Award-winning kitchen, bathroom, and interior design studio based in Hawke's Bay.
Working across New Zealand and Australia.
KITCHEN DESIGN —
BATHROOM DESIGN —
LIVING ROOM JOINERY DESIGN —
WARDROBE DESIGN —
LAUNDRY DESIGN —
KITCHEN DESIGN — BATHROOM DESIGN — LIVING ROOM JOINERY DESIGN — WARDROBE DESIGN — LAUNDRY DESIGN —
For homeowners who want a space that works as beautifully as it looks.
The clutter never stays away, the layout doesn’t flow, and there’s never quite enough storage. Now you’re building or renovating — your chance to get it right from the start — but you’re faced with hundreds of decisions and no room for costly mistakes. That’s where we come in.
Led by Creative Director Nichole Davis, the studio creates thoughtful, personal homes for clients across New Zealand and Australia.
Nichole Davis
Nichole sees what others miss — turning hard-to-run homes into spaces that work beautifully in real life.
Because pretty finishes cannot solve poor flow, inadequate storage or the everyday friction that makes a home another thing to manage. When the planning is not resolved first, it is easy to invest in a space that looks lovely but still does not support the way you live. Beautifully impractical.
With 11+ years’ experience and two design degrees, Nichole brings clarity through intelligent planning, honest guidance and thoughtful design.
But don’t just take our word for it ↓
Practically Beautiful Design in Practice
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Beyond the Curve
A double award-winning transformation of a dark, cramped layout. We rebuilt the floor plan first, and it gave the room a job to do: a functional, statement space that finally matches the investment in the home.
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Gatsby's Kitchen
An award-winning kitchen built for effortless entertaining. Reshaping the existing footprint turned a disjointed room into a guest-ready space, without adding a single square metre.
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Drenched in Terracotta
A dark, south-facing room turned into a family retreat. We fixed the awkward layout first, then let the terracotta finishes sit on top of a floor plan that works.
Our process.
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First call — 20 minutes
This call is to answer your questions and see if we’re the right match without any pressure.
This is a phone or video conversation. You’ll get an approximate price for the work involved, and clear next steps, so you can move forward in the right direction.
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Deep‑dive session.
If we’re a good fit and you accept the proposal, we book a longer deep‑dive session.
We go space by space, talk about what’s working and what you want to change, and I start looking at your plans to diagnose the real problems. This is where I get a feel for your personality, how you want the space to look and feel, and what we’re really trying to achieve.
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Concept floor plans.
Next, I create 1–3 different floor plan options for each space.
These concepts are about optimising the space you have (especially with new‑build homes getting smaller), creating proper storage, and setting up a design that will let the aesthetics shine.
For every layout, you’ll get a 3D visual so you can actually see what it will look like, and together we decide which direction to take — sometimes it’s one option, sometimes a mix of two.
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Feasibility check.
We then send the concept plans to the relevant subtrades — plumbers, electricians, tilers, and more — to make sure what we’re proposing is possible in practice. Bigger items like joinery and benchtops are priced as well, so we can check that we’re staying within the budget we’ve set.
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Technical documentation.
Once we’re happy with the direction, I prepare final plans and technical documentation.
Every subtrade gets exactly what they need: lighting plans, cabinetry design, mechanical requirements, dimensioned drawings — the full picture so there’s no confusion on site.
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Materials and colour selections.
We then choose alongside you, a Pinterest board, and a clear design direction, the final materials, fittings, and finishes that suit the budget, the space, and your goals.
Think colour palettes, mood boards, pulling samples, and putting it all together.
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Handover and Ongoing Support.
Everything is handed over to your builder or joiner, with ongoing support from me so you’re not left to bridge the gap between the plans and the finished home on your own.
Traditional interior design is letting you down.
The reality
Building or renovating means hundreds of decisions. Without a resolved plan early, even a beautiful home can end up with awkward rooms, too little storage and the nagging sense it could have worked better.
The gap
Architects design the shell. Builders construct it. Cabinetmakers fit the joinery. Homeowners are left to connect how it all looks, functions and feels, and fill in critical gaps like lighting and storage.
The Fresh by Design Interiors way
I bring the interior together before decisions become expensive to change.
My practical approach connects spatial planning, kitchens, bathrooms, storage, materials and lighting into one clear, cohesive design, so your home works as well as it looks, every day.
Design is 10% of your spend, but it protects the other 90%.
The biggest misconception is that skipping design saves money. It doesn’t. You pay for design either way.
Upfront, in a plan your builder can price and follow. Or by the hour, while tradies make it up on site and you find the mistakes after you've already paid for them.
Design done first means the big decisions get made early, quotes come back accurate, and nobody's guessing with your money.
Let's clear the overwhelm before we start.
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This is why we never expect you to picture your kitchen from a 2D plan and a tiny tile sample.
You'll see exact, photo-real 3D renders of your space before you commit to a single finish. We lock the layout first, then layer the design on top, so the risk of a very expensive "I thought it would look different" is almost completely gone.
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When you get quotes without a locked design, builders have to guess your finishes. Which means every quote is for a different kitchen.
Work with us first and you hand your trades a complete, builder-ready specification document. No guessing on site, so the quotes you get back are accurate, comparable, and final.
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No. Right now you're probably spending your evenings scrolling Pinterest, feeling overwhelmed by 400 different opinions.
We take the mental load off you. We map the zones, solve the storage problems, and hand you clear decisions in the right order. You get the fun parts of the process without having to project-manage the chaos.
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Your design fee isn't an extra cost. It's the insurance that protects the rest of your budget.
The most expensive mistakes happen when decisions get made out of order, or when trades have to improvise on site. We engineer the space so it actually works, and hand over the technical documentation that keeps your build on time and out of the redo pile.
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A standard builder's allowance usually covers the bare minimum. Basic cupboards that don't account for how you actually cook or live.
When a joiner does "free" design, the cost is just hidden in the build, and their job is manufacturing, not solving your morning routine. We engineer joinery-first systems that actually lower your mental load, and hand your builder a locked specification so that allowance doesn't suddenly double.
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Ideally, before the slab is poured. If you wait until the builder asks you to pick your kitchen colours, it's already too late to fix a broken layout.
We start by going through your architectural plans to catch the hidden friction points, so the walls, windows, and plumbing end up in the exact right place from day one.
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Absolutely not. We need to see the reality of your daily life. The appliances taking up all the bench space, the corner cupboards that don't work, the school bags dumped on the island.
You don't have a tidying problem, you have a layout problem. This is a completely judgment-free space, and our goal is to design the systems that fix it.
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You don't have to choose between a pretty space and a practical one.
We don't design fragile show homes. We design camera-ready spaces that are kid-proof and guest-ready. Dedicated zones for the school-run scramble, durable finishes that won't date. Your home looks incredible and survives your family's daily routines.
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Yes. We take the decision fatigue entirely off your plate. You don't need to know the technical answers, the right order to pick things, or how to explain your style to a tradesperson.
We guide you through plain-English options, make expert recommendations based on your habits, and give you the confidence to just say yes.