The North Tree

Conceived as boutique accommodation designed to perform equally well in a Hawke’s Bay winter or on a summer’s day, North Tree Cottage found its defining design move in a checkerboard floor meticulously measured, traced and hand-painted, repeated across key spaces to introduce rhythm, personality and an immediately legible identity. The remaining colour palette, drawn from the surrounding landscape and layered across deep olive greens, rich browns, warm neutrals and yellow and pink tones, was applied not merely to walls but also to ceilings, joinery and architectural details to produce immersive, mood-rich spaces where sunlight moves across darker tones throughout the day, revealing depth and texture. This is a knowledgeable, well-researched approach to colour theory, reflection and refraction, restrained in its references and confident in its execution, producing warmth and intimacy without sentimentality. That the project exceeded its brief entirely is the most telling measure of its success; the owner, having fallen completely in love with the property, has since made North Tree Cottage her permanent home.