All Photography by Thomas Seear-Budd

Seear-Budd Ross is a relatively young architectural practice in New Zealand, but I predict we'll see them create some of this country's most beautiful spaces in the years ahead. This is one of their first completed residences, the re-design of an early 1900's villa in Wellington.

One thing that this duo do so well is refine, refine, refine - distilling a scene or design down to its essence with simple compositions, soft tones and natural materials.

As New Zealanders we've all seen scores of villa restorations, but have you ever seen one quite like this? The restrained palette of deep walnut and travertine is really the perfect choice for an historic villa - it feels traditional and substantial and grounding, but they've also managed (partially by re-designing the villa's original layout to bring in more natural light) to make it feel clean and warm at the same time - and the editing back of details has created such a beautiful sense of calm, don't you think?

These true-to-era sliding doors connect the living room to the dining and kitchen. Slide them right back to open up the space or close them to create warmth and intimacy.

Thomas Seear-Budd and James Ross are sort of renaissance men, actually. Not only do they work on residential and commercial architecture, they also design furniture (this beautiful dining table you see here is one of their debut pieces), and Thomas is an accomplished architectural and editorial photographer.

Good design hinges on achieving a goldilocks amount of detail - not too much, not too little.

Love this simple still life moment, bathed in sunshine.

You can see more of Thomas and James' work here, or follow their upcoming projects on Instagram @seearbuddross. 

All Photography by Thomas Seear-Budd.