SCHOOL ZONES:
Freemans Bay Primary, Ponsonby Intermediate, Western Springs College.
CONTACT:
Simon Dew, Harcourts, 0274 966 189.
AUCTION:
October 22.
*One car park currently leased from next door
Amid the cafe/retail vibe of Ponsonby Rd, there's a cottage that has more than a touch of artist Susan Firth's flair about it.
It's in the subtropical front garden and big flared steps that she designed. It's in the coloured leadlight windows and interior door panels she commissioned glass designerSuzanne Hanly to design and in the clear/green leadlight windows elsewhere that the two women designed together.
In the kitchen, Susan's punch of colour is in the tiled splashback. It is also under foot in the perimeter floor tiles that connect the garden room with the subtropical courtyard.
Susan painted every one of these tiles by hand and fired them in the kiln in her potting shed at the end of the garden that has, as a converted sleepout, its own vibe and its own shell-paved courtyard.
At its heart, the transformation of this early 20th century cottage they bought in the early 1990s was the creation of a dream shared by Susan and her daughter Rebecca, both jewellery designers.
"Susan always wanted to live above a shop and I wanted a shop," Rebecca says.
Their one-third/two-third joint ownership gave Rebecca the front-of-house space for their jewellery business and Susan the home beyond the hallway door, which she later extended upwards. For Susan, it delivered the perfect lifestyle base from which to entertain family and friends in her wide artistic circle and a private garden within tall ivy-clad walls to retreat to.
Prior to her death four years ago, Susan lived in Westmere in a home complete an with indoor tropical garden that she designed. She still operated their jewellery/ceramic business from here until her retirement.
Rebecca later inherited this property and three years ago she and her husband Chris and their son Cole, 7, swapped rural life in the Far North for this central Auckland urban sub-tropical vibe.
Here they kept Susan's significant design features, at the same time repainting its former landmark lettuce-green exterior and choosing a 'gallery white' to lighten, brighten and showcase Susan's accents.
Image 1 of 7: 197 Ponsonby Rd, Auckland. Photo/Fiona Goodall
Rebecca points to Susan's wrought-iron front doors as one such dramatic accent. The interior wrought-iron balustrade design is repeated in the Juliet balcony off the master bedroom, opposite steps up to the rooftop deck and its expansive views to the west. Off the master bedroom, the white tiled en suite with glossy green floor tiles features Susan's signature red and green decorative listello tiles around the walls.
Susan designed the kitchen with benches in both stainless steel and laminate, near the rear pantry, which she fitted out with three-sided, staggered shelving to cater for all sizes and shapes of cartons, containers and the like.
This kitchen is located alongside the formal lounge with its working fireplace and steps down to the garden room/dining area with built-in bench seats and doors to the courtyard.
Alongside the lounge, the narrow glass-covered deck complete with clear plastic cafe-style curtain doubles as a potting room for tending plants and access to the outdoors from the downstairs bedroom.
Rebecca has toyed with the idea of installing a bay window here, but has decided to leave that for the next owners.
Instead, this family has decided to return north to rural life, taking with them the best of the Ponsonby Rd experience. "We're really torn leaving here but we are really country people at heart. This has been amazing, you can look out the kitchen window and watch everything going on or, if you don't want to, just pull down the shutters and head out into the garden."
