Foundational Experiences: Early Work

We fell into a love of furniture restoration by happy accident. At the time, we were living in a 1920's Auckland villa - high ceilings, large rooms, stained windows and glorious original features. So we went hunting for furniture that would enhance the character and history of our living space, rather than fill it with modern sanitised pieces.

We found Art Deco wardrobes and cabinets, old kitchen hutches that felt worth saving and a market that seemed to have many old un-loved pieces of furniture that were damaged or worse, going for scrap.

In the process of making these early pieces right for our way of living, we fell in love with the art of hunting, choosing, designing and remaking pre-loved furniture. We delighted in experimenting with colour, material and form. We learnt a lot (and made many mistakes) in the pursuit of repair and restoration. We discovered that our interest spanned many 20th Century furniture design fashions - each with their own styles, forms, quirks and character.

Here are a few examples of early work where we experienced the joy of remaking, and sometimes the pain of mistakes. All of them are the building blocks upon which DKNZ Studio now stands.