Making the Bed
You might know Dehei: Daniela Schmidhalter’s brand of linen is made from soft, jersey cotton and comes in a variety of colours, inspired by the softness of European linen. (Schmidhalter grew up in a small Swiss village.) They’re beautifully soft and come in bright colours: we highly recommend.
For a few months in the middle of this year, Dehei finally popped up – along with friends at vintage brand Kiosk – at the Bloc in Maungawhau Mount Eden, an experience which confirmed to Schmidhalter that she needed a permanent retail base.
Not long after, friends finally finished a building just off Richmond Road – a striking concrete tower designed by architect Sophie Edwards for her father – and Schmidhalter jumped at the ground-floor space.
It’s raw, but delightful, with in-situ walls and terracotta-tiled floors. “For me it’s a place of being able to connect with my customer base,” she says, “and it was just time to do it and get out of my comfort zone.”
The store will be open a few days a week initially: keep an eye out for a block party some time in spring.
Dehei
106 Richmond Road, Grey Lynn, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Daily Rituals
Janusz Choromanski of Native Architecture and wife Sarah have opened Everyday Coffee, in a shopfront on Sandringham Road: coffee downstairs, architecture studio upstairs. “One helps you deal with the other,” jokes Choromanski. “I don’t know if they are similar, but I do respect the process of both and the people involved.”
Here: What’s on the record player?
Janusz Choromanski: We try to mix it up in here with the old and the new. We play a lot of soul, hip-hop, classic reggae and have been known to throw old-school island music in the mix – the stuff our parents, aunties and uncles listened to. Also, we love playing local music from Aotearoa and the Pacific. Lately, we have had some of the following on our vinyl rotation: Herbs – Sensitive to a Smile, De La Soul – 3 Feet High and Rising, Hiatus Kaiyote – Choose Your Weapon, Anita Baker – Giving You the Best that I Got, Outkast – ATLiens, Mara TK – Bad Meditation, and Erykah Badu – Baduizm, to name a few.
H: How did you want it to feel?
JC: Calm, warm and welcoming. We didn’t want it to feel like a busy place where people were running around waiting on tables. We wanted it to be a space where people could just sit, listen to good music while enjoying their morning coffee. Personally, for us, the space has been driven by the memories of spending time with family at our grandparents’ homes in West and South Auckland. Humble spaces that were always warm and full of laughter, where everyone knew who made the best cup of tea. Also, this was a project built by us – my wife and I and my uncle, Roger Silulu of Mass Built (most of my large Samoan family work in construction), so the concept of aiga/family is something that we wanted our space to be about. No slick shopfitting company – a little labour-of-love project together.
H: What appealed about the space?
JC: It was perfect for us returning back to Central Auckland from being in Melbourne for well over a decade. Things have definitely changed a lot around here, so we wanted a place for everyone to feel welcome – we have family and friends that have been locals of this part of Tāmaki for decades. The space itself was a blank canvas with “tradie” white paint throughout, but with quirks in the plan: the two-storey building and carpark off a lane out the back. It presented plenty of potential and room for imagination.
Everyday Coffee
163 Sandringham Road, Sandringham, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
@everyday.coffee.nz
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