Photography: Babiche Martens
Home profile
Meet and greet: Brooke Fairgray (director of children’s apparel brand Phoenix and the Fox); David Scott (business manager at Top Flight); their children, Grayson, eight, and Marsden, six. Brooke’s sister Jesika also currently lives with them.
The property: Four-bedroom, two-bathroom, brick-and-block ’80s house in Whangaparāoa.
With a table and Christmas tree ablaze with riotous colour, Brooke and David’s home is set for a joyeux Noel, with an emphasis on the joyeux. But for this household, which includes the couple’s two children and Brooke’s sister Jesika, the saturation of colour and festive feeling of warmth and welcome is not a seasonal affectation. This is a place of joy throughout the year.
Chaos energy
“Christmas for us is a wild, hectic time,” says Brooke. With big families around them, she explains, “We’ve got like five Christmases in two days and we host at least two of them.” While it sounds hectic indeed, the bliss of being enveloped by family and friends is the major reason Brooke and David ended up in this house at Red Beach, north of Auckland.
“It was a full circle moment,” says Brooke, who had spent large chunks of her childhood in the area, but had initially dismissed it, despite its charms, as a pensioners’ paradise.
“We bought our first little home in south Auckland and had our two babies out there, but I just never felt grounded,” she says. What she was missing, but couldn’t articulate at the time, was a sense of community. She recalls the series of pivotal moments that compelled their move. “We were at the surf club and it was full of families. Then, everyone knows everyone, so I would be at the supermarket and running into my dad’s golf buddies. It felt like we were coming home.”
But the course of true home love never runs smoothly. The relocation encountered a fair few road bumps – missed sales, nine months spent crashing with Brooke’s dad, Covid – but fortune finally favoured them. En route to another auction, the couple took a “stress drive” and spotted a tiny private sale sign on a fence. The house, which they subsequently made their own, was more than they ever thought they could achieve: a rock-solid, brick and concrete block build that felt like a warm hug. It was beautifully maintained and had more than double the space of their previous home. “It’s coming up four years and not a day passes that we don’t feel lucky to have made the move and secured this house,” says Brooke.
Colouring in
Adventurous Brooke would have been glad to try her hand at renovating. However, part of the appeal of this home was its sturdiness and liveability. The only urgent changes were cosmetic. A greige palette had passed its use-by date and, most importantly, in no way reflected the lively nature of the home’s new residents. Though not shy about using colour, Brooke started out conservatively, painting out the greige with white, Resene Eighth Rice Cake. “Over time, I started adding colour to the kids’ spaces. It started with a door frame. Just a tiny little pop, and then I went back and did the door, then I did a feature wall. So, I’ve just built the colour up over time.”
Brooke’s attitude to design is perfectly illustrated by her Christmas tree, a bright beacon of non-traditional canary yellow. Needing an emotional lift during a difficult time, and in defiant response to a comment about the “proper way” to do Christmas (natural pine tree, ultra-traditional), Brooke drove to Republic in Newmarket and bought the loudest yellow tree.
“It was my own personal rebellion, like, ‘I will do this my way.’ And it honestly brings me so much joy. It’s a little reminder that we make our own rules,” she says, explaining that she has applied the same rule-defying mentality to her home. That’s why playful patterns and vivid pops of colourful accessories abound everywhere. From the walls to Brooke’s beloved collection of Arnold Circus stools, which rotate around the house, enlivening even the most neutral spaces with a jubilant fist pump of cheerful colour.
There’s calm in the kaleidoscope, too. Pockets of tranquility contrast with brighter spaces, benefitting both. “Some spaces are neutral and soft, like my bedroom specifically is quite calm,” says Brooke of the mostly white-on-white main bedroom. “Whenever I add colour to that bedroom space, I end up taking it back out again. I just need that calm.”
Play school
The children stretched their decorating wings, too. Grayson and Marsden were involved in selecting their decor to truly own their spaces. This sense of freedom ranges from little slices of zesty colour and some impressive artwork to the full Wonka-esque wildness of the playroom, where pink stripes rise from mid wall to cover the entire ceiling. “Some spaces are calm, but the kids’ playroom is full noise.”
The playful interiors are also an example of work infiltrating home life – in the best possible way. Brooke is the owner and creative director of children’s clothing brand Phoenix and the Fox. “I get to revel in all things playful and colourful,” she says. Brooke freely admits that her work obsessions tend to influence her home’s interior. Case in point: the brand’s current range is a sticker book-inspired collaboration with Australian artist Cass Danson. Cass’ fruit and rocketships kawaii style adorns daughter Marsden’s bedroom wall.
Beauty in the small things
The home is colourful, quirky and bold, warm and nurturing. The bedrooms are an excellent example, which are covered in contrasting patterns but are primarily cuddly and inviting. “I come from a long line of nesters,” says Brooke. She recalls how her mum would thoroughly refresh her linen and mattresses when she was sick.
“Everything would be fresh and snuggly and it would smell like sunshine. It’s become an inherent part of my love language. If my friends are having a tough time or have moved house, I’ll make their bed for them as an act of service. So when it came to my kids, I just doubled down.”
Investing in gorgeous bedding and homewares is a gift for Brooke, too, she says. “After we had the kids, any spare cash went to beautifying mundane things. It’s a boring old world so why not have beauty in those practical things? I even love doing laundry. The bedding is beautiful, the kids’ clothes are beautiful and it just feels like a privilege and a joy.”
Brooke’s home truths for a joyous home
Break the rules (they’re made up, anyway): The most beautiful spaces come from following your heart, not following the crowd. So choose pieces you adore and throw them together.
Design for living, not looking: Create spaces that invite play, creativity, rest (if that’s what you seek), and everyday living. A beautiful home shouldn’t feel precious – it should be touchable, usable. Think durability meets beauty, just like our approach to kidswear.
Let your home tell a story: Fill your space with pieces that carry meaning. Art you’ve invested in, art made by your children, heirlooms, rugs or light fittings you carried in your luggage on a holiday across Asia – these items create layers of personality and become part of your family’s narrative. It’s way more interesting than a catalogue home.
Buy less, choose well: I know this can be challenging and comes with privilege as budget allows, but you can shop savvy. Invest in quality pieces that serve both function and beauty. From organic cotton bedding to handcrafted ceramics, choose items that will be loved and used daily.
A space to call their own: For the children’s spaces I am big on letting their personalities shine. The big Memphis Poster Club posters display their initials to proudly mark their space. Bed linen is printed in colours or patterns that they’re drawn to. Things evolve, and I’m happy to change things as their age and stage changes.
Shop Brooke and David’s bright Whangaparāoa home style
See more images of the bright Whangaparāoa home below
The bathroom was too tidy to renovate, but has been given new life with bright accessories. The orange check bath towels are from Baina, floral bathmat from Sage x Clare and an orange Arnold Circus stool.
Even though this room has been left white – for now – it’s still alive with colour, such as the red Arnold Circus stool, beanbag and assorted bedding from Kip&Co (Bananas and Space print), the Sage x Clare (green stripes) and Bossy Bedding (red stripes). The “G” poster is the original print that birthed Brooke’s business, Memphis Poster Club. On the door frame is a little pop of orange, Resene Adrenalin.
A large thoroughfare area downstairs has been turned into a playroom for the kids. The stripes are decals (find similar at Made of Sundays), paired with a block of pink in Resene Gelato. On the walls are yellow hooks from Dandie Store, a toucan artwork by son Grayson, and George & Willy paper roll. The rug is from Freedom.
In pride of place hang little ceramic discs, made by daughter Marsden to represent each member of the family.
Read this next:
- This 1970s Mason & Wales home has received a respectful reno, with plenty of colour
- Chloe Brookman’s home is playful and whimsical, just like a doll’s house
- A 70s brick home transformed by an epic mother-daughter duo
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