‘A place to escape the everyday Auckland city life’ – these were the keywords providing inspiration for this Queenstown Hill renovation.

The holiday home needed an extensive facelift, and presented a great opportunity to achieve something out of the box.

We wanted to design a home that had texture, contrast and a smart use of warm, ambient lighting.

Working with a small footprint, we created a bunker-like feeling.

Character was added through extensive use of reclaimed wooden panelling and aged brass detailing.

The bar needed to be a feature of the living and dining room.

In response, we worked closely with the joiners to create a brass in-lay into the benchtop and upholstered bar fronts for an added rustic touch.

The kitchen needed a complete re-think, so we switched the positioning of the benchtop, adding feature lighting and bespoke gas-strut windows to allow an unobstructed view of Lake Wakatipu.

The laundry was moved down to the garage, but with a laundry chute added to a hidden cupboard in the kitchen.

This allowed us to create a hide-away bedroom and bathroom on the ground floor.

In the living room, we kept the existing fireplace and built in a custom steel wood stack to get the winter fires going.

We utilised the existing tray ceiling for feature lighting, and added brass cappings to match the patina brass look throughout the house, giving the house a warm glow.

Upstairs in the master, we created a full-length headboard using stunning Tasman Leather and introduced a work nook.

In the ensuite, the original bath was removed, allowing us to add a monsoon head in the walk-in shower, due to the low ceiling heights.

Snowboarding is a key hobby for this family, so we created a dry room with boot and glove warmers to make those ski days extra enjoyable.

This comprehensive renovation has essentially created a new place for this family to enjoy and create new memories together.