A two bedroom bach in Matarangi with beachy charm

Article by Your Home and Garden

Interior designer Jackie Jones has worked wonders with paint at her two bedroom bach in Matarangi

In a nutshell

Who lives here?
Jackie Jones (interior designer), husband Jeremy Patston (lawyer), Emily, 15, Matt, 13, Caitlin, 12, Sophie, 11, and Lucy, 7.

Jackie, when did you get interested in interior design?
I’ve loved it since I was a child. Working with some fantastic colleagues at Mulberry Home in London in the 1990s set me on this path. After having my first daughter in 2000, I decided that the best way to balance work and family was to run my own business.

What is your favourite feature of the bach?
The striped wall. It’s a real focal point and the colours work so well together. They remind us of the Coromandel coastline, which is truly beautiful – up the Thames coast and over the hills, with waves breaking on the beaches, the ever-changing colours of the sky and the islands in the distance in the deeper shades.

How would you describe the style of your bach?
Restful, coastal, relaxed, calm and simple.

Style secrets

Don’t underestimate paint. Paint works wonders. The light that came flooding in once we painted out all the timber was amazing! New flooring has also transformed the place.
Go for durable, wipeable surfaces and fabrics. Resene SpaceCote on our walls and Lustacryl on our doors and trims are very wipeable and hard-wearing paint surfaces. The timber-look vinyl flooring (Halstead’s Firenze Collection in Columbian Oak), which is in all areas of the bach except the bedrooms, is a sandy grey colour so it hides the dirt easily, and as the bach is so small, we can sweep the place clean in a matter of minutes. The wool carpet (Feltex Crevelli Peppered) is a mix of grey and sand colours. We have made use of outdoor fabrics quite a lot, and the dark blue-grey, heavy-duty commercial fabric on the sofabed (Clevedon Ash by Textilia) is easy to spot-clean and hides any marks.