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CATHERINE AND CASS GOODWIN

WORDS: SHARON STEPHENSON

Catherine Goodwin is an architectural graduate/designer and founder of Mosaiame, a magnetic tile company. She lives in a two-bedroom cottage in central Christchurch with her husband Cass Goodwin, a structural engineer, and Nuit, their 8-year-old Burmese cat.

CATHERINE: We moved to Christchurch from Auckland in 2013 with Cass’ job. We rented for a year before finding this place. It was previously a 55m2 worker’s cottage built around 1870. We looked at a lot of houses but loved this one because of its character – we knew whichever house we bought we’d end up playing around with, to put an expression of ourselves into it. But we didn’t want a house where all the character had been ripped out.

We also fell in love with the location – it’s a stone’s throw from Hagley Park where we ride our bikes.

We spent five years living here before we did the renovation, getting a feel for the place and how we use it. We firstly landscaped and turned a garden

shed into my studio. We also demolished the back of the house, extending out to include the dining and living spaces. We kept the apex of the original roof, which lets in lots of light and reconfigured the kitchen, laundry and bathroom.

Cass made the table from a 100-year-old oak tree that neighbours gave us in return for designing a building for them. He also made the floating kitchen shelves from American white oak leftover from the flooring. I designed the shelves with a glass frontage because I didn’t want to lose any of my glassware in an earthquake. Some of the glasses were birthday presents and some came from my grandmother.

The ceramic beer steins were made by a friend of ours, Gareth Andrews. We call them our Game of Thrones mugs and when friends come over they always request beer served in those, rather than from a glass.

I found the white ceramic goblets on the kitchen bench from a Dunedin op-shop – they’re perfect for drinking red wine out of. The ceramic sculpture next to them is by Lyttelton artist Cheryl Lucas. Cass makes knives from scratch and he made some for Cheryl – she gave us this sculpture in return.

The black goblet in my studio is by Auckland glassblower Matt Hall. The orange vintage pieces are Japanese glass, found at op-shops over the years. I spotted the black and white Italian lamp in a Christchurch lighting store when I was sourcing lights for a client and got distracted by this beautiful light, which ended up in my studio.

We turned the former attic into a mezzanine space where my niece and nephew like to play. We designed the ladder and had it made by local steel fabricators we use quite often. It’s decorated with tiles from my company Mosaiame, which I started last year. The tiles are magnetic so the design can be changed around.

The Māori king and queen artwork was given to us by our interior designer friend Neil McLachlan. He now lives in London but bought them when he lived on Waiheke Island. He gave us the queen piece when we got engaged and the king for our wedding in 2015. They’re made from salvaged rimu and sit above the daybed in the living room.

Cass made the bedhead in our bedroom from leftover American white oak and added a granite shelf. The printed velvet cushions feature trees from Lewis Pass so I had to have them because they go with the painting in our bedroom of the Shenandoah River in Lewis Pass. The painting is by Allan Crombie and there’s something so tranquil about the autumnal colours that really appeals to me.

Te Uiui / The Interview

en-nz

2022-12-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/283025468665709

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