Mike Holmes is the director of Holmes Architecture, an architectural design firm. Mike, who is an architectural designer as well as a qualified builder, focuses on function and style with the aim of creating designs that are “elegant, unexpected, and delightful”.
Describe your style in five words:
refined, eclectic, abstract, contemporary, functional.
Favourite type of home to design and why?
Strong modern geometric compositions, with a well composed and detailed material palette, are a nice way to contrast either natural or man made landscapes.
Biggest mistake people make in designing their home is…
shopping around for the cheapest designer.
Biggest mistake people make in renovating their home is…
not appreciating the limitations of the existing building.
Your favourite item in your home is…
BoConcept sofa.
The one thing missing from your home is…
a giant rug in the dining room.
If you could change one thing about your home it’s…
the mortgage.
Least favourite trend from the past 10 years?
Suburban sprawl.
Mike’s tips and tricks
Modest materials
Cost effective but durable materials like corrugated iron, timber weatherboards, brick, and ply when detailed and combined well can be beautiful without breaking the bank. A building should equal more than the sum of its parts.
Play with scale
Think small intimate spaces with well positioned picture windows, verses moments of height, drama and light.
Choose your battles
Especially when renovating, decide where you can achieve the most impact and dive in. Don’t worry about matching old and new – celebrate the contrast.