“Sometimes a little bit more is more,” says Daniella Norling, a self-described magpie and collector of opulent treasures. We take a closer look at her expert style
My style? If Hollywood Regency and Chinoiserie had a love child – that’s my style,” says Daniella Norling, summing up the interior of her Freemans Bay apartment, which she shares with her toy poodle, Poppet. “I am all about the layered use of colour, pattern and luxurious texture. They are three key elements both in Hollywood Regency and Chinoiserie design. Bringing these factors together creates an air of opulence and gives you an interior that resembles a little jewel box of treasures.”
The Auckland-based director of Trove Design has created a theatrical space that showcases her experienced eye for colour, love of texture and assorted collections, the latter picked up on her travels, from online auctions and second-hand finds. “I’m a magpie, a treasure collector,” she says. The comment however, downplays what is in fact a considered, well-honed look that comes from years in the interior design business, reworking some of the city’s top homes.
Daniella bought the small two-bedroom apartment nine years ago because she loved the sense of community within the complex, the leafy green views across the older properties and up to Ponsonby Ridge, and its ability to be transformed via sliding doors that act like walls.
“The key to small-footprint living – especially in the city – is to be clever with how you use your space, and to be able to convert rooms into something else,” she says. The addition of a tilt-away bed means her dining room can become a bedroom when needed.
Patterned wallpaper in the lounge, dining room/second bedroom, main bedroom and foyer adds an exotic Oriental feel, and you could imagine finding the large green Murano chandelier, crystal decanter collection and luxuriously dressed bed in the 1940s home of a silver screen star. “Sometimes a little bit more is more,” Norling says.
