Dutch Family Renovates Dunedin Villa for 3-Meter Table

Sometimes the smallest details lead to the biggest transformations, and for one Dutch family, it all came down to a dining table.

When Antoinette and Roel Wijland visited Dunedin during orientation week in 2002, they fell hard for the coastal city. The cricket was on, the sun was shining, and within a year, they'd packed up their lives in the Netherlands and moved across the world with their two children.

After a short-lived romantic idea about caravan living didn't work out, the family began searching for a permanent home near the beach. But they had one non-negotiable requirement that stumped real estate agents: they needed a room large enough for their 3-meter-long dining table shipping from Europe.

Most houses they viewed simply couldn't accommodate it. Then they found a 1900s villa on Ascot Street in St Kilda with potential, though it needed serious work.

The house was dark and cramped, with walls chopping up the living spaces and a narrow passage connecting the kitchen to the dining area. But Antoinette and Roel saw what it could become.

Over six months, they transformed the villa. Walls came down, windows were installed to brighten a dark hallway, and a larger front door welcomed more light. They added an annex and created the open-plan space their table deserved.

Roel, who had a background in advertising, painted colorful ceilings in the bedrooms. Antoinette designed a corrugated iron shower inspired by camping trip cabins, a choice so ahead of its time that their builder struggled with the installation and ended up using car exhaust pipes for the fittings.

The renovation created a sun-soaked home where morning light floods through back sliding doors, moves along the kitchen throughout the day, and settles in the front for evening relaxation.

Sunny's Take

This story captures what makes a house a home: not perfection, but the willingness to see potential and create something that fits your life exactly as you live it. The Wijlands didn't compromise on what mattered to them, whether that was a dining table for family gatherings or a quirky shower design that made them smile.

Years later, with Roel sadly passed away and the children grown and living in Sydney and Wellington, Antoinette is ready to let go of the property. She knows a developer might tear it down and start fresh, but she's made peace with that possibility, choosing instead to remember the bright, creative home they built together.