Renovation Diaries: How Artist Shane Hansen Made His Home ‘Bulletproof’ After Cyclone Gabrielle
Homeowners share their renovation journey with Leanne Moore, talking about the highlights, the challenges and the amazing results. This week, artist Shane Hansen.
The great thing about renovating your home is that you can tailor it to your aesthetic and the way you like to live. Anyone can build a house but only you can create a home that expresses your personality.
In this new series for Viva, homeowners share how they did just that, letting their creativity shine through in their choice of colours, materials, fittings and furnishings, designing homes unique to them.
In the first in the series, we talk to Shane Hansen, an artist based in Tutukākā, Northland.
Hansen tapped his creative talent to design a unique home for his family. What began as a small-scale renovation morphed into a major transformation, featuring Hansen’s designs throughout.
The modern coastal home at Tutukākā now reflects his multicultural heritage (he’s Tainui, Ngāti Mahanga-Hourua, as well as part Chinese, Danish and Scottish), with decorative toi Māori carvings integral to the interior and exterior design.
“It was really important to focus on personalising our home and making it an expression of who we are and how we live. We love this place, it’s in our mind, heart and soul. It’s where we are meant to be,” says Hansen.
Who lives here?
Shane Hansen and his wife Kirsty and their sons Nikau (17) and Mikaia (14).
What did you want to achieve with the reno?
Our original goal was to paint the outside, renovate the kitchen and bathrooms and paint the interior. Then Cyclone Gabrielle swept through with a vengeance in 2023 and showed the fragility of our home’s exterior.
It was built around 2003, when building standards for coastal properties were not as high as they are today. It had no flashings around joinery, exposed rafters, horizontal corrugated cladding, insufficient gaps between cladding and decking, resulting in corrosion, etc.
When Gabrielle hit, water was being driven inside wall cavities through weak points on the exterior, the joinery wasn’t built for the coastal environment and invited the wind and rain indoors. The resilience and security of our whare was lacking. So the goal became making the outside as bulletproof as possible so the inside could be fresh, comfortable, nurturing and relaxing.
Tell us about the unique creative touches throughout your home.
It was an exciting opportunity to showcase my artistic approach by personalising architectural elements. The subtle placement of design and art embellishments gave me an excuse to try out new ideas and work with different materials. For example, I created a simple motif that represents whanaungatanga and connection to this place, which is used in different locations throughout our whare.
In the bathrooms, all the vanity fronts were hand-painted with variations of the same artwork. As well as making it feel more like “us”, guests comment on little details they have picked up while staying with us. They enjoy the space a bit more, looking for these designs that tell a story. The result is a home that makes people feel inspired, welcome and comfortable.
Favourite room?
The kitchen. Design-wise, it’s inspired by a mix of my Danish heritage, mid-century design and 70s nostalgia. The handmade tiles by Middle Earth Tiles in Warkworth are gorgeous. The rich toffee-like hues capture and reflect the changing light. It took me half a day to lay these out in what I call a randomly elegant design, number them and draw a lay plan for the tiler.
We have a lot of stuff in our kitchen and it all needed to be organised. Ample pantry and storage space was key to being able to hide it away. The entire back wall is made up of cupboards. I also love the American oak handles. Each one has a different grain pattern and they add a nice detail to the space.
It was important to retain some of the history of our whare to bring character to the reno. Keeping the original floor and plugging old plumbing holes with wood made sense. I love these little details, they really make me smile.
Lessons learned?
Removing structural walls is expensive! We were originally going to do this. We created detailed plans with the architect, had an engineer do technical calculations and drawings for a structural steel sleeve and got council sign-off. This initial part cost about $3000 before we even got the building quote. Once the builder came to us with the conservative price of about $10,000, we immediately dumped that idea.
Where did you make savings?
We reused a lot of stuff. Instead of building a new deck, we replaced the rotten boards, sanded and restained it. It looks great and saved us around $20,000. We also reused the oven, fridge, bathroom basins and tapware. I cleaned them all up and they pretty much looked brand new. We also resized and reused a majority of the window blinds.
What was your budget?
Initially, we thought it would be about $300,000. That was based on the cost of building my studio next door. But building costs had gone up in the intervening five years and we soon realised that was about half of what we needed. At one point, we considered selling and moving, thinking this could be a better option. After attending one open home, it was clear we love it here and didn’t want to leave. So with a big gulp and much trepidation, Kirsty and I decided to press on with the reno.
What was the total cost?
Around $600,000.
Best advice for someone about to renovate?
For me, it’s all about “aroha”. Make sure your home is made from and of love so it lifts your emotional wellbeing and makes the huge cost of the renovation fade into the distant horizon.
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