STRANDON IN PARADISE

A bungalow near the beach is an interior designer’s ever-evolving sanctuary

- Carrie Bell

LIVING Megan Ekdahl relaxing in her second living space. The couch is from Bijou Eliot and coffee table from Vintage Industries.

DINING The table and chairs were sourced from Le Forge, the hide rug is from Soren Liv, the lamp from Junk & Disorderly and the Asian cabinet is from Mecasso.

When interior designer Megan Ekdahl and her husband Mike bought their Strandon property 16 years ago, they had no intention of living in it. Despite its location on a large, sunny section on a street leading to one of New Plymouth’s best beaches, the house had been rented to a group of rugby players who’d left it in bad shape. Megan set to work making it liveable so they could start making plans to remove the house and build new. After painting it white throughout, laying new carpet and installing a new kitchen, the couple and their son Ben moved in, the new building plans falling to the wayside. “After living in it and doing more to it, we started loving it more and more,” she says.

Eight years ago they built an extension out the back of the property so Megan could run her interior design studio from home. With furniture coming and going, she needed a sizeable storage solution and a powder room for clients. The long rear strip to the boundary was also used to build four-car garaging for Mike’s car collection. Megan has since moved into a studio in town, so the workroom has been transformed into a second living room that spills onto the deck.

“We call it the Sunday lounge and it’s baked in sun from 11 o’clock,” she says. “Every Sunday afternoon that’s where I hang out and read books or have a wine with the girls.”