Tom and Lesley Wilson’s house and garden is filled with eclectic design that is truly beautiful to behold, expressing confident personality, an eye for design, and a sense of magic. By Nicola Belsham. Photos by Sam Cameron.

As the owner of a buzzing automotive workshop, Tom Wilson is a well-known personality in Martinborough. His wife Lesley can be found in a wee cubical managing the administration and business end of the garage. Tom and Lesley Wilson bought the garage on Naples Street 30 years ago and a year later, bought their house.

Their home has become the Yin to the Yang of the workshop. Traversing through the old wooden gate into the Wilson’s private property, is like stepping into Pan’s Labyrinth.

It’s a magical, enchanting environment, that is an expression of Lesley’s personality itself. Every nook of her rambling cottage garden has a surprise, something to look at, engage with, and a story. One section is filled with plants re-planted from her mother’s garden after she passed away four years ago; another showcases a collection of pots and succulents displayed on rustic wooden shelving built by Tom. Lesley respects that every pocket of the garden has its own personality and tale to tell. She doesn’t own the garden; the garden owns itself.

Inside the house, the adventure continues. Originally from Masterton, Lesley is one of the world’s beautiful people, and has a humble, quiet peace about her. She is an avid collector of work by local artists – their work sits along-side the tributes of friends and family now passed away. Artworks hang among $20 prints purchased from overseas trips and bespoke pieces that simply appeal to her. In Lesley’s words, “It’s not about the cost, but what you like.” Common throughout, is that everything has its individual narrative.

The off-spring of a family of collectors, Lesley has taken ownership of the family genes, paying homage to her ancestors, showcasing and actually using their collected treasures. An assortment of working toy sewing machines, once belonged to her mother. Herself a serious collector of German pottery and Italian Bitossi Ceramics, Lesley has spent years to attain an impressive array of orange, purple and blue abstract shapes that like a Picasso painting, occupy shelves and mantles. These juxtapose with unusual clocks (Tom’s input), Turkish rugs, retro soft furnishings, chandeliers, puppets and mannequins.

Lesley purposely likes things to be incongruous. The irony being that all work so artfully together as a whole. A rich theatre of colour and texture that no interior designer could replicate with such detail, depth and character. Everything is so personal. One of Lesley’s favourite items is the polished kitchen bench, handcrafted by a friend from some old pieces of wood laying around the garage and featuring immortalised, a fossilised bee within the resin of a knot.

Energetic and much-loved pet Rosa-May, likewise a juxtaposition of French bulldog and fox terrior, fits into the overall scheme so perfectly. Her black and white graphics perfectly contrast to the opulence of colours and textures throughout the house.

If a house and a garden was to reflect a personality, then Lesley’s home is testament to a beautiful soul, constructed by layers of experience, creativity, love and a quiet enjoyment of life. The honour of relatives now gone, the continuation of their stories, and the creation of her own.