Kirsten Lloyd, Amica Boutique Hair Specialists
Kirsten Lloyd is director of Amica Boutique.
She tells Ponsonby News, “I live with my dreams and the love of my life. Well yes, my partner lives here most of the time too, but I mean my beautiful and towering teenage son, Jack, and effusive little angel Anja, here above our boutique in the most rock ‘n’ roll little urban village, West Lynn styles! There’s a community garden out back and we even have gypsies for neighbours. I know they are real gypsies because I take the guitar over some nights and they love a singalong under their outdoor heaters.”
Are you a long-time Greater Ponsonby resident?
Let me be very clear, there is no greater part to Ponsonby than West Lynn. Now my colleague, Jason, he’s a bit partial to St Mary’s Bay which is his ‘hood. But we trained together 20 years ago and I’m not shy of dropping his lineage, which traces right back to my wee dive in Wood Street, back when we were first learning how to cut, colour and style to Prince, Wham and the odd sneaky bit of Anne Murray! So, I am a returned Ponsonby resident, in the greatest part thereof!
What do you call your favourite room?
I’m not sure how to spell it ... is it ‘sigh’ or ‘peace’, or ‘ahhhhhh’? I would call it sanctuary but then I’m either a hunchback or singing the Cult and frankly neither are good at my age, love.
What do you use this room for?
I use it for escape. I love this room because I can close the door. The one drawback of living and working in one place is that it is hard to close the door on work, and one life floods into the other sometimes. But up here, work life stays out on that side. Any parent will understand the joy of when your babies are big enough to no longer trail in here. Anywhere else they have an urgent question, hunger or lost piece of clothing that Mum can fix right away, but here, the door is my protector. A deep bath... no aches or pain - physical or emotional - can outlast that tub. For fast mornings a monsoon-like double shower head in a big self-draining glass cubicle (easy to clean)! Bolts of natural light hit and bounce about, it’s a green-tiled haven.
What are your favourite things in the room?
A small design detail that, if you are going to design your bathroom, you must include:
a small concave ledge, an insert into the wall of the shower just below knee height. Small enough that you can’t see it at first, big enough to rest a foot. Why would you lift your foot to almost knee height to rest that foot? Makes no sense, until you want to shave your legs. Genius! It is what great design is all about: attentiveness, thinking about the human need and delivering that discreet touch to make somebody happy. All this in a little shower side ledge. I’m a simple girl.
AMICA BOUTIQUE, 453 Richmond Road, T: 09 376 826 www.amicaboutique.co.nz