Interior design and finishing in Karen

Karen houses are large, often single-storey, and set in gardens, which changes how we design for them. Rooms are bigger than in apartments, so furniture has to be scaled up and lighting has to work harder: a single central pendant leaves a 40 square metre living room dark at the edges. Verandas and outdoor dining areas are part of the home here, and we treat them as rooms, with timber slat ceilings, outdoor fabrics and lighting.

Many Karen properties were built in the 1970s to 1990s and have been extended since. Typical projects for us are bathroom renovations replacing coloured suites with walk-in showers, kitchen rebuilds for families who entertain, timber ceilings for verandas and family rooms, and whole-house repaints inside and out. Exterior painting matters more here because of the gardens, the rain and the sun on west-facing walls.

Curtains and blinds are a large part of our Karen work: tall windows, French doors and wide sliding doors need properly weighted fabric and long tracks, and we fit motorised tracks where the openings are wide. We also source and make larger pieces of furniture, including dining tables for ten and bookcases to fit full-height walls.