Warwick Delmonte describes his Mt Eden home as "contemporary meets Ma and Pa Kettle".
It's an imaginative term for a 1920s workingman's cottage that has been updated for 21st century living. Warwick and his wife Sarah loved the character of the cottage they bought three years ago but knew they would need to add an extension to create more space for them and their daughters Poppy and Georgia. They chose to make the new part modern in style to contrast with the original house, and the combination of the two works brilliantly together.
"The house had good bones and we could see what we could do to give it a body," says Warwick. "We had a good architect, Mike Henderson, who luckily did not throw his hands up in the air when we told him what we wanted to do. He made our ideas work."
The original part of the house has stayed much the same. There are two bedrooms at the front off a short hall that leads to the main living space. Here, the Delmontes didn't have to do much to the open plan kitchen, other than re-tile it, because they liked what previous owners had installed. The kitchen and dining spaces open out via bifold doors to a covered deck, and there are also doors from the living space to a side garden.
