Yellow Home Show, A Greener Life

"A different way of living"

The Yellow Auckland Home Show kicked off on Thursday with a decidedly green theme to it... I went along on a grey Friday to assess the situation.

As a newbie to the whole home-owning part of being an adult, I was alarmed to feel somewhat like a child at a lolly store - and armed with a credit card! To add to the slightly overwhelming feeling, there were of course some obstacles like drizzly rain, and grizzling children to put up with, but at the first tent the tantrums dried up, and we headed in with a handful of biscuits and a complicated map, to experience this great collaboration of functionality/design/salesmen/mediocre coffee that is the Home Show.

Upon entering we were delighted to find half a dozen spa pools filled with warm water, bubbles and jets, placed strategically next to the 'Daquiri in a Bag' cocktail stand ... we moved on only after convincing my rather demanding companion (3 and a half years old) that the togs had been left at home. There were some great stands and some very convincing salesmen (did we really need the Easi-Paint DIY system? Apparently we did!), but on the whole it seemed more like the business end of, well, the business, so onto the second tent.

It became apparent quite soon that there was a general theme of green living, and after actually reading our pamphlet, it turned out it was indeed the theme, rather than an amazing coincidence. There were more eco-lightbulb stands than wood-cutting stands, and a lot of beautiful garden areas to visit, even without leaving the tent. Green Urban Living had amazing products and ideas of how to create a little corner of country in your suburban yard, including information and examples of how to successfully keep chickens in suburbia - even, it turned out, a workshop on the subject. After deciding that we definitely needed to have some chooks of our own, we headed into the main hall for more fun.

Directly by the entrance there was a lecture theatre full of foodies watching Alyson Gofton whip up some sort of culinary storm, and a stall with some cookbooks on sale - if you want a copy of 'Ladies, A Plate', or 'Bake' by Alyson Gofton, grab one there and save with the Home Show discounts. The gorgeous girls manning the stall (pictured left) turned out to be avid Thread.co.nz readers, so we stopped and had a chat, and discussed crafts in the greater Auckland area, because, well, why not?

After that, we ogled the sexy egg-shaped baths on display, and some glorious SMEG fridge-ware (which is all I really want for Christmas, really), as well as the lovely classic cars accompanying the fridges. 

Below: Bambinas of both the car and child variety; Miss 3-and-a-half models with the classic cars.



After deciding once and for all that we could never own any other type of fridge, we came across some fridge-freezer drawers that Fisher and Paykel had done up specially for the home show - my favourite was the freestanding red plush wine fridge. Every kitchen display was set up with aromatic herbs and fresh baking to draw the crowds in, and I felt quite at home in some of them - a little too at home...

We eventually wound our way round to the main event (for me at least); Designer Feature Rooms. Five leading designers were chosen to create a room, with a brief to 'Quirk it Up' - and Quirk It Up they did!

I was thrilled to be able to meet LeeAnn Yare (pictured below), to whom fashionable living is always hand in hand with bargain hunting, and glean some budget interior tips. The styling in her 'room' clearly showed her balanced yet eclectic response to design, and we discovered that the retro floral rug on the floor started its second life as part of an inorganic collection, plucked from the side of the road, and then cut to shape and edged for $70 at a carpet and flooring store! Definitely a look that would be fun to try and achieve.

 

As we finally reached the exit I was drawn to one last display: a kitchen featuring a duck-egg blue wall, that had been decorated with a branching silhouette, and teacups filled with herbs 'flowering' off the ends. I decided then and there to paint at least one wall of my house that shade, and fill some teacups with herbs when I got home. First I'll need to empty the dead twigs that remain from the last time I tried to do that.

The Yellow Auckland Home Show is running until Sunday 13th September 2009 and tickets cost $16 (kids under 14 free). Book online at aucklandhomeshow.co.nz and save 25%.

Story and photos by Rachel Osborne, 11 September 2009