For our last Open Home of the year with our friends at Dulux, we’re excited to be returning to Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, and specifically to two renovations that have featured in the magazine this year. They’re very different, but very personal reworks of character houses in the inner-west of our great and good city.

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First up, Red Threads – which you can read more about in our Awards section, and which is the winner of our Colour, Craft and Detail category in this year’s Here Awards. It’s by Pac Studio – could that colour scheme be devised by anyone else? To a tired old transitional villa, the architects have added layers of colour and texture, rationalising the floor plan, adding a studio and new main bedroom, as well as integrating a woven timber screen that extends from the house into a fence.

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Around the corner, meanwhile, designer Matt South took a different path when he renovated his tired 1920s bungalow. Moved onto the site in the 1980s, it featured a warm, timber interior and a floor plan that largely worked. Instead of wholesale opening up, South kept the floorplan’s lightly separated rooms, including a small sunroom at the front. To this, he added layers of warm colours, timber and stone to create a restful retreat.

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Tickets are on sale now – don’t miss this!

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OPEN HOME INNER WEST

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Red Threads by Pac Studio; Westmere Bungalow by Matt South

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Where:

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Grey Lynn & Westmere, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

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When:

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Saturday 28 November, 2026

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Tickets:

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$30 (limited numbers!) from thisishere.nz/open-home-inner-west

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