Whitford: Colonial character

VICKI HOLDER discovers a new homestead in Whitford that could have been there for years.

Creating genuine character in a new home is not an easy task. Few designers get it quite right. Gerald Carter of Replica Homes, however, has made authentic, older-style, new homes his specialty. Taking care with the proportions, shapes, materials and details, he manages to produce convincing replicas, no matter what look his clients request.

Impressed by the sprawling, early Colonial homes in the outback of Australia, a couple returned to New Zealand and commissioned Gerald to recreate a brick and corrugated iron farmhouse on Clifton Peninsula in Whitford. They wanted a family home with lots of open spaces for living and entertaining, as well as separate areas to escape to. Moreover, they sought a country home that seemed as though it had been on the land for a long time.

Several years down the track, the house and gardens - designed by Gary Philpot - meld into a magical landscape, making this picture-perfect home resemble one of the older lifestyle properties in the area.

To gain the aged country effect, Gerald and his clients have chosen demolition bricks salvaged from the Royal International Hotel in Auckland. Visitors get their first glimpse of them in a wall at the end of the private road. The driveway heads through beautiful scrolled and gilded wrought iron gates, which are electronically opened by an intercom system inside the living area.

Lined with mature claret ash trees underplanted with spring bulbs, the drive swings into a roundabout that circles a pretty stone fountain. The home, with shingled, dormer windows projecting from the red corrugated iron roof, looks across formal gardens and grassy paddocks that roll down to the estuary. The rose beds contained with box hedging and mondo grass look neat in winter and splendid in summer.

A brick path steps up to the filigree veranda, which stretches across the full length of the front of the house.

Polished, rustic, heated, pale terracotta tiles feature in the warm yellow foyer and throughout the family living area and kitchen. This vast, open area has an old-world ambience, which is enhanced by the battoned ceiling and timber mouldings around doors. It accommodates sitting and dining areas easily, and there's still space to dance in between. French doors give an easy flow to the heated pool, spa pool and cabana outside in the subtropical, landscaped garden.

In the kitchen, demolition bricks create a backdrop for the handsome, free-standing electric stove. It looks old, but is completely modern and functional. The softly washed, pale blue cabinetry is behind a large island bench. Tiles on the benchtop and a butler's sink add some old-fashioned charm.

Formal entertaining shifts to a large room behind the main living area, which is divided into intimate dining space and a lounge by a double-sided Hinuera stone fireplace.

Here, as with the rest of the home, the curtain treatments are striking. Toning with the golden walls and wheat-coloured carpet, there are soft chocolate and caramel sheers and curtains with tassels.

Along the hallway, a children's lounge with its own entry separates the two children's bedrooms and the family bathroom from a guest wing with an en suite.

Each of the children's rooms features stunning wallpaper and friezes teamed with complementary fabric-covered pelmets and blinds or curtains, which give an opulent, cocooning effect.

The master bedroom, up the swirling, wrought-iron staircase, treats parents to a heavenly hideaway beneath a dramatic, coved, timber ceiling. The gold walls feature a harlequin-style chequerboard design, and windows peep out beneath silk organza curtains. A huge space, it has a room-sized dressing room and an en suite at one end and a workroom-cum-study at the other.

There's even more accommodation in the combined guest house and triple-car garaging next door. A huge utility room flanks the garage. Upstairs, a studio with a view to die for would make a great office.

Bordering horse paddocks and protected from prying eyes by abundant hedging and trees, this magnificently groomed property is a seductive alternative to city living.

Vital statistics:

ADDRESS: 72 Potts Rd, Whitford.

FEATURES: Australian colonial-style home extensively landscaped with formal and subtropical plantings; potager garden and petanque court; heated, fully automated swimming pool; hot tub; cabana with bathroom, kitchenette and servery; potager garden; three living areas; four bedrooms plus three bathrooms; under-floor heating; electronic gates and security alarm system; separate guest quarters, or studio, with fifth bathroom above triple-car garaging; small orchard.

SIZE: Land area 1.8ha.

PRICE: $1.55 million.

AGENT: Kath Lavis, Barfoot & Thompson, Whitford. Ph 530 8292 bus; 530 8343 ah; 021 764 761 mob.