How Kiwi Live: colour fanatic Evie Kemp shows us her incredible home in South Auckland

It's colourful, eclectic, and ever-changing. I change things around monthly. Sometimes it's a big change, sometimes it's a smaller change. My doll's house was my favourite toy as a kid and now I feel like I have a giant doll's house to play in. Because I'm always buying and selling secondhand I feel that [I’m] quite flexible. Just recently we bought a BoConcept couch off Trade Me because we felt like things weren't quite comfortable enough for our long TV binges. Then that spurs something else like moving the dining table…

My mom has always been very into decorating too. Until we moved to New Zealand from Cambridgeshire in England when I was 14 it was all very Laura Ashley that was her style. Then when I got my own room I went absolutely nuts on it. I had deep magenta walls and black and white leopard print. I had a white four poster bed with mosquito nets. I went so absolutely opposite [to my mum]

I'm still finding my style in lots of ways and I'm definitely influenced by books or TV that I'm into or places I've visited. [If I see something I like] I’ll go down a little rabbit hole and I'll find some bits and pieces that are more that style. In lockdown, I went more Cottagecore. I guess a lot of us did because it was this homey thing and we were home all the time. [But] pinks, oranges and yellows are a standard for me.

It’s probably the orange couch. I just moved that there and it might be due for a re-cover. I got it off Trade Me from Nelson. [Now that I’ve] moved it into this new position I have a new appreciation for it. I really like the shape and how it works with the colours in here.

I really love our main lounge, which is where we have our TV. It’s a sunken lounge and it has the highest ceilings. I just love the light in there. When we first walked into the house, it was the area that I was most wowed by, and it still is.

I'm proud of our garden and how that's built up over time. We don't have a big garden but we're surrounded on all sides [by greenery] and it's really lush and tropical and lovely. It's nice that every room in the house feels private and green. So we don't have a view, but we have this beautiful garden.

We're actually not huge entertainers because in Auckland everyone lives far away from each other. But when we do we like to have casual dinners. We love making pasta from scratch and we have a pizza oven as well, which is a fun one in summer.

I'll get the dogs up and then I'll have a coffee, at the moment around the fire, but I guess that's going to change soon because it's 20 degrees here today. I usually sit in this giant chair that I've got and try to get through all of my Instagram DMs, do a post and hang out with my doggies for a bit.

It's actually really cute, we bought the house from the original builder who built it in 1982. He was a builder for Ron Sang, the architect and he designed and built quite a few houses in Hillpark, which is kind of a 1960s suburb. He was building this house for himself before he got offered to trade it for a motor inn somewhere in Waikato. They went and ran this motor inn and then they bought back the house in 2011. They re-did it to how they were originally envisaging it.

We bought it off them because they were retiring to Australia. They were really passionate about it, he talked us through the whole house and all the bits he'd done and things that he’d thought of. We still have some sculptures in the garden that he made.

I honestly scroll Trade Me Property every week because you never know what you might see. Having a view would be top of my list for a dream home. I don't mind if it's a city view, a sea view or a countryside view. I just love the idea of being able to look out across something.

I think we will move [one day]. We love this house so much but I love change and so does Sam. This house is quite big and we've realised that we don't need [all this space]. When we bought it we weren't sure if we were going to have children or not - and we don't have children so we don't need all the bedrooms. We just [want] a nice big kitchen/living area. Our focus has changed.

My favourite memory is the day we moved in. It was so significant for us to have a home at all, let alone a house like this. It all felt very grown up, and honestly, every time I come home I'm reminded of how lucky we are.

The people are just so friendly. I know it's a cliche but it's actually true. Everything's close by and easy to get to and there's great diversity and great places to eat.

There's a new really yum Palestinian takeaway called Zaitoon that’s just opened up in South Mall. They're lovely people and have delicious food. There are so many good spots to eat and hidden gems [in South Auckland].

[My favourite cafe is] Hillhouse Cafe which is now at the Pah Homestead. It used to be 5 minutes walk down the road but they had to leave because the council is strengthening the building. I'm really hoping they come back!