"Having furniture in mind when you design is the easiest way to build your home," says Grant. "It’s the essence of simplicity. When people build backgrounds and then try to find something to match, it’s a real cart-before-horse way of attacking design."
He points out there are many options of paint types and colours, finishes, tiles, drapes and the like - but a limited range of furniture choices. He says it’s a problem when people add the furniture to the house, rather than adding the house to the furniture.
"Without a total vision, design is difficult. When you walk into a room, what will be the first thing to hit you? The wall colour? A piece of art? The feature rug? Those are the pieces that inspire, but too often people build a whole room with no idea of what’s going in it. That is not good design."
It’s obvious that this house doesn’t suffer from that. The home and furniture blend together beautifully.
The furniture selection was an important element of the full interior design of the home, which was created by Lucy Furniss of Lucy Design. Grant’s daughter Lucy has created a clean design with simple features, and an emphasis on comfort and easy living. For example, the covers of the linen sofas are fully removable and washable.
"And comfy," says Grant. "The sumptuous feather and foam filled cushions invite you to curl up and snuggle under the faux fur throw."
Supplying to Build Style Developments was a great opportunity to have Contemporary Classics’ select indoor furniture seen in a deserving environment.
"The functional, 100 per cent solid European oak cabinets and accessory furniture matches the enduring look of the home," says Grant. "The light-coloured furniture creates a practical, uplifting feel of space, while mixing textures with neutral palettes creates impact and a tactile environment."
The attention to detail in this house is impressive - every nail is impeccably aligned, every finish is perfect.
"It takes a while," says Jason from Build Style Developments. "We quality control everything. If there’s a mark on a wall, we don’t leave it and see if the customer notices. We walk around before hand-over, and if the whole house needs to be repainted because we are not happy with it, then we’ll do it."
That happened when Jason and Reuben tried a new painter. "We weren’t happy with the job, so we repainted the entire house."
That was at Build Styles expense. "We are not going to deliver anything we not happy with," says Jason.
After that hard lesson, Build Style Developments now only uses tradespeople they know and trust. "We might have to wait a bit, but we need to know the work is going to be good."
Jason and Reuben think beyond the current owners. They won’t build anything they suspect could have future issues, and they are careful in selection of building materials. It is all about keeping the options open while working out what is the best solution for the individual client and the space they want to create, offering a complete design and build service.
In this case, the choice was Metrapanel - a robust, durable and energy efficient product providing home owners with smooth, strong walls, resulting in extensive cost maintenance savings over time. Many of the walls are finished with cedar panelling, while clay brick feature walls create a modern contemporary look with a bit of a wow factor.
Another modern twist is all black tapware throughout the house. While conventional chrome finish taps frequently show water marks and finger marks, and require constant cleaning, matte black taps are more mark resistant.
Designing a house together, like Build Style Developments and Contemporary Classics did, pays dividends. "Contemporary Classics entered the Interior Design Awards a few times," says Grant. "And each time we won. We gave up on that because we thought, well, that was too easy. All we did was start with the piece of furniture, and then asked, ’What’s going to make that furniture look fantastic’?"
It’s obvious both Jason, Reuben and Grant live by the motto, ’Do it once, and do it right’. They’ll each spend half an hour making sure something no one will ever see is perfect. "Because we’ll always know it’s there."
The house will be a showhome in the literal sense of the word - Jason will be living in it with his family, and showing by appointment. "It won’t feel staged or have that pretence of someone living in it. It will look and feel like a real home."