The mighty mullet
With traditional style out front and a contemporary new addition extending out the back, the owners of an updated St Albans bungalow couldn’t resist nicknaming their home ‘Mullet House’.
WORDS Kim Newth PHOTOGRAPHY Katrina Anderson
This modest home with the fun name is now also an award winner, with the new ‘mullet’ addition having won a 2022 NZIA Canterbury Architecture Award. Designed by Tobin Smith and Daniel Sullivan of Common, the primary bedroom and ensuite addition is unashamedly contemporary yet beautifully complements the existing 1930s architecture.
In St Albans, where older homes are rapidly giving way to medium-density townhouses, this bungalow has been respectfully retained and updated for modern family living. Rather than demolishing and redeveloping the property, homeowners Simon and Katrina chose to pour their hearts into giving their home a new lease of life with a contemporary open plan layout and décor makeover. Katrina’s love of interior design and photography is evident today in the design aesthetic that favours a simple black and white palette and careful styling.
The new luxury addition further enhances this home’s liveability by providing a private bedroom and ensuite retreat with gorgeous garden views. As the NZIA Awards Citation observes, the ‘mullet’ addition ‘brings the party’ to the back of the home.
ALL THINGS FLOORING The Flooring Centre has beautifully equipped this home with floor tiles and carpets, including this Bremworth Dolomite wool carpet in the master bedroom.
CONSCIOUS CHOICES The lighting choices from Corcovado complete this luxurious space with warm materials and organic shapes.
This is one of the first awards for Common as a combined architectural practice. The three founders bring with them a wealth of experience in urban design.
“We’re delighted to have a presence in this year’s NZIA awards,” says Tobin. “It’s great to get that recognition from your peers and to be able to share that also with Simon and Katrina. They are so chuffed!”
A new glass link connects old with new, bridging the transition. In their original renovation, Katrina fell in love with Bremworth’s Galet carpet (from The Flooring Centre) and also chose this stunning textural carpet in the existing colour – Dolomite – for the new bedroom addition. It provides seamless continuity.
Tobin says the floor height in the link is the same as the rest of the house but steps down into the couple’s new bedroom, reinforcing the strong connection with the back garden and private patio.
Making an almost sculptural statement, the new addition incorporates an ingenious gable roof design that, internally, forms a pleasing asymmetry. Tobin points out how this draws the eye from dual corner sliders to a high window and the sky above.
In scale, it is indeed the full mullet at 9.6 metres long and 4.5 metres wide and with a bedroom ceiling that is 4.6 metres high at its apex. There’s room enough here to sit and read or soak up the sun. With expansive glazing, the new bedroom is light-filled and open to the established garden. At the same time, privacy requirements have not been neglected as the design includes an over-clad slider that can be used as a screen.
White walls, flooring and joinery highlight the architectural features and full-height ceiling. ‘Linen Pendant’ lighting from Corcovado completes this luxurious space. As the Corcovado team observes, “Every pendant light in the Corcovado range is made by hand to our specification, using organic shapes and natural materials.”
Off the new bedroom is the new light-filled primary bathroom with a picture window garden view. White tiles extend across the floor and up to the full height of the ceilings (Cross Cut Lapatto in White, The Flooring Centre).
While the interior is light, the exterior is contrastingly dark. Simon and Katrina took their bungalow from yellow to contemporary black, and that now extends to the new addition, finished in black stained cedar.
The mullet hairstyle is on the comeback trail. Now it looks like the mullet home addition could catch on soon, too!
common.nz | 03 379 0111
theflooringcentre.co.nz | 03 348 0639
corcovado.co.nz | 03 384 3965
