the junctions. The idea was to allow the structural methodology of the glulam (glued laminated timber) post and beam skeleton to shine bolts and all.
The kitchen bench is extra wide which allows the family to enjoy breakfast in this sunny spot, and the children to do their homework while their parents prepare an evening meal. Cavity sliders separate the kitchen zone from a sleep-out/office. The board-and-batten cladding on the exterior of the building is carried on into the interior of this wall and brings the rustic beauty of a shed indoors.
In the ensuite bathroom, plywood cabinetry with routered handles houses a functional stainless-steel sink. White subway tiling is in keeping with the utilitarian nature of the unpretentious material choices. The rainshower suits the industrial look and is Hansa Designo.
In the boys’ bedrooms are built-in bunk beds which have been designed to emerge from an oversized window frame. Cut-outs in the frame act as a ladder to provide access. When the children get older, and study becomes more important than sleepovers, the mattress can be removed to instantly transform the bed into a desk.
The fun and functionality continues in the family bathroom where the freestanding bath has been repurposed and repainted to give it a new lease on life. The primary shades of colour in the home are a nice counterpoint to the neutral and natural materials used in its construction. White gloss tiles act as a sparkling backdrop which makes this room feel fresh and clean. To keep the look consistent throughout the house, a Hansa Designo showerhead, bath spout and basin mixer were used.