Family connections led to this incredible Christchurch renovation
Interior designer Jessica Close uses the term simpatico to describe her style. “I like there to be a distinction between rooms, but at the same time make sure they are visually connected and speak to each other.” The term, defined as “getting along and having mutual understanding with another”, could equally be applied to her whānau. “We are all very close,” she says of her Christchurch family. Sunday night is curry night. “Everyone is required to come. No excuses. People know not to ask us anywhere on Sundays,” she says. Parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins plus any hangers-on turn up at the appointed family home each week. Jessica’s husband, Richard, was in the last category, brought along by a friend who assured her that he wasn’t her type. They were married a year later.