Plywood creates new life for a Canterbury living room

After the Kaikōura earthquake in November 2016 rendered his living room uninhabitable, David Turner faced a lengthy rebuild; but a dramatic new look more than made up for it.

The room had previously been lined with plaster board and decorated with hand-printed wallpaper, but the shaking had caused all the seams of the paper to tear. Though David had the funds to put everything back as it was, he opted for new.

‘It was time to do something different, and in particular I was looking for a surface that I didn’t have to paint or wallpaper.’

At eight metres square, with a large pyramid ceiling, plenty of windows and new carpet in a pale shade of oyster, the room was well endowed with light. So David chose PlyPlay Double Trouble to help tone the space down, which provided a feature he hadn’t counted on.

‘The walls actually change with every hour of the day, making it a superb design aspect.

During the day the ocean reflects off it spectacularly, making it look deep emerald green, and at night the grain seems to get slightly fainter with all the artificial light.

‘All our paintings look really great on it, too, and it works well with the stonework around the new fireplace.’

The problem faced by David and his builder was that the house had been poorly built initially, so a lot of remedial work was required to get the walls level. David also didn’t want any visible nail holes around the edges, requiring work with a router to create a hidden fillet joint to get the finish perfectly flush with each sheet glued in place.

After waiting for a year to have his living room reinstated, David couldn’t be more pleased with the result – a total remake of a room that he says was always lovely, but is now lively and perfect for entertaining.