Karen Brown

The weath­er was crisp and sunny for the drive through Days Bay to the wrought-iron gates that enclose the col­our­ful manse where Kar­en Brown lives with her hus­band, their dog Jack­ie and their three cats, Chocol­ate, Vanilla and Blueberry.

The impress­ive home, believed to have been con­struc­ted between 1917 and 1919, was one of the earli­est houses in Days Bay. Though the villa is a little late to be included in the Vic­tori­an era, it con­tains many char­ac­ter­ist­ics of that peri­od, includ­ing its large exter­i­or pil­lars, high ceil­ings and arched doorways.

The Browns moved into the home 13 years ago to be closer to fam­ily in the area, want­ing their two daugh­ters “to grow up where cous­ins, aunties and gran­nies live with­in two or three minutes’ walk”. Like the home’s pre­vi­ous own­ers, the Browns have been (and still are) under­tak­ing their own renov­a­tions, which they began with Karen’s much-loved kitchen.

Enter­ing the kit­chen is very much like exper­i­en­cing a time warp to the 1950s. The kitsch room is light, spa­cious and beau­ti­fully dec­or­ated with a strik­ing chequered floor, mel­lowed by fea­ture col­ours of pas­tel green and pink.

The bench is adorned with vari­ous quirky orna­ments and crafts, many of which Kar­en cre­ated her­self. One of the stand-out pieces includes a little shop stand, into which a col­lec­tion of mini­ature pastries has been placed. The kit­chen was crit­ic­al to Kar­en, as, amongst oth­er things, she loves to bake fruit pies for her guests: “It’s a really good house to enter­tain in, and I like doing that.”

As you walk through the foy­er and into the liv­ing area, the decor changes dra­mat­ic­ally, with the room remin­is­cent of a nat­ur­al his­tory museum. Above the fire­place, taxi­dermy anim­als look out towards a tan­ger­ine couch covered in cush­ions prin­ted with pray­ing mantises and puff­er fish. Atop a set of draw­ers is a mini eco­sys­tem includ­ing insects, moss, bird­cages and sticks.

The liv­ing room itself is also legendary. Most accounts have it that a wealthy fam­ily who owned the house in the 1950s built the space to hold oper­at­ic per­form­ances. A mezzan­ine level was part of this addi­tion, and it is from here that the audi­ence allegedly looked down on the per­formers. Wheth­er that’s accur­ate or not, the liv­ing room is decidedly grand and cer­tainly stirs the imagination.

The mas­ter bath­room provides a coun­ter­point: ultra-mod­ern, it includes a deep bath with a tap that cre­ates an illu­min­ated rain­bow water­fall effect when run­ning. On the same floor, the unusu­al addi­tion of a mini­ature lib­rary also adds interest: “A great house has to have lots of books in it. Lots and lots of books!”             The upper level is also the best area to absorb the spec­tac­u­lar view from the deck that over­looks the bay. Wak­ing to the sounds of the birds singing and the waves crash­ing is one of Karen’s favour­ite things about her fas­cin­at­ing home.