Laura's road to interior design success started at Te Puke High School

Former Te Puke high School student Laura Heynike owns interior design company Pocketspace..

Laura Heynike (nee Lochhead) threw herself into school life. She now owns her own small space interior design company, Pocketspace. Laura is the latest alumni to feature in our series about former Te Puke High School students.

Laura Heynike says she squeezed in virtually every activity possible as a Te Puke High School student.

Laura left school in 2006 with the title Best All Round Student for her year.

She was also awarded the Rotary Service Above Self award, Lyceum Scholarship and the Dr Leonard Randell Scholarship.

''My roles ranged from captain of the girls' cricket team, part of the environmental committee through to my most favourite - the Female Performing Arts leader. If you couldn't find me in class I was probably on stage,'' she says.

''I wouldn't say I was particularly incredible at one thing, but I applied myself to everything with a strong ethic.''

She says she learned very early on that school was about choices.

''What you put in is what you get out. In that sense, I found all the teachers were really encouraging and generous with their time outside of school hours.''

As a trained classical singer and through private speech and drama classes she was enthralled by anything performing-arts based.

''If some kid was giving me a hard time, I knew I could get spellbound with performance and forget about my troubles until they didn't matter anymore.''

She was always keen on participating in sport and helped start the school's girls' cricket team, which taught her something new.

''I really did love art though. The most memorable line was from my art teacher. She said 'Laura, you are not a great painter, but you will make an incredible designer'.

''I remember being shocked at the time because I loved painting, but she was right, there were some incredibly talented painters in my class.''

The comment had an impact, however, and Laura began looking at pathways to become a designer.

''I interviewed my neighbour, Sally Lines, who is a well known interior designer in the Bay, for my media studies class, and from that point every subject and choice I made propelled me in that direction.

Former Te Puke high School student Laura Heynike owns interior design company Pocketspace..

''I remember thinking I would study interior design, specialise in film set design and then meet famous directors and get into acting that way. Turns out I just loved interiors so much I stuck with it and just continued acting and singing on the side as a hobby.''

After school Laura moved to Auckland and studied for a four year Bachelor of Interior Design degree.

''I remember doing a monthly column for Te Puke Times that illustrated the ups and downs of uni life, while also doing the advertising and buying for mum's shop, Lynette's, right until she closed it recently.

''On the side I worked on set at Shortland Street, did a couple of operas, and was a regular singer at open mic nights in a well-known bar - Grand Central in Ponsonby.''

After graduating Laura worked as a graduate interior designer and in 2015, after paying off her student loan in three years, started her first company, Pocketspace Interiors, at 26 with $3000 to her name.

''I moved to Sydney after feeling a bit of uni/grad burnout and registered it in Australia too.''

Pocketspace is an interior design studio that specialises in maximising small spaces, inspired from Laura's travels to Paris and New York as a graduate.

''Moving back to Auckland and marrying my husband Ruan, I have a tight-knit group of staff and contractors with a studio in Ponsonby and am fostering steady growth projections, despite the financial setbacks of Covid.

''It has been an empowering journey so far with speaking opportunities at the Home Show, the Home Ideas Centre and being awarded The Most Outstanding Established Business of the year in the 2019 David Awards, which was a proud moment.''

She was also invited to give a TED Talk in Bali for a Woman in Business International summit, although this didn't go ahead due to Covid.

''All of these opportunities gave me the confidence to push Pocketspace and now I have a weekly column in the New Zealand Herald/One Roof covering all things interiors.''

She says her performing arts training has helped her prepare for such opportunities.

''With the curveball of Covid, I created my second business, Clkspace, an online interior design platform which has been picked up in a couple of countries, and the goal is to be worldwide by 2025.''

An app is being developed.

''Community-wise I am chairwoman of EO Accelerator, a global network of entrepreneurs that scales businesses to turn over $1.2 million in two years, a programme I went through myself when I first started Pocketspace.

''I credit a lot of my learnings as a young businesswoman from this and my mother's journey and team working ethics learnt as a family on our kiwifruit orchard as a child in Paengaroa.

''It's rewarding and see EO as an opportunity to give back when I can.''

Laura says when she leaves her ''glamorous'' work life in Ponsonby, she retreats to their villa in the Waitakere Ranges.

''It's the closest version of 'home' I could find."

She is currently expecting her first child.

''I'm phasing myself out of a hands-on role in the business to a hands on-roll as a mother, while balancing the ongoing business demands.

''And as fate would have it, I am actually back at Shortland Street redesigning the back house storage to accommodate all their props and set designs so my life as interesting parallels that seem to all balance out nicely.''