Entrance way and formal lounge
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The Gillespie home successfully blends open-plan family living with more formal elements of 1920s bungalow design. Arriving at the front door, you could easily be persuaded that this is a home built at the beginning of last century, rather than late last year! The beautiful exterior mosaic tiling on the porch leads to a 1920s styled timber door with lead lights. Lead lighting, using a variety of textured and bevelled clear glass also features in the small windows along the porch wall. Inside the front door, you enter a generous foyer. Unlike the original Californian Bungalows in the U.S.A, which opened directly into the living area, the New Zealand bungalow generally opened into an entrance area with a short hallway leading to the living areas. This is the layout the Gillespies have adopted. A short hallway leads to the master bedroom in one direction and to the formal lounge and family living areas in the other. The walls are painted in Resene Cab Sav, a rich warm colour that tones in well with the simple timber fretwork framing the hallway above head-height. A skylight in the hallway ceiling lets a shaft of light into what would have typically been a dark area of the house in the 1920s. Just along the hallway is the formal lounge. This is the most authentically-detailed room in the house, with traditional rimu panelling constructed from rimu veneer on MDF with rimu battens. Rimu was traditionally chosen over kauri for bungalows due to it's rich dark tones which came closer to resembling the oak panelling used in English bungalows. Another typical feature is the plate rail used here in place of the picture rail used in the living areas. This narrow shelf supported by simple brackets is where objects d'art were traditionally displayed. The fireplace marries a modern gas fire into an authentic 1920s bungalow style timbered fire surround, with a tiled hearth picking up the same mosaic tiles used at the entrance way. The Gillespies have added the final touch to the room with a burr walnut piano complete with Art-Nouveau styled brass candleholders, which came from Guy's mother's house.
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