Architecturally designed 1970s homes in Auckland have a charm that is often difficult to replicate — the strongly expressed timbers, the fascination for long, uninterrupted glazing, that remarkable feeling of barefoot bohemia.
So, when Cyclone Gabrielle sent a tree crashing through this 1973 Titirangi home, the damage was as symbolic as it was structural. “It needed to be completely redone,” recalls designer Kelly Gammie of Rarebirds Interiors, who, along with colleague Sean Monk, stepped in eight months after the storm.
With insurance repairs unavoidable, the team treated the upheaval as a rare chance to restore, rather than reinvent, the home’s original 1970s character — in a respectful manner rather than with any hint of irony for a decade that has suffered endless clichés about its peculiar sense of style.
A previous owner had “homogenised” its architectural spirit, says Kelly, so the studio’s mission became clear: bring back the warmth, craft, and tactile depth of the era, but with the coherence expected of contemporary living.
The designers refer to their palette as reminiscent of California’s ’70s modernism, but, instead of the Palm Springs colourful iteration, they rightfully opted for the more timber-heavy, green-tinged approach often seen in Pacific Palisades or spotted along the Hollywood Hills.
It’s a bohemian soul that is perfectly fitting for this West Auckland suburb well known for artists, creatives, and an impressive natural context. The chromatic anchor of the project emerged almost serendipitously: a relaunched Bremworth wool carpet in the exact moss tone that once spread throughout the home. “It was incredibly fortuitous,” says Kelly.
With that authentic colour reinstated, Rarebirds allowed it to “grow up the sides of the walls”, extending the green to trims, skirtings, and doors — a move not usually seen in local interiors but one that felt inevitable here, surrounded as the house is by the layered greens of the Waitākere Ranges.
The team retained the original raked mataī ceiling — “We wanted to keep that beautiful warmth” — but shifted the beams and staircase away from their modern black paint.
Aalto’s Reptilian, an earthy green, settled them back into the home’s organic palette. Straw-hued grass cloth — a quintessential ’70s texture — wraps the upper hallways and living spaces, lending the soft optical noise that defined the period’s more architectural interiors. Against it, the high living room wall in Aalto Console reads as a warm ochre plane, a contemporary gesture firmly rooted in history.
Spatially, the designers addressed the home’s once-choppy plan. A redundant hot water cupboard and separate WC were removed to form a spacious study, defined not by new walls but by sculptural timber screens. Kelly says that it opened that whole corner, eliminating what she calls the old rabbit-warren feel.
In the kitchen, walnut became the design lever. Rarebirds looked to mid-century furniture for cues (à la Scandinavian with a touch of American, perhaps?), designing a peninsula that appears to float on a single mitred dowel end. Circular timber posts — cut with painstaking precision so that Cosentino porcelain could follow their curves — speak directly to ’60s and ’70s cabinetry profiles.
“We hadn’t seen it in any kitchen,” says Kelly. The half-dowel detailing continues in full-height panel ends, linking the kitchen back to architectural moments throughout the house. Bankston walnut knobs, used consistently from doors to vanities, reinforce this material thread, while Sussex tapware brings the studio’s Antipodean sourcing ethos into the details.
The bathrooms pursue what Sean calls a cornucopia of earthy tones. The awkward dogleg footprint of the main bathroom became an opportunity: a custom-designed bath (by Rarebirds), carved from Hebel block and clad in Japanese micro-mosaic tile, sits beside a new, low, horizontal window framing the forest. It has turned a once-difficult corner into a quiet, sculptural retreat that the client absolutely loves.
Ceramic sconces — created by a local maker the designers discovered at a Matakana market — bring another layer of authenticity. Their glazes, sourced from Auckland soils, carry the house’s material story.
Misty-green Caroma basins, tongue-and-groove panelling, and warm bronze tapware complete an ensemble that screams ’70s with modern comfort.
Throughout the home, the lighting became an exercise in both aesthetics and functionality. Anglepoise lamps acknowledge the era without leaning into nostalgia, while black-domed recessed lights deliver unobtrusive function. In the living room, a Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin floor lamp introduces sculptural verticality amid original leather chairs and a copper-topped table.
Perhaps what bound the project most was the client’s faith. “She was incredibly trusting,” says Sean. It was a generosity that allowed Rarebirds to draw together an interior that feels not recreated but revived — an interpretation of the 1970s filtered through a contemporary lens, and through the deep-green canopy outside every window.
Design: Rarebirds Interiors
Words: Federico Monsalve
Images: Aaron McLean
