OUTSIDE INSIDE

Interior designer Annabel Berry has a pool of talent to draw from at her coastal chic home in Ōamaru

- Debbie Harrison

RELAXING BY THE POOL Creating a ‘holiday at home’ vibe was Annabel’s vision from the start. It was achieved in the pool room with cool blue walls, the small kitchen with its awning window and the comfortable day beds, which are perfect for a cat (or dog) nap.

LOUNGE The leather couches are from Nood and green coffee table from Design Federation. The artwork is A More Beautiful World by Jen Sievers. Window shutters are used extensively throughout the home. “By installing lovely white timber shutters on our windows we instantly created that holiday vibe,” says Annabel.

It’s actually impossible to believe Annabel Berry’s Aamaru home is the same one we featured back in 2016. Structurally, the house is the same – apart from the addition of a pool house and studio/guest accommodation; we’ll come to that later – but the decor is almost unrecognisable. Art has been pared back and moved, statement light shades switched out, flooring replaced and most rooms boast a new paint palette. But what do you expect from someone who studies colour and interiors all day long?

“What can I say? It’s in my DNA,” Annabel laughs. “Constant change and evolution are part of being a designer. I’d say our home has changed as I have grown as an interior designer over the years, but this current aesthetic is one we really love as a family.”

Annabel and Simon’s renovation kicked off with two poolside additions: a pool house and home studio, both around 25sqm each.