ROOM TO BREATHE: Proportion, balance and the timeless appeal of quality furniture and art are the cornerstones of Debbie Cavit's decorating style

摘要

Tt's funny the pictures that stick in your mind - those images from childhood that stay vivid forever. For Debbie Cavit, one such tableau is a painted wooden plate that hung in her grandmother's living room. It showed an oval gateway, behind which wasa hidden garden. The moment Debbie pushed open the iron gate of her villa in Parnell, Auckland, and walked beneath its arch into a glorious cottage garden, those memories came flooding back. This was her secret wonderland discovered.The two-level bay villa where Debbie now lives was built in 1910 and sports the pretty fretwork and standard 'Iceberg' roses now common to dwellings of that era. The entrance courtyard epitomises the grace of yesteryear, but at the opposite end of the home a balcony looks out over a scene that is very much of the present. Beyond the boat sheds of Orakei Basin, ferries plough the waters in front of Rangitoto and trains snake along the line from Britomart to the eastern suburbs.