Welcome to our August newsletter.

Thank you again to everyone who tells us they enjoy reading our newsletter - it is certainly a lot of fun finding bright and interesting things to share with you.

Especially as the winter cool and sometimes grey days seem to keep stretching out - colour and happiness are an essential duo in your life...Spring is almost here!

We thought we would bring you a few Entry Portico design ideas this month and hope you enjoy perusing through...

Just as your front door needs to be welcoming and inviting, so does your entry foyer or gallery - not to mention your front gate!

Thank you for receiving this newsletter - you are a very valued friend, client and/or associate. Please let us know if you would not like to receive this newsletter again by unsubscribing below.

Alternatively, we really love getting your feedback and thoughts - please send us an email...

We look forward to bringing you more gorgeous 'stuff' next month.

Our very best to you in great design and gracious living.

Chris and Robyn MacPherson

Architecture, Interior and Landscape Design

Entry off to the side...

The side entry is a great way to incorporate your carport without using the garage. The floating entry slabs and supporting step are accentuated by clever lighting.

This is a simple, warm and inviting entry. Perhaps for some - too narrow...

Impeccable symmetry

This entrance is stunning. It's about accentuating the form of the house.

Whatever shape or form your house takes or may take in your design - by creating an entry on this scale - it's almost as if the house was built to go with the entry!

Symmetry is the key. 'Stepping up' to your home can be for many reasons - practicalities such as a hillside or wet area build. Mostly however, the visual impact is second to none and fabulously achieved here.

Or just plain over the top...

This really does feel as though it should topple at any moment! The proportion could have happily kept itself balanced on the arched mouldings just above the door.

The grandeur just lost itself with the extra bit on top! It's almost like trying to get all the icing on one part of the cake  - the door has become a bit difficult to find.

Chris' thoughts......'what can I say?'

How about the drive thru?

This is a fantastic idea - the long radius arch...Great for driving in and out with the boat...but more especially keeping your utilities to the sides as well as your living wings.

The flattened arch is so effective with this style of home and such a fabulous entry to a garage!

Chris' thoughts...'it's a pity the person who designed the garden arch out beyond, wasn't from the same design office!'

Still - great design!

Stunning Lighting is a must....

This is a beautiful piece, hand blown Murano glass made in Italy. This chandelier is gorgeous fashioned from the Arum Lily - it is 95cm wide and 105 high.

Available through Interior Designers only - you can see more of this at Sarsfield Brooke.

Being met by a beautiful chandelier is very uplifting to say the least!

The Entry Foyer Chair

Reflections by Chivasso, Unique Fabrics 'sees a reinvention of vintage styles, using modern weaving and printing techniques.

The resulting fabrics are fresh, with a charming, romantic feel'.

This is such a wonderful mix of colour and texture on a beautiful gold finished chair for your entry foyer...

Please contact us if you would like to know more about these beautiful fabrics or book a free in-home consultation for your Spring renovation.
 

Bright, bold and beautiful colour

Now that you are inside - it is always so exciting to see furniture covered in wonderful colour.

From Domo Collections this couch is particularly inviting!

Featuring the Couch almost off the Wall...

The couch is actually stand alone and the skate boarder in the background is on the mural behind - no, not out the window!

White on white here is perfect. Great idea to incorporate the wall and the couch!

Showing the way out...

This is a fantastic blend of symmetry, asymmetry - classic and modern and unusual blend of design elements - with stunning effect.

Don't you love the way Americans cut their lawns long - not back to dirt level...!

Entry foyers or galleries, porticos and loggias all help to give us the 'inside out' transition. So easy to create a wonderful small space brilliantly!

And then outside...

De Castelli - beautiful outdoor furniture by NZ furniture manufacturer David Shaw, Auckland.

Just looking at it - Summer feels so much closer. Contact us if you would like to know more about this fabulous collection or book a free in-home interiors consultation.

The Cloister

The cloister leads on from the entry - not as difficult to include in your design as you might think!

This softens the transition from indoor dining to al fresco dining.

Whether Lisbon lemons or dwarf Pomegranates - espalliered fruits in terracotta pots and in groups, set the theme for outdoor dining in the classic style.

This beautiful table and chairs is from Domo Collections, Auckland.

Now for a bit of our news...

Chris designed this gorgeous Mediterranean-style home in Matamata which was completed just last year.

The entrance courtyard is so welcoming and well-proportioned - soon to be tiled and finished with terracotta cube planters.

The front entry doors are a statement themselves and a tribute to our clients who love the weight and feel of solid doors.

The bell towers

Designed as a feature of the house the chimneys are based on the traditional bell tower which give the lower pitched roof height and interest. They are absolutely stunning lit at night.

This house is constructed in Hebel Lightweight Concrete with clay tile roofing.

To see more of this project click here...

Renovating - the seamless transition.

This gracious Cambridge villa renovation completed a few years ago, works perfectly with the unique entry foyer. The addition of a West wing forms a beautiful enclosed welcome to this home.

Structured gardens by the owners compliment the traditional architecture.

View more here...

The lych gate...

Complete with Jonty, the inquisitive wanderer! The lych gate's history is 'lych' meaning dead or disembodied and referred to the gate that the deceased was carried through into the cemetry for burial.

The Lych gate is now more about the progress from one area of the garden to the next.

Chris designed this gate 20 years ago to adjoin the main house garden and cottage garden. Covered in pink Clematis Montana and overshadowed by an American Red Oak - Quercus rubra

To see more of this project click here...

White Wisteria is wonderful in Spring

This is not actually Wisteria - it is .....Ledenbergia seguieroides.

Every Spring we love our White Wisterias trained in pots -  they are almost as fabulous as this very rare plant...

Willowbrook Park Carriage House

We have featured the Manor House, Chapel and Colonnade...and look forward to bringing you news when the building starts.

Alongside the Manor House, Willowbrook Park will build the Carriage House which will be home to the Country Store.

Here, you will be able to find and purchase beautiful produce from the estate gardens and orchard as well as quality garden tools and associated goodies!

With upstairs living  - it is the perfect place to live while the Manor House is being built.

Visit Willowbrook Park blog to read more about the Country Store and the beginnings of their wonderful produce...