{"id":73330,"date":"2025-10-12T06:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T06:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/73330\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T06:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T06:12:07","slug":"inside-new-zealand-rustic-how-farmer-malcolm-rough-redefined-natural-home-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/73330\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside New\u202fZealand Rustic: How farmer Malcolm Rough redefined natural home design"},"content":{"rendered":"

Presenting a home is a lot like how people look each other in the eye when shaking hands. It is about establishing a sense of trust, of one person feeling they are beginning to know another person through the cues their home gives. Paired with a warm invitation to a comfortable chair or sofa, and happy relationships begin to flourish.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe owners of Waiau Homestead perched above Wainui Beach, Gisborne, like to sleep outside. Old baskets from the Gisborne Wharf are used to store pinecones. Photo \/ Tessa Chrisp<\/p>\n

This is why home staging is a useful tool when selling a home; prospective buyers don\u2019t want to get to know the departing homeowners. Instead, a potential purchaser wants to imagine their personality filling the space. <\/p>\n

An unstaged home speaks volumes. Is it messy and disorganised; brightly coloured with quirky elements; is it minimalist with cool lines and only hints of individuality; is it orderly, well-maintained? <\/p>\n

Rustic homes <\/p>\n

Mahia farmer Malcolm Rough developed an interest in rustic-inspired home decor after he and his family spent more than three decades restoring a dilapidated villa overlooking the coast south of Gisborne. Rereading a book about Scandi interior decor for the fourth time, he wondered why the book intrigued him.<\/p>\n

\"MalcolmMalcolm Rough of Mahia commissioned a book, New Zealand Rustic, creating a home inspired by nature, after developing an interest in rustic-inspired home decor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made me ask why I loved my home so much, and why I\u2019d done what I did with the decor. I started to get excited about what else I could do,\u201d Rough says. \u201cWas there a New Zealand version of the Scandi rustic theme? Was there a unique New Zealand approach to this style which captured aspects of our country more faithfully than an imported decorating approach?\u201d<\/p>\n

He commissioned a small team (including me as the writer, and my former colleagues from NZ House & Garden and NZ Life & Leisure, art director Yolanta Woldendorp and photographer Tessa Chrisp) to produce a book demonstrating New Zealanders\u2019 approach to creating a rustic-inspired home. The book New Zealand Rustic: Creating a Home Inspired by Nature is the result.<\/p>\n

\"MalcolmMalcolm Rough’s restored villa, Te Au Homestead, in M\u0101hia, Hawke’s Bay. Photo \/ Tessa Chrisp<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a rich journey,\u201d Rough says of the many months he spent working intensely with Woldendorp to find appropriate homes to bring his vision into life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned that budget has little to do with creating a home that is good for the soul. I was adamant that these homes not be overly styled but as we live in them. In some cases, they are decorated with treasures that have been with the owners for decades, happily moving house several times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA cosy corner in Malcolm Rough’s Te Au Homestead. Behind the rattan chairs are two M\u0101ori figurines by the late Peggy Ericksen. The telescope is used to view M\u0101hia’s pristine night sky. The overhead light is made from steam-bent and thin-cut rimu, from Faye Williams Lamps in Nelson. Photo \/ Tessa Chrisp<\/p>\n

Rough\u2019s resulting handsome coffee-table book features six New Zealand homes, epitomising a unique response to the immediate New Zealand landscape. It also includes chapters with practical how-to tips on lighting, textures, colours, styling, and the use of natural light and air.<\/p>\n

In the past few decades, rustic decor has become commonplace in high-end lodges in remote areas offering guests a connection with nature. <\/p>\n

That connection with nature has been popular with generations of Kiwis who left their everyday homes and jobs to retreat to the bach, crib or humble holiday home in the bush or near the beach. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe owners of Waiau Homestead above Wainui Beach, Gisborne, collect treasures and antiques from secondhand shops and auction houses to furnish their villa. Their home is featured in a book, New Zealand Rustic. Photo \/Tessa Chrisp<\/p>\n

Furniture was often recycled from the \u201cAunty Peggy\u2019s old sofa\u201d school-of-decor. Kitchen cupboards were home to wobbly piles of mismatched plates, bedrooms housed bunks, rollaway beds or a grandparent\u2019s old (ridiculously narrow) double bed. <\/p>\n

Flower arrangements were as likely roadside weeds, collected and artfully arranged in whatever jam jar had been emptied that week, as florist bouquets. This century\u2019s grander, and no doubt more comfortable, holiday homes provide more of a \u201cRemuera on sea\u201d experience and are decorated in accordance.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that loss of connection with a simple style of life is why the d\u00e9cor style known as Scandi Rustic style has developed an enthusiastic following with its controlled colour palette, plentiful use of timber features and natural materials, and the home\u2019s connection to the natural world.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe kitchen in Waiau Homestead above Wainui Beach, Gisborne. The kitchen and pantry cabinetry is made from the home’s original exterior matai weatherboards. Photo \/ Tessa Chrisp<\/p>\n

The planetary cost of new building materials, not to mention the dollar cost, encourages a growing interest in doing things differently with a reuse-where-possible mindset, whether new builds are modest or large. A pride in upcycled or found items suits the ethos of the times.<\/p>\n

Rough says the rustic style is unique from home to home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not a \u201clook\u201d developed all at once on a decorator\u2019s notepad. A rustic home does not get created from scratch in one go; it doesn\u2019t arrive on a delivery truck by the houseload. It is a collection of loved objects, things that are meaningful, that have a story. It evolves through life with the person; it ages, it gathers richness with time.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand Rustic: Creating a Home Inspired by Nature, Rough & Co Publishing, $59.99<\/p>\n

\u2013 Kate Coughlan is a former editor of NZ House & Garden and NZ Life & Leisure.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Presenting a home is a lot like how people look each other in the eye when shaking hands.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8038,74,2108,489,11357,11229,44999,21438,50605,57643,501,32896,12026,15144,1345,6800,221,2944,56387,2517,57638,57641,111,43,139,69,57640,57642,57639,26205,8262,9966,41653,9192,1530,80],"class_list":["post-73330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-natural","tag-after","tag-book","tag-books","tag-budget","tag-comfortable","tag-commissioned","tag-coughlan","tag-creating","tag-dependent","tag-design","tag-editor","tag-farmer","tag-featuring","tag-home","tag-homes","tag-how","tag-inside","tag-isnt","tag-kate","tag-malcolm","tag-mhia","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-redefined","tag-restoring","tag-rough","tag-rustic","tag-spending","tag-villa","tag-welcoming","tag-writes","tag-years","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}