The Victorian Villa, Auckland
Project Spotlight
Sometime in the 1980s, a restoration stripped the chimney breast of this old Auckland villa back to bare brick and fitted a more modern fireplace with a timber mantel. Decades later, new owners moved in and decided that that wall dominated the living room.
Their plan was to bring the original Victorian character of the villa back. Box the chimney breast in again, bring back the original Victorian fireplace and mantel, and balance the wall with built-in cupboards. Those cupboards had a big burden: house the hi-fi, conceal a pair of large, tall speakers, store the records, add much-needed bookshelves, and leave space above for a mirror or TV.
Every panel was cut by Cutshop® from MDF, then assembled and installed by owner Henry Arundel over three days.
Velvet, Leather and The Gentlemen
The brief was a ‘gentlemen’s club’ feel: dark colours, rich furnishings and curtains, and a room reminiscent of the Victorian era. The technology would be there, but hidden in plain sight.
Inspiration came from magazines, “good old Pinterest”, and Henry’s memories of the old country houses of a UK childhood. The colours and furnishings took inspiration from the TV series The Gentlemen, all rich fabrics, velvet and leather.
Too Costly to DIY, Too Rigid to Buy
Henry was a builder in the UK “many moons ago” and considered doing the whole job from scratch. The cost of the materials and tools, plus the space needed to do the work, made that impractical. Fitted solutions were the other option, but they fell short for a different reason.
“I looked at fitted solutions but they were inflexible and expensive, and the materials would not have achieved the concept that I wanted, especially housing the speakers, hi-fi and records.”
Cutshop® was already on the radar from an earlier search for a bespoke kitchen. That’s another project, for later.
Costing up a built-in of your own?
Send a sketch, a cutlist or a DXF file and Cutshop® will quote your panels cut to size.
A Simple Drawing, Checked Against the Room
The design started as a simple drawing. Cutshop® put it into CAD and sent drafts back, and Henry checked them against the actual room to make sure every measurement was accurate.
“This was so important as the chimney breast was being boxed in, so they had to fit!”
Shaun at Cutshop® recommended MDF. The cupboards needed to be a very particular colour to match the palette running through the whole house, and MDF also gave flexibility for profiling and detailing the cupboard fronts.
On Shaun’s advice, the internal spaces were adjusted to suit what was going inside them. He knew which hinges and drawer systems would work for the hi-fi, and who to talk to about the LED lighting that completed the concept.
Three Days and No Straight Walls
Pick-up was the first surprise. The order was a lot larger than expected, and it was lucky a suitable vehicle was on hand. Reading the plans and working out how everything pieced together was tricky too. With a bit of trial and error, it came together over three days.
The turning point came early.
“When the first shelving unit was installed, then I thought oh yes, this is going to look great!”
And in a villa where none of the walls are straight, it fitted. “I was so relieved when I started to put it all together,” Henry says.
There When You Want It
The bare chimney breast no longer dominates the room. With the wall balanced, the space feels larger than it did before. The hi-fi is a favourite part: closed away when it isn’t in use, “and there when we want it.”
Asked what made the biggest difference, Henry points to the custom nature of the build, the quality of the materials and “really good customer service”. The advice for anyone weighing up a similar project:
“Take your time over the design and think it through. You have to know what you want it for.”
The other half of that advice is to lean on the Cutshop® team’s knowledge. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you are stuck!”
A bare brick wall left over from the 80s. A simple drawing. Three days of assembly. This Auckland villa has its Victorian living room back, with a hi-fi nobody sees until the doors open.
Got a wall like this one?
See what’s possible with Cutshop®’s bespoke cabinetry — built-in cupboards, shelving, media walls, wardrobes and custom furniture, cut from MDF or your choice of board to your exact dimensions, with no minimum order. Send a sketch, a cutlist or a DXF file for a quote, bring your measurements into a branch, or call 0800 CUTSHOP.
