Katie Lockhart

For more than twelve years, Katie Lockhart Studio has worked across residential and commercial interiors in New Zealand and abroad. Based in Auckland, Lockhart approaches interiors through a mix of research, collecting and instinct. Her projects bring together furniture, materials and objects from different places and periods, creating spaces that feel collected rather than styled.

That sensibility can be seen in projects ranging from private homes to restaurants, hotels and retail spaces. At Orchard House, a family home and ceramicist retreat near Queenstown designed with Fearon Hay, she combined contemporary architecture with vintage furniture, custom pieces and collected objects. The result is understated, but far from anonymous.

Lockhart’s eye was shaped early. Her parents collected pre-1900s New Zealand colonial furniture, and Saturdays were often spent moving between antique shops. At home, she watched her father restore old pieces, learning to appreciate the craftsmanship and stories carried by objects.

After design school, she worked for fashion designer Karen Walker before moving to Milan. There, she encountered a world of Italian furniture and interiors that she describes as her true design education. Later, in London, she assisted interior designer Suzy Hoodless, developing an interest in both traditional and contemporary furniture. The experience gave her a design vocabulary that stretches well beyond one place or period.

Lockhart still works much like a collector. She travels to meet dealers, visits collections and follows references wherever they lead. A photograph in a magazine can lead to a particular designer; a piece of furniture can lead to a whole history of making. Colour is part of this process too. She collects scraps of faded paint while travelling and keeps files of colour combinations, materials and images in the studio. Rather than organising everything into neat categories, she allows unexpected references to sit alongside one another. It is often in these collisions that a project begins to take shape.

The interiors that emerge from this process rarely belong to a single era. Lockhart is interested in what happens when the familiar meets something unexpected. Her own mid-century farmhouse brings together Japanese cabinetry, an Italian-inspired checkerboard floor and furniture by Vico Magistretti and Achille Castiglioni. At the Katie Lockhart Studio Bathroom, Appiani mosaic tiles are paired with English-made bathroomware, creating a room where pattern, craftsmanship and function sit comfortably together.

The same instinct appears in larger projects. At Franklin Road House, a heritage Edwardian villa renovated with Jack McKinney Architects, a contemporary addition and crafted kitchen sit within the older structure. Rather than competing with the existing house, the new work creates a quieter conversation between old and new.

For Lockhart, much of the design happens during the making. She works closely with cabinet makers, furniture makers and artisans, allowing details to change as materials are handled and ideas are tested.

Her collaboration with architect Bijoy Jain was particularly influential, encouraging her to slow down and experiment throughout the process. That attitude remains visible in the studio’s work today. At Orchard House, Lockhart joined Fearon Hay’s project during construction, shaping the furniture and softer elements around the architecture and the client’s collection of ceramics. The result is not a fixed formula, but an ongoing process of looking, collecting, testing and making, with each project finding its own combination of things.