Light Switch

Swimming in sun and colour, this seaside sanctuary was built around an existing bach and now provides an art-filled environment for everyday living.

- Sarah Catherall

Deanna Eisenhofer and Marcel van den Assum don’t need to go away on holiday. As soon as they get home to their renovated house at Raumati Beach on the Kapiti Coast, they gaze out at the sweeping coastal vista and instantly feel relaxed.

The couple’s three-bedroom home used to be a tiny, rundown 1940s weatherboard bach, which was in the perfect spot amid a stand of pohutukawa trees. It had, as Marcel says, good bones. After they bought it in 2015, they asked Wellington architects Cecile Bonnifait and William Giesen to give it a new look.

“We wanted to take the simple bach and throw it into the 21st century,’’ says Deanna.

Until 2015, the couple were living in a colonial-style house on the Kapiti Coast where Marcel had raised his three children. With a tennis court and rambling rooms, the place was too big for the couple once the kids (Deanna also has an adult son) moved out.

They had spent many hours at the home of a friend who lived five kilometres up the road. Spread over two titles, the friend’s bach had a pool and was in a stunning location. When the decision was made to sell it, Deanna and Marcel jumped at the chance to own it themselves.

BLENDING OLD & NEW

When planning their new home, Marcel and Deanna wanted to respect the history of the existing house and the land, which had been owned by their friend’s family for more than 80 years. The tiny bach wasn’t big enough to do much with, so they built their new home around it, retaining some of its materials such as the exterior weatherboards and incorporating them into the renovation.