Joy Josephs couldn’t be happier with the team at FORM by Terry Clegg. Her and husband Mark felt immediately at home when they moved into their new home on Manutahi Road, which recently won a Regional Silver at the House of the Year Awards.
The home is a generous 323 square metres, with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and two living areas separated by a stunning double-sided gas fire. It appears to sit long and low on the flat section, perfectly framed by Mt Taranaki in the distance, but its 4.5m entry ceiling quickly shatters that illusion, creating a sense of space.
It has a seamless mix of modern features, with sloping ceilings, feature walls and inbuilt timber bookcase. Not only that, but there’s a cohesion to the various materials throughout the home, from gunmetal aluminium cladding to eco-friendly cork flooring, black kitchen cabinetry and bathroom feature tiles.
Somehow, all of these character aspects are complementary rather than competitive – it has an extremely sleek, harmonious feel from one end of the home to the other.
“It’s a home more than a designer house. It’s definitely us,” Joy states simply – and proudly.
“We got everything we wanted at the beginning. Mark has his four-car garage, I have a craft room that isn’t hidden away from the rest of the house, and we have a kitchen with a perfect view of the mountain.”
Light permeates throughout the home, drawing you to an open outdoor area that’s an entertainer’s dream.
“It’s lovely and sheltered – even in the winter, we can sit out there and have a cup of coffee and look over the paddock. We have two fluffy cats that run around in the long grass and it’s lovely to sit out there in the open but be sheltered at the same time.”
Despite being built through the turbulence of Covid lockdowns and supply issues of recent times, Joy has only good things to say about the experience of building with FORM by Terry Clegg.
“They made us feel like we were part of the team,” she says. “We were always welcome on the site, we were always listened to in the design process, and when things were happening in the world, they’d come and visit us and explain what was going on.
“They were just really good to us. We went to the awards dinner with Terry and Mary-Lu and it was just the icing on the cake. They were so proud of our home, and you can see that pride reflected in how amazing the house is.”