Big News at HQ

Happy Friday, everyone! Big news over at HQ today as we explore new beginnings and some carefully considered endings by writing a little from the heart. Over the last few years Nook Staging has been run by the steady hands of two women engaging and nurturing both a passion, and business, for interior design and home staging. We’ve watched both aspects flourish and have become the women we are today from this opportunity to outwork our passions practically! We are, however, making some shifts to this business and in our own personal lives!

With the owner of Nook Staging having just had the most glorious little baby, and her sidekick making a move to Christchurch, we’re restructuring the business to support our new passions. We thought the best way to explain this to you would be by each of us personally addressing you in our own words so here’s our girl boss now. :)

Megan, CEO and owner of Nook Staging

Nook’s been a huge part of my life for the past 5 years and it was my first “baby”. Now that I have an actual baby I’ve made the decision to put him first for a wee while. We’ve got a few more furniture package projects to finish up over the next few months but with Hannah heading off to Christchurch to pursue her own dreams our home staging side of the business is now finished. Once the current furniture package projects are done I’ll be taking a break for a while to focus on spending time with Artie - he’s growing so quickly and changing so much day to day I don’t want to miss it!

I want to take this chance to thank you for your support over the years - we’ve loved working with each and every one of our clients and I feel so grateful to everyone for helping our business to flourish. No doubt I’ll see you all around town at some point very soon.

I am sure I’ll come back to Nook in the future - it’s too special to me to finish it forever. Most likely I’ll be coming back in an interior design capacity and work on projects with clients, rather than home staging, but never say never! 

Hannah, Interior Designer at Nook Staging

What I love more than interior design is the people I get to work with and these last few years have been nothing short of amazing. This business has both supported my dreams and helped me discover new ones. I’ve picked up a love for design, photography, fashion and so many different aesthetics in different capacities. Nook helped me reinvent myself in it’s genuine approach to ethical business, values of kindness and creativity and its multifaceted services. It’s been a think tank ready to empower whatever new passions its staff are exploring within the industry and I cannot be more thankful for how the business and its culture have nurtured me! 

That being said, I’m heading to Christchurch next week to be closer to family and to continue to explore my dreams as an interior designer, aspiring photographer and stylist. I’m both excited about this move and super humbled by how my time at Nook has enabled me to be able to explore these passions anywhere! I’m truly so thankful for all the amazing clients and friends I’ve made in the last few years through this business and am so stoked that Megan and I get to live with our hearts full in our new adventures! Thank you to all of our providers for being so rad to work with, moving teams that have made our moves easy and giggly, clients that have explored design with us, agents that have sent work our way, receptionists for being absolute champs in hunting down keys for us and to Megan. Megan, it has been a pleasure working for, with and because of you. I not only gained my favourite boss ever when I met you, I gained an amazing friend. So here’s to championing each other on into all the dreams ahead of us!

Much love,

Megan and Hannah

Lock Down, Round Two

Well, we’ve done the spying on our neighbours, baking of pastries, our fair share of wine ‘tasting’, playing dog bingo on our daily walk. We might have even been chatting up strangers in the supermarket for human interaction and we all know why. Level 3, round 2. At least spring is bringing us baby lambs, fresh flowers and a bit of sunshine! 

Needless to say, we’ve been covering our lipstick with face masks too. We’ve also had a few people enquire as to whether or not Nook is up and operating in level 3 and the answer is yes! We’ve had all our protocols ready to go since the last round of level 3 and have been implementing them accordingly. What this means is we’re still able to offer all of our services. We rely on contactless key hand-overs, Zoom meetings instead of cafe meetings and a whole lot of sanitising products but, besides those adjustments, we’re still doing our thing.

Please feel free to get in contact at any time as the one thing we’ve noticed from these lock downs is that property is still in hot demand for sales and purchasing. Let’s organise your newly purchased place or get you ready to put your current space on the market.

Much love,

Megan and Hannah

Spring Baby: A Visual Entry

What a wild year to be having a baby but there’s one particular spring chook we’re excited about and that is our very own lil bub at HQ. Our girl boss is close to her due date and has just furnished her very own nursery. We’re obsessed with the products she’s chosen to welcome her wee cub with and I thought I’d highlight some amazing local businesses and aesthetics for this season, with Megan’s nursery as our inspo. 

Before I get started, we’re so excited about this new season for Nook! This is such an amazing addition to our business and we celebrate girl bosses with babies - always have! Now we get to explore our business, with one on the way, ourselves! 

Let’s get started:

The mission for Megan was to create somewhere beautiful to spend time with her baby in, while also committing herself to practical essentials - the more multipurpose, the better!

You probably have already noticed that Nook loves a good oak and it would go against our religion to not add a dash of it to this project, ha. Megan prioritised sturdiness when she was on the hunt, as we’ve all seen one too many a movie about flimsy cots and do-it-yourself dad’s that have tried to construct said flimsy.

•Chair and Bookshelf: Simon James Concept •Changing Basket: Ecosprout

This bookshelf is a fave as it has customisable bin sizes. She’s chosen this specifically to help house and disguise things like nappies, clothing and bath products. She can then still achieve displays of more visually pleasing products like books and ornaments. 

This wee, thoughtfully constructed changing basket can double as a moveable pod for around the house if Megan needs to keep an eye on the baby in different rooms. A definite necessity for our busy gal!

Our green goddess of a chair has arms at the perfect height to support nursing and is composed of leather so super wipeable (a ‘must’ objective we’ve been told), plus it’s so beautiful it can be used elsewhere in the house when it’s no longer needed in the nursery. 

•Baby Gym: Kmart •Toys on the Baby Gym: Etsy

This baby gym adds such a cute texture and warmth to the room we anticipate the baby putting on all the gains with that kind of comfort in reach, ha. Megan has been thoughtful with every corner of her nursery and approaches any extra space with that small-space specialist eye she uses on the daily at her job. We’re pretty chuffed with how this project has turned out.

•Rug: Six Vintage Rugs

Now, we take a deep breath and wait for this little bub to move in!

Much love,

Megan and Hannah

Keeping Warm with You

We’re all tucking into our winter jerseys - living in them almost. Truthfully, I’ve got mine on as I type, ha! Winter is serving us Netflix by the heater, Uber Eats a little too promptly, vitamin intake at its annual high and if you’re anything like the gals at Nook you’re adding layers to everything along the way. Layers are a must when the winds pick up but did you know that texture is a really important value to hold for your space too? We’re investing in thick, woollen throws for our wee frames, fluffy cushions to take up more space on our sofas and new sheets for our beds (with a higher thread count - the higher thread count the more satin vibes ensue) so our bodies can rest a treat after a shivering day. Not to mention, one of us is kitting out an entire nursery with thoughtful furniture and linens to make sure her tiny human on the way is cosy. We’re obviously a tad obsessed with interiors and like ours to be practical, first and foremost. Which is a) why we’re sharing this advice with you and b) why we’ve gone ahead and just found some rad winter goodies you might want to look into. Remember to purchase with purpose. Here are three recommendations for your 2020 winter. 

Città, Weekend Wool Throw w/Fringe - Navy Tea

Thread Design, Alpaca Boucle Throw - Cream

Father Rabbit, Ava Cushion - Moss

Keeping warm with you,

Hannah

Furniture Packages, Do It Yourself Edition

Morena!

We’ve just completed several furniture packages recently, so I thought now might be the perfect time to offload a couple of tips should you be interested in organising your own. Here’s five to keep in mind:

1. Priorities. What are you looking to achieve with your space? What is each room used for and how do you imagine it being used by the occupants? What colours do you want to commit to? Do you want to showcase a particular artist? What will this space be used for? Is this space predominantly warm or chilly throughout the year? What’s the lighting like here throughout the day? Make a list of your thoughtful intentions. 

2. Spatial awareness. Grab a pen and paper and map out what you’d like where. E.g. beds, sofas, chairs - the works.

3. Measure!! Grab a measuring tape and make sure you collect the measurements for the furniture you’ve laid out in your spatial plan as this will come in handy when looking at products online or in store. This is important so you don’t overcrowd your room or accidentally purchase any items that end up looking bitsy in a larger room.

4. Budget. Make sure you budget your furniture item for item so that you know how much you’re willing to part with and if you find a cheaper product in one area, make sure to note that you can spend a little more in another area and vice versa. We find that lead time and the availability of products can affect pricing slightly if we need to go back to our plans and change them a little. Make sure you grab delivery costs in your quotes and to add GST if the product doesn’t already include both. This can be an unpleasant surprise otherwise. Expert tip - use an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of each item, the cost and when it is arriving and mark it off as it does.

5. Lead time and availability. Before making your purchases make sure you’ve hustled an accurate lead time for when your products will arrive, or become available again. Now more than ever, it’s important to confirm all of this with your providers because a lot of services are taking longer than usual to hone products down (an ongoing issue because of Covid-19). Aside from that, it’s just generally good etiquette to make sure you’ve got correct information, as communication systems differ from company to company. Ask several people at the same company if you’re feeling uncertain about what one person has said.

There’s heaps of information for you to get started with, but please, don’t tell my boss I gave away our secrets. ;)

Interior Design Post Lock Down

First of all, yay to post lock down! How wild is it that most countries are experiencing some type of lock down still and, even crazier, that some cities have been in lock down for over 5 months! We’re insanely thankful to be mobile again and thought it would be helpful for you to know the following. 

Designing your interiors might take a little bit longer than usual as we’re limited to the stock currently available in the country, something to keep in mind should you find yourself in a rush. We’re experiencing lead times of 4-6 weeks for ‘specialty items’, which means they’re in another country. 

The great news is that we’re able to sell on our ex-staging stock and mix it in with new stock in the country - meaning we have been able to furnish a 4 bedroom, 2 living space home recently with a very short lead time! Let us know if you think this might be a good option for you.

The great thing about hiring an interior designer right now is that there’s a lot of phone calling required to secure products, and gather information regarding lead times, and your designer can get that all sussed for you! You also might have to change a couple of products for a similar look elsewhere and with a trusted designer this should be no sweat. But the workload looks a little bit different post lock down, so it’s a wise idea to have an expert on hand to ensure you reach your objectives on time. 

If you’re on your own organising a design - good on you! But if you’re looking for someone else to suss things for you - you’ve got our contact information and we’ve got the insiders scoop :) 

Megan and Hannah

Mid Year Update

We have a bit going on at HQ and thought we’d take a moment to let you know what our hub looks like right now. 

As we head into our busiest time of year with staging and interior design we’ll be putting the new season of our ‘shop’ on hold. But we offer you some exciting news we haven’t publicised too much yet as compensation. Our very own Girl Boss has a wee baby on the way! The little bub is happily more than half way here. We’re super stoked about this and want to make sure we’re taking time to do all things well at HQ. We’ll be focusing on replenishing our staging stock as we sell on our treasures at the warehouse in that process. If you’re interested in purchasing anything you can head to our previous blog for the 411 on how to go about this. We just won’t have individual items for sale online for the time being. We’re chirping away getting ready for our newest addition to the Nook family as well as keeping on the hustle. We look forward to continuing to assist clients and agents all over Auckland help suss their properties and thank you for the continued work. :)

Megan and Hannah

Zhuzh

Scroll to the bottom to see how a few of our products transformed this property,

and could transform yours.

It’s that time of year, folks! Everyone needs a holiday around this point in the year, and local travel is about to ramp up as we ease our way out of lock down. We also know that you might be getting sick of the same look in your home as you’ve been based there all lock down and might be ready to make certain rooms feel brand new. As part of this, we’d like to offer Airbnbs and homes the opportunity to purchase packages from us for a wee ‘zhuzh’ to your property, in preparation. This includes us coming around to your Auckland based property to help style your purchases. All items will be from our staging stock to ensure you get your purchases ASAP, and for an amazing price. We know furniture items in general can have some crazy lead times at the moment. Our staging stock is in great condition because our products don’t get lived in! If you have any enquiries about a particular item and there does happen to be a little wear on it we will be transparent about this and price accordingly. We’re offering everything from sofas and beds, to bed dressings, to dining tables and chairs. Please feel free to get in touch at any time so we can help put together a customised package just for you. We can’t wait to see what you do with the place. 

Packages are priced from $2,900 incl. GST for a one bedroom apartment and $4,000 incl. GST for a 2 bedroom.

We’ve picked out our favourite “Winter Warmers” which will lift the look of a property hugely. Maximum impact for minimum cost! Extra lighting, texture in the way of throws and a rug, a few pops of colour from some new artwork and cushions and you’ll be amazed at how different your property can look.

An example of the items included in the above pricing package:

• Bedside lamps for bedrooms

  1. Artworks (approx 1-2 per room)

  2. Fresh pillows and pillow protectors, with extras for ultimate winter comfort

  3. Decorative cushions for beds and sofa

  4. Cosy throws for beds and sofa to get you or your guests through the colder months

  5. Rug for living space

  6. Lamp for living area

Talk soon,

Megan and Hannah

Nook News: Rebrand

If you’ve been on the Nook journey with us for a while you’ll have noticed our brand exists to tell a story. Our brand includes the style we use in our installations, our logo, website and instagram aesthetic, formats we use such as fonts, colours and other templates of presentation, you might have even seen the Nook Staging logo on our car, as well as observed the general sense of our Nook identity. We value what our brand is because it speaks of who we are and what our product is. That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve been partnering with an amazing graphic designer named Shiv Narandas towards a rebrand!

Our new brand will be released in the next few months and as part of this we’re even commissioning our first billboard at City Works Depot. Our commitment with Nook is to first, do what we love. Second, keep our clients 100% satisfied and third, help sell and occupy properties at their maximum value all over Auckland. Be that in real estate, AirBnb’s, or zhuzhing up properties for existing owners. We can’t wait to tell our story through a rebrand and tell you the story of how we’ve grown over the years and explain where we’re at now. We think you’ll like what you see too!

Much love,

Megan and Hannah

Day 1, Quarantine Edition

I’ve heard a lot of other people’s experiences about day one of quarantine it and got me to thinking about my (Hannah) own. You probably didn’t know this but Megan and I are actually in different cities because as soon as I heard NZ was moving to level 4 in our precautions to fight the Covid-19 pandemic I booked flights down to Christchurch to be with my sister and her family. I was crossing my fingers and toes that my plane would still be allowed to fly out. In faith I headed to the airport the day lock down was about to be initialised. I went extra early to the airport to watch how things played out with the other scheduled flights. One by one, with an anxious belly, I watched flights get canceled. While waiting in a terminal shared by three different gates I watched families get up and leave to figure out last minute accommodation in Auckland before midnight brought national quarantine. Everyone else that remained sat 6 feet away from each other, silently, suspiciously watching each other. The usual background music in the airport had been turned off and every few minutes a speaker blared a message of how to travel safely in this time. 

My flight got bumped up 45 minutes earlier and we started boarding. We all lined up and walked aboard with a six foot distance between us all, took our seats, taxied out and just before take off a lady started screaming about how she needed to get off the plane because she in fact wanted to stay in Auckland for quarantine. The crew decided to let her out and after finding her bags we left an hour later. 

Once I landed I told my sister I wasn’t allowed to touch her or anything until I’d gotten home, put my clothes in the laundry and had a shower. After that, we set into our new lifestyle together. Since then, something we’ve all been watching unfold, online and in house, is our renewed hope in others and ourselves during this moment on offer to reconnect with both. Let’s be honest, it’s been easy for awhile now to disconnect from so many of the important things that ground us as people. Slow mornings, nature, friends, family, time to cook instead of Uber Eats, space to explore our talents and engage with our creativity outside of work hours, people smiling back at us on our walks because they’re excited to see another human instead of avoiding eye contact. A lot of people are rethinking their lifestyles and assessing if theirs has been worth it lately. A friend commented recently, “what you find purpose in has ramifications for what you do and don’t do with that energy.” It’s simple but kind of rocking my world. I hope you’re taking this time to reassess what’s important to you too. Who knows who we can be on the other side of this quarantine. I anticipate such good things.  :) 

Much love,

Hannah

Quarantine Kitchen

Let’s be honest, our lives revolve around the kitchen slightly more than usual at the moment. 

With that in mind, get your utensils ready! Because I, Hannah, have taken to my own kitchen and have got my 3 fave cooking recipes of late ready for you to enjoy. Megan will be sharing something from her kitchen soon too. #dreamy

1. For all those Aucklanders missing their Coco’s Cantina fix - grab your own happy hour bubbles and tuck into making this pasta! https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/basically-spaghetti-pomodoro Pairs nicely with a red wine.

2. Let’s be honest, a good curry takes a bit of time. Of which we have! This little number will make your belly and those you’re living with feel appreciated for the love you’re about to put into it. Nothing tastes better than a bit of love. https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-breast-recipes/claudia-winklemans-butter-chicken/ Pairs nicely with beer.

3. Finally, when you’re ready for a carb coma over the weekend check out this Thai delight. https://www.gourmettraveller.com.au/recipes/browse-all/khao-pad-naem-12280 Pairs nicely with white wine.

Grab your sous chef and tuck in!

Movies with Nook

We all know we’ve been watching a little too much Netflix. But we’d still like to further encourage that behaviour because we’re not ready to start watching less, ha.

Here’s two goodies from Megan and I you might be interested in screening, purely because we’ve been binging and think we know a thing or two.

Megan’s Recommendations:

1. The Blues Brothers. For kind of the same reason as Hannah’s recommended Bo Burham, this is a light hearted, slapstick and hilarious classic with great music the whole way through. Also - John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, need I say more. My husband’s mum used to have this on repeat during his childhood so he’s been enjoying singing along to all the songs he thought he’d forgotten the words to.

2. The Gentlemen. This is now out on certain streaming services (I will leave those to your imagination) and is an awesome new one from Guy Ritchie along the same lines as “Snatch”. Think English gangster with heaps of humour, and then Matthew McConaughey thrown in for good measure. Definitely recommend!

Hannah’s Recommendations:

1. Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This one’s for all my ladies or anyone looking for a romantic black and white film about a woman navigating her identity amidst city life. Cannot recommend this movie enough as I’m literally obsessed with it. 

2. Bo Burham, Make Happy. This one’s for those that love stand up comedy and music. It’s an insane fusion of the two and will make you giggle your night away, especially after a few wines. So hop on Netflix to turn that frown upside-down. You can thank me later.

Running Off Our Toes

We’ve recently entered our busiest time of the year. I’m talking early morning installations and late night admin amounts of hustle. Most of our meals have consisted of all day snacking, ha. We’ve had staging installations every day, did a photoshoot for our rebrand in the middle of all this, have organised a few furniture packages and have installed those too, run around like mad meeting with agents and clients to visit their property so we can draw up a quote and have been super careful to make sure we allocate furniture and soft furnishings as soon as we indicate what we might use for our installs. 

It’s been quite the juggle but we’ve been doing so well! The great thing about our team is that we’re all problem solvers so there’s nothing we let get in our way. It’s a great dynamic and one we’ve been nurturing our whole career at Nook. It makes for a harmonious professional relationship with our staff and the providers we brush shoulders with every day. 

We’ve been to so many apartments, high-rises, developments, town houses, lofts and homes we’ve lost track of where we’ve been the last few weeks, ha! If you had us on Find My Friends you’d be amazed at how often we change location throughout each day. We’re so happy for the work. We believe in what Nook does, in our staff, in our clients, in our product and it’s a really cool company to work for if you thrive in diverse tasks. Of which we all do here! 

We just thought we’d fill you in on a bit of what we’ve been up to as our schedule of late has meant we haven’t had the time! Thank you so much for your continued interest, support and business. :)

Love,

Megan and Hannah

The 1/2 We Don't Tell You

As you probably know at this point, we do a lot of quoting for properties all over Auckland City. We quote to provide AirBnB packages, full stages (which means we stage a completely empty property), part stages (which means we work some of our items in with the client's pre-existing items), or to offer a styling service where we visit a property, head back to the office and draw up a suggested plan of attack for our client. The point is, we run around quoting a lot!

Now, we show you the beautified results after we’ve been through and worked our magic but boy do we have some stories of properties we’ve only ended up quoting for! My personal favourite is having arrived at a property when a party had just finished and the cleaning crew hadn’t been through yet! We find ourselves in an array of different situations upon arrival. 

We visit properties that haven’t been built yet and we aren’t going to get to see before the day we’d bring all of our gear in! Our skills accommodate for this. But we also arrive to screaming kids, families in the middle of a move, I’ve literally had to step over a sleeping child before, ha! I mentioned in another blog that we get dogs running full force at us too! Luckily we’d do the same thing to them if it was socially acceptable. Another skill we have though is showing up in people’s lives and properties at a time where things are usually a whirlwind for them and commit to just meeting people where they’re at.  

We exchange jokes, assure our clients as to how we can help and leave them hoping we’ve brightened their day at the least, before heading back to our office to draw up a proposal and quote should they be interested in going ahead with our services.

I wanted to help you understand through this blog that it's a wild ride being an interior designer sometimes. Yes, it’s so beautiful to be able to do what we do and meet so many amazing people but it’s also a delicate art to meet people where they’re at and paint a picture for them of what their property can look like when their minds might be in overdrive, their homes might be a smidge chaotic in the middle of a move, or their 4 kids might all be home on school holiday and their multiple dogs might be getting potty trained still! We pride ourselves in hosting people to an exposé of our services on their turf and get excited with each new property at the vision we develop while we’re there.

Let me assure you here, like I would do during a visit to your property, that Nook has got you! Needing to grab a quote? Inquire with us now. :)

Confessions of a CBD Apartment: Megan Edition

Why are your interiors important to you? What’s the tale it’s telling currently?

We have a home office in our apartment so I spend a bit of time working from home. I can't focus on my workday unless I have an orderly, clean and pleasant area from which to work. So interiors are important for me personally, and for the business. I realised when I lived in a flat through university that I really need a “sanctuary” to retreat to which is free from clutter and is quiet, with all my special items surrounding me. I never thought I was a homebody until I became sick when I was about 20 and had to spend a lot of time at home recovering. It was during this time I discovered how important and powerful interior spaces can truly be. For me, they are a place to relax and restore yourself from the outside world (like a little bubble of happiness!). Our place currently tells a story of young professionals who like to spend time off relaxing rather than gardening or doing housework (it’s really low maintenance as it has no garden), it's furnished with items we have collected on our travels, there's inevitably dog toys scattered around in weird places from our french bulldog Bronson, the fridge and pantry are normally stocked with limited but good quality ingredients for cooking a couple of yummy dinners a week, the laundry basket is always overflowing with sweaty gym gear (lucky we have a door we can shut off so no one sees this!), and it speaks of our love of natural materials, warm oak and texture. We also love plants but are pretty crap at keeping them alive - most of our plants have a disease of some kind at some point and are being nursed back to health.

What was your approach to your interiors? 

Even though I find it really easy to decide on a direction for clients’ interior spaces, I find it really hard to decide on pieces for my own home. I think it's because I know how much choice is out there and I hate choosing items only to then see something else I prefer a few months later! I have a clear style in terms of the things I like, but I am definitely the type to mull things over for many months before making the simplest of decisions. That's the one approach I would say I have - a snail pace (haha).

Was there a thought process or direction you borrowed from someone else to put it all together? 

No, I tend to just plug away at things myself. We bought our apartment off the plan, so it was brand new. We also sold all our old furniture to the person who bought our old place so we were starting completely fresh when we shifted into our current place. It was a true blank canvas. We had many months leading up to completion of the property where I could order key items, which was very handy. I ordered the sofa, a lounge chair, dining table and chairs, plus our beds, prior to completion. Because we weren't allowed access to the property (being a construction site) I had to hope and pray the dimensions for the items I picked would work in the space! We'd been allowed in to measure once but I hadn't been able to get a feel for the space since the kitchen hadn't been fitted and many of the walls weren't properly in place at that stage. So it was definitely a risk. But it all worked out in the end. I think this is largely because I used the "Nook formula" by which I mean purchasing flexible pieces that can be worked in anywhere if needed - a chair which can be put in any corner, a sofa without a chaise so we could move it around in the space, an ottoman which could be used as a chaise or separately if needed. 

Were you considering things like function, a certain aesthetic or fashion trend when approaching things yourself?

I don’t have current fashions forefront in my mind when choosing things, but I have definitely adopted certain trends which are in fashion at the moment, because they inspire me. For example - I definitely jumped on the "bar cart" trend in our living space. We have a brass and glass 1920s style trolley which I purchased after living in the place for about a year, and I love it. This is trendy at the moment but I know it will continue to be a cool piece forever. The same thought process applies to pretty much all the stuff we purchased - yes it is in fashion now, but hopefully because they are fairly classic pieces they will continue to be even as trends cycle around. I tend to invest in key furnishings which will get us through for a while. We spent quite a bit on quality linen curtains, and also spend a bit on artwork, but less on things like soft furnishings as those can be changed over the years as different colours come and go from favour.

What’s the most recent purchase you’ve made for your property and why?

I think the last thing we purchased was a huge Tyler Shields photographic print we have hanging above our dining space - it's called "The Swans". My husband really wanted us to have one of Tyler's photos in our house. We bought it both as an investment (hoping it will increase in value at some point as it’s a limited edition) but mostly because we love to look at it. I think this is important with artwork - you still have to love it, even if you have bought it as an investment. The print was shipped over from London and Hannah & Priya at Gow Langsford Gallery here in Auckland were amazing in terms of coordinating the receiving/inspection of it, framing and hanging for us.

Thanks for reading guys! Hopefully this helps you put language around understanding your own home!

Talk soon,

Megan

Confessions of a Flat: Hannah Edition

Have you taken some time lately to listen to the story that your home is telling? If you’re anything like me, my place can get real messy, real quick, the busier I get. Floor-drobe can become such a political issue we should hit up our PM about it. Point being, our surroundings reflect our lifestyle. Most importantly, they definitely influence our attitudes about life, the experience others have of our hospitality, and plain and simple, can sometimes become a health and safety issue, ha.

Let me explain the story my house is telling at the moment to give you an idea of what yours might be saying. My house whispers that it holds a lot of visitors, because we have one too many sofas in our lounge. Honestly, we have 3. It’s also saying the whole flat likes to cook, as indicated by our many exposed pots, pans and cooking utensils. It’s laughing at us about how my flatmates and I need to utilise our dining table more, because currently there’s a paddle board on it, as depicted by the intro photo here. It’s saying that there’s a bunch of transient young adults living here as we haven’t put up much art around the place, but those of us looking to lock down a long term place are starting to hang art in our rooms! It’s a start.

More specifically, let’s talk about my room. There’s a large piece of art, nestled into an oak frame, featuring Toetoe above my bed, a light green duvet with light brown decorative cushions, a white closet unit, rattan bedsides and an old-school picnic basket that holds an even more retro mirror. I’ve placed my furniture thoughtfully throughout the room to make sure I’m taking advantage of how open it could be. I’ve thought about how lighting hits the room throughout the day and want my bed to get that first, crisp morning sunlight while I sip on my coffee. My room is saying that I like earthy tones, nature, sunlight and open spaces. I like to sit on the floor while I do my makeup in the morning (because most of my upbringing I lived in places you sat on the floor), and that I like photography and interior design as depicted by the magazines in my bedside drawer and cameras on my wardrobe. 

What tale is your house spinning? Have a wine and go room to room to think about it, because we often don’t. Visitors notice and if we’re honest with ourselves, we do too on some level. May your home be a happy, productive, hospitable place. If you can take anything away from this wee blog remember, your interiors reflect your lifestyle. I'm looking forward to Megan's blog about the story her house is telling next. Keep an eye out x

Aroha,

Hannah

A Day in the Life

We thought it was about time to spill the tea when it comes to Nook. So here’s a day in the life of. Don’t tell a soul! First of all, coffee, because we cannot perform without our blessed elixir. Coffee in hand, we brief each other about the jobs we have coming up. We triple check our staging plans, triple check our AirBnB furniture package bookings, highlight what we might want to change for an upcoming stylist job, and then tuck into our job for the day - an install for a home staging at an apartment right in Auckland City, being listed for sale. When we have installs, we allocate the furniture which is going into that a week or so prior, looking through the products we have in our storage warehouse and matching them to the property specifically. This is done using a list, which we then put aside until the installation day. We meet our moving team at our storage warehouse and oversee their pack up by working through the list carefully, hustle to our final destination, unlock the property, oversee the unloading of our products and tell the team where to go with what.

Once we’re in we send our trusted moving team on their way and start unpacking. No matter the job, there’s quite a bit of unpacking to do! We collect any excess items (since we always pack a few extras, just in case!) along the way and make a pile by the entrance door as we triple check  that colours are working with the lighting and dynamics of the property. We already measured out what will work on a previous visit to the property so our decisions are just to ensure that spatial potential is optimized! We always need to think of our installation in terms of how it will present in both photographs and in person for potential buyers. Sometimes a particular item placed in a certain position will create a “pop” at a certain photo angle to draw potential buyer’s eyes when listed online! 

We then steam out all our linen to ensure it looks crisp and without creases, start loading all the extras into our trusty Jeep, triple check all of our products are clean without a speck on them, and take our own photos for marketing and documentation purposes. This also helps us to identify if there are any “dead” spots showing up in photos which we need to tweak to ensure things look perfect from all angles!

We then head back to return the key of a property to their respective agents, and return back to our warehouse to debrief and check in again about our plans for the next day to make sure we haven’t missed anything. Guys, the most tea I can spill is that we always high-five each other after a job is completed and, after our morning catch-up, that’s the best feeling in the world. We did something extraordinary in a matter of hours and it’s actually the best, when you know you work with someone that values aesthetic as much as you do, to come to the end of the day and be able to say...dang we owned that job! 

Styling

10am rolls around and I’m meeting a client at their beautiful Ponsonby property. The client has a couple of kids, and even more Chiwawas! I meet the Chiwawas first. Lucky they were small things because, florals in hand, I greeted my client with my hands full and a hearty, “Hi! I’m Hannah from Nook Staging!” We’d been booked for one of our most requested services - styling  for a property being listed on Air Bnb. We offer this service as a cost and time effective product to lift a property to its’ full potential for a photoshoot for Air Bnb, with the added bonus for the client of being able to purchase any of the items we style with to leave in the property to impress guests. As I was shown around the property I got told I could do whatever I liked with the place. A stylist’s dream! I had brought a carload of products from our warehouse (this is all included in our fee), and hustled hard to meet the deadline for the photoshoot a few hours away! 

Room by room I worked through with a sharp eye to identify existing cushions and throws that had frays on the ends of them, neutral colours that needed to marry a pop of colour, and some areas that needed a “Nook Kondo” approach to decluttering so as to tidy things up and accommodate for the current style of property photography! The desire for my client to have their property presented in the best possible way, plus the two coffees I’d had beforehand, sent me on my way as fast as humanly possible. 

I allocated existing art from around the house to different rooms within it where it was better suited, paired new season products from multiple providers to each space and made piles of what needed to go, or be moved around, throughout the shoot. When dealing with personal items it’s so nice to have an owner around to tell us where to safely store and how to preserve said items, if we didn’t get an email beforehand with instructions for packing things away. I’m proud to say, yet again, that Nook maneuvered those items respectfully and also helped achieve our client’s goals!

On a personal note, I’m so thankful that I get to do what I do. I love working with people, arriving at new spaces and helping with the overall feel of a place. I acknowledge that not everyone gets to spend as much time thinking about aesthetic as I do because their lives are full of other ventures and it’s just such a joy to transform a place for whatever purpose it’s about to serve. If you’re looking for stylists, Megan and I have got you! We’re genuinely stoked with our clients, the challenge of a new space and, at the end of a job, being able to kick up our feet knowing we infused current trends and fashions with the specific dynamic of our clients’ property. 

We hope to see you soon and hope you achieve all your goals in 2020! It’d be a pleasure to brush shoulders with you, and work on your property, so inquire whenever you’d like! We’re here for you and are committed to the wellbeing of our clients properties. Let’s get you what you want from them, together! :)

2020

This is a brief post to say - we hope you’ve had a fabulous Christmas and New Years! We’ve spent ours by the beach, dreaming of what 2020 looks like for us. We hope you’ve been dreaming for yourself and your company too!

A little update of what to expect from us in 2020:

We’re currently in the middle of a rebrand, have some exciting marketing prospects up our sleeves, have new staging and furniture package jobs lined up, are hiring new staff in a matter of months and we’re about to have a shoot for new products that will feature on our online store! This year we plan on getting bigger and better than ever before! Make sure you get in quick!

We’re committed to branching out this year with our aesthetic and product providers. We pride ourselves in being a Kiwi brand that wants to see others benefit from our business, as well as become more eco friendly with every purchase! We’re sticking to Auckland this year and are continuing to focus on small space properties as per our expertise. Did you know that this means 1-3 bedroom properties? We’ll be taking on the odd job that’s bigger than this, but think we’ve nailed it at our craft and found a niche in the market our clients are stoked we can meet.

We’re setting up a semi-permanent office in Mount Eden as our new headquarters and look forward to being able to meet with you and our neighbouring companies there! This is just the start of our plans for 2020! We’re so excited at what the new year will bring and are looking forward to bettering our team, multifaceted company, product and city. Let’s get stuck in, Auckland!

Let's Get Nostalgic, 2019 Edition

Where we are and where we’ve been: 

Nook has had such a big year! We’ve hustled so hard that our running shoes have worn thin. Time for a new pair for all the hard work we’ve put in this year! Not only have we moved to a bigger warehouse, employed new staff, had many compliments about our aesthetic, ‘Thank You’ cards for helping our clients sell their properties, got all of our Airbnb and permanent fit-outs to where their owners wanted them to be, renovated our own staff member’s property and opened an online store that’s taking off. We’ve also made so many new connections, been met with so many new opportunities and grown as a team and business! We could not be more thankful for what 2019 has been for us. 

We’ve downed about 3 coffees a day, worked from dawn to dusk, partnered with amazing local businesses, brushed shoulders with so many new clients that have found us on our website or the gram, given consultations that have helped people work with the products they already own, grown as people and have even learned to surf...on actual waves. 

I can honestly say, from a year of watching the Nook ethos play out, that Nook provides a sense of community everywhere it goes! We LOVE people, LOVE that we get to work with our passions and also help those we come across achieve their end-game goals with their properties, whatever those goals are. We so appreciate our retailers and importers that have made this all possible, the agents that have passed on our card to their clients, the private owners that have told their friends who’s set up their property, the men that work upstairs from our headquarters that make sure the doors are locked for us when we’re working late and the Nook team that empowers each other and hustles hard. 

But to YOU, our clients. Wow - we are blown away by the support and affirmation we’ve had this year from you. We are so stoked by the sale of your Auckland properties, that you have your own clients now by way of Airbnb, have showrooms that will help sell entire developments and we’re excited about the reputation you’ve helped us gain. 

Where we’re going: 

To our new clients, we are so ready for you! We’re constantly growing in our capacity and have time for you in the new year! Looking to sell in 2020? Needing someone with current season style to help you sell and zhoosh up your space to meet your market target? We got you. We’ve never been more confident. After the year we’ve had - we know we can aid you in your goals and achieve them! 

We’re always looking to grow, partner with new local businesses and add that something ‘extra’ to our look that you as a retailer might have to offer. We have bigger goals than ever before for 2020, more expectation of ourselves and our product, more capacity than ever before and we’d love to chat with you and make you feel involved and valued in the process. One thing that blows my mind about being a part of this business is how Nook anticipates that we might be helping you sell a property that’s been in your family for years, you might have raised your kids there, it might be the property of a loved one pass on, or otherwise, but there is respect, care and appreciation for whatever your situation is and we just want you to get where you want you to be!

We’re coming for you 2020!  

Much love,

Megan and Hannah