There were already many reasons for us to want to move to New Zealand — the female-led government, the bucolic landscape, the prompt and generally agreeable response to threat of a pandemic — but this renovated villa, spotted recently on Remodelista, kind of pushed us over the edge. It’s actually perfect — plaster walls (in a finish called “Aalto Pause”), a floating staircase, an abundance of Scandinavian and Japanese influences, a room with emerald green wall-to-wall carpeting, and, the detail I can’t get over, a peekaboo swimming pool. The rear wall of the house stops a good yard short of the floor to reveal a view of the pool, all but erasing the boundary between indoors and outdoors; the outdoors is beckoned inside again with a small, square of a Japanese-inspired garden just off the kitchen. The interiors are the work of Auckland designer Katie Lockhart, who worked with architect Jack McKinney to update a traditional villa bound by heritage rules; the images here represent a renovation of the only non-original parts of the house. Other pitch-perfect details include a sofa by Truck Furniture, a vintage Tuareg rug, bottle-green Heath Ceramics tiles in the bathroom, and two Hotaru Double Bubble Lights by Barber & Osgerby for Ozeki & Co. Ltd. — the Japanese manufacturers of Noguchi lamp shades.

PHOTOS BY DAVID STRAIGHT