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  • Ingrid with her dogs, Sif and Jessie, at the front of her beau­ti­ful villa

Some­how you just expect a flor­ist to live in a home that echoes the vibrancy, fra­grance and artistry of her daily life. Ingrid Pritchard, the director/owner of Scent Flor­al Boutique, doesn’t dis­ap­point. Imme­di­ately, I notice the appeal­ing scent of Ingrid’s home, thanks to the pres­ence of her many candles and oils, and the inev­it­able flowers dot­ted all around. She lives in a charm­ing villa in Petone with her dogs, Sif and Jessie, and cats, Poppy and Rosie, and has just fin­ished revamp­ing the interi­or of her home, includ­ing paint­ing and doing up the kit­chen, bath­room and bed­rooms. Since mov­ing in four years ago, Ingrid has trans­formed the villa, open­ing it up with a softer col­our palette and deck­ing it out in a romantic/vintage aes­thet­ic, cap­tur­ing the age of the home, but with all con­tem­por­ary comforts.

While she enjoys the nat­ur­al light­ness of most of the house, one of her favour­ite rooms is also the darkest. She calls it “The Snug”, and as the name sug­gests, it is a room for nest­ling up in dur­ing the winter. It’s loaded with cush­ions and a spot­light for reading.

Ingrid enjoys enter­tain­ing and hav­ing people over for din­ner, but she admits that she’ll pass up on the cook­ing in place of a trip to one of the many take-out options in Jack­son Street. “It’s a New York City thing that I still relate to,” she says.

A born and bred Wel­ling­to­ni­an, Ingrid spent many years out of New Zea­l­and, after gain­ing qual­i­fic­a­tions in nurs­ing. Much of that time was spent “trav­el­ling a lot in the States and South Amer­ica”. Along the way, there was a career change from nurse to flor­ist. Ingrid says she’s always been cre­at­ive, but that nurs­ing has giv­en her a great base and provides a good back­ground for any oth­er occupation.

When asked if she’d ever con­sider going back to nurs­ing, Ingrid insists she’s found her voca­tion in flor­istry, which itself had some­thing of a serendip­it­ous begin­ning. Sev­en years ago, she came down to Wellington
from Auck­land for a job inter­view, but instead found the site where she set up her retail shop in the city’s busy CBD.

Her John­son Street busi­ness is only one part of her bud­ding empire. “I also have events and wed­dings, and then I have cor­por­ate cli­ents, so there’s three parts to the busi­ness. I do a lot of them­ing for events, like cor­por­ate parties, and I’ve also done interi­ors of friends’ houses.”

It is now com­ing up to the busy sea­son for Ingrid’s busi­ness, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for her to find time to do the desired land­scap­ing for her garden. How­ever, that doesn’t mean she won’t be able to con­tin­ue tak­ing pleas­ure in the bloom­ing of a dazzling range of flor­al favour­ites, such as jas­mine, hibis­cus and winter rose, not to men­tion the 60 hydrangeas that will reign supreme in a garden truly fit for a florist.

 

Eliza Romanos

A confirmed Wellingtonian, Eliza comes from a family of journalists and has recently completed a BA at Victoria University in Art History and Media. Now making her own way in the world of journalism, she has particular interests in fashion and art. She misses the DTL in lower Cuba Street and the dance floor being at the other end of Good Luck Bar. Eliza lives in a bitterly cold flat in Brooklyn but appreciates the walk into town through Central Park every morning.