Ange Demchy’s family have frequently benefited from her considerable restoration skills.

The purchase of the latest family home in October 2018 gave Ange the opportunity to tackle a 1990s, six-bedroom house with several living areas, and stunning elevated views over a North Hamilton stretch of the Waikato River.

Ange has developed a very characteristic style of décor, and gets straight down to business knowing exactly what she wants to achieve.

“I love that Hamptons/Farmhouse look, and was inspired by the almost all white interior of the home in the movie ‘Something’s Gotta Give’,” says Ange.

Her signature look uses white and black, with tones of grey and charcoal. She has an extensive collection of furniture and homewares following this colour palette.

“I constantly watch stores online and scour Trade Me for second-hand pieces that I can upcycle and paint myself.”

“We rarely buy high end or branded items, unless they are on special or a bargain.”

Both Ange and her husband Tony very capably do much of the work themselves, only calling in contractors for specialist tasks.

“We prefer smaller, family-run businesses for our tradies.”

As each renovation progresses, they learn more and more, both from successes and mistakes.

“It’s really important to have the right tools if you are going to tackle something yourself as that makes the job so much easier, and the result so much more professional.”

The couple avoids houses that need too much behind-the-scenes work done.

“We prefer to spend our budget on things that can be seen.”

The North Hamilton house
Ange was drawn to the colonial style windows, spacious rooms and the potential she could see past the dated décor.

“I’m really lucky, Tony just lets me get on with it. If I can see potential, he’s happy to help.”

The entrance hall had lead light panels in the doors to the main lounge, but once the dark wood had five coats of white paint, it looked very Hamptons. The dark wood on the staircase and trims looked much brighter when painted. Ange always uses a basic vivid white.

“Before painting over stained wood, it’s important to sand it and seal with a stain blocker.”

The entrance hall and some other rooms were wallpapered as “sometimes the work to prepare a previously papered and stripped wall for painting isn’t worth it, and even though more expensive, wallpaper is a better option”.

Informal dining, living and garden room
These rooms flow openly into each other, and Ange has put her beloved wainscoting on the lower half of the walls, for that farmhouse look. In these rooms, the wainscoting is MDF boards with MDF planks for the raised relief, and wide picture framing for the top rail – a simple and cost effective way of achieving this look.

“It just takes the right tools and careful measuring,” says Ange.

The changes in flooring define the start and end of each room. The slate floor in the garden room was left in place, but the main living area was carpeted. The dining area has vinyl plank flooring, that extends from the kitchen.

Formal dining and living
In contrast to the more homely and relaxed informal living areas, these rooms have that luxurious wow factor.

The fireplace was one feature where outside help was brought in. A large in-built gas fire sits in a specially constructed chimney breast, that hides the flue. To top it off a rustic railway sleeper has been used as a mantelpiece.

“This was probably the least successful part of the renovation,” says Ange.

“We were going to use schist pieces to clad the chimney, but we couldn’t quite make it work with the way the fire had to be fitted, so decided to go with the wood panel look instead.”

Once again, Ange has used her skills to bring together higher end bargains, High Street brands and her impeccable taste in colours, to pull off an expensive, elegant look on a budget.

The kitchen
Following the same plan as the original dark wood kitchen, Ange chose the white Shaker style cabinetry from the Mitre 10 Designer Range, and Tony installed it. Simple white subway tiles and engineered stone benchtops make the kitchen look a lot more expensive than it was.

Some of the original cabinetry remains, and has been painted in Resene Half Tapa, which contrasts nicely with the white cabinets.

The beautiful, industrial style light was a bargain from Early Settler, as were some of the other lights in the house.

Ange couldn’t use a classic ceramic butler sink, as she wanted an insinkerator, so she settled for a stainless steel version, with black tapware which is “so far, so good”.

The guest room
Ange has introduced touches of pink into the colour palette for the soft furnishing, and the light fittings and painted furniture have a French feel.

The wainscoting in this room uses picture frame wood, cut to size, and stuck straight onto the Gib in squares as “the walls were in good enough condition to do this”.

The laundry
There’s no utility feel to this room as it has the same attention to detail as everywhere else.

The existing tongue and groove style cabinetry has been painted in Resene Quarter Tapa, and wainscoting effect applied to the lower walls. Subway tiles, new Formica benchtop, a new sink, and a vintage patterned vinyl floor give the laundry a country character all of its own.

Now that the ground floor is nearly completed, Ange will be turning her attention to the upper floor and we will be returning to see how she has applied her magic touch to those renovations.