Lakefront, Queenstown

A Christchurch family's lakefront holiday home in Queenstown, remodelled for skiing, gathering, and the easy pleasure of a life well lived. The best holiday homes have a quality that is hard to define but instantly felt. They are generous without being showy. Comfortable without being careless. They absorb the energy of a full house: wet ski gear in the hallway, teenagers raiding the kitchen, a dog underfoot. And still look exactly right at the end of the day when the mountains go pink and everyone settles in. This lakefront home in Queenstown, remodelled by Stephanie Phillips Architect, sets out to be precisely that. Working closely with the homeowner, Sarsfield Brooke approached the interiors as a collaboration from the start, and found in the client someone with exceptional taste and a clear sense of how she wanted her family to live. "She had great taste and knew exactly what she wanted. It was, genuinely, a dream project." Donna Higginson SARSFIELD BROOKE The home is used hard and happily. Young adult sons arrive with friends in tow; the ski season brings extended stays; long weekends stretch into weeks. The interior needed to carry all of this without strain: a home that works as well for a quiet morning as it does for a full table. Sarsfield Brooke's response was a palette built on neutrals: warm, grounded tones that let the Queenstown landscape remain the dominant visual event. The scheme was deliberately designed to be flexible in its accents: cushions, throws, and accessories can shift between seasons and moods without the room ever feeling inconsistent. Vistosi Lighting from Italy adds mood and quiet visual impact throughout. It is a home that wears its good taste lightly and changes its clothes with ease. Outside, the views remain the hero. Bullfrog's outdoor range met the family's needs perfectly: daybeds, sofas, and swivel chairs built with German engineering, proven outdoor fabrics, and adjustable mechanisms that make lying back and leaning in feel equally effortless. In a home like this, the kitchen and dining zone is the key to success. It is where the day begins and where it lingers longest. The raised island table was the husband's idea, and it proved to be one of the project's best decisions. A custom version of the Sarsfield Brooke Barcelona Table brought this concept to life: rather than a standard bench or table height, it sits at bar level, creating a different kind of social energy, somewhere between a kitchen and a place to pull up a stool and stay a while. The Midj Lea barstool completes the picture. The living space is anchored by the Aland sofa by Marac, customised and enlarged to suit both the scale of the room and the way the family wanted to use it. Marac's furniture occupies a particular place in the design landscape: organic without being rustic, refined without being precious, and totally versatile. It is furniture that invites use rather than discouraging it. The colour story of olive green and tobacco feels at home in the landscape without mimicking it, and sits in easy company with the Donna chairs, by Bullfrog, that complete the seating arrangement. Art from Novocuadro brings warmth and personality to the walls, each work selected in conversation with the furniture and the room rather than as a separate exercise. The result is a home where everything belongs: the art, the furniture, the palette, and the views in genuine dialogue. The project extended into the more private spaces of the home as well. Sarsfield Brooke's South Island-based cabinetry partner worked closely with the owner on her own designs for bespoke wardrobes, a collaboration that gave her real authorship over the spaces most personal to her, executed with the craft those ideas deserved.