CARLY FLYNN (FOR “RENOVATE MAGAZINE”)
“Janice Kumar Ward from JKW.nz (is a) regular guest on my Saturday radio show. Janice was instantly warm and friendly and is highly respected. She works along the lines of not being slave to following trends. If you love something, then have it.
Janice is also a busy working mum to two kids, so I knew that she’d ‘get’ me when we talked about family life. I had an hour with her for the first consult and the things she came up with blew me away. She’s also an interior architect, and suggested the addition of a clever doorway in our super long passage way that I’d never considered. It would cleverly hide a row of cool coat hooks for the aforementioned stuff to hang out of the way. We’d been planning to cram a much needed beer fridge into our already over crowded laundry. She told us to remove some excess drawers in the kitchen island and pop it there. Genius.
We covered lighting and window dressing, changing of rooms, wallpaper, wardrobe design, re appropriation of lounge furniture, among other things.
I came away buzzing. And confident that that one-hour of expertise was worth more to me than any hour I could get in an interiors shop or spooling through pinterest on my own.”
HISTORIC HOME | DUNEDIN | PRIVATE CLIENT
“We worked with Janice and Meg on the restoration of a (tired and sad, but once upon a time grand) 1920s home. We were living overseas when we started renovations, and as such relied on Janice and Meg to be our eyes and ears on the ground. From our very first conversation they understood what we wanted to achieve and how we wanted to live in it. They were careful to retain many of the original features which made the house so special, while modernising it enough to suit our taste. They listened to and delivered on some of our more unusual requests (hand dyed purple carpet) and steered us in the right direction when we were lost. They worked tirelessly with our tradespeople and earned the respect of all onsite. We are so happy with what was achieved so far. There is a great deal more of this project to come, and we will absolutely be using Janice going forward with every stage. We have and do recommend JKW to anyone undertaking a restoration of their own. We have a home that is unique and once again loved – we are working on extending its life for another 100 years!”
NEW BUILD | BEACH HOUSE |
WAIHEKE ISLAND | PRIVATE CLIENT
“We have worked with Janice across three different projects over a six year period. Twice we have asked her to help us with interior renovations and most importantly on our new house build on Waiheke. On this, she worked with us for 18 months covering all aspects to do with interior design, decoration, furniture, kitchen design and bathware. She liaised frequently with our builder and was an integral part of the team which produced an award winning finish to the whole house.
Janice is a very creative lady and we love the fact that she looks to deliver ideas outside the norm, not just accepting an often bland brief from the client! Sure, not all of them deliver but many do and as a result our home is all the better for these great ideas. She is a very enthusiastic and energetic person and regularly went beyond normal expectations to deliver what we wanted.
Overall, we have always felt that she was “on our side” and wanted to provide an outstanding result for our home. Choosing Janice to help us with our new home was a big decision – we never regretted it for one minute. We would absolutely recommend her!”
MATT JOHNSTON - ITALIAN STONE
“I just want to say how fantastic it is working with you. We find it an extreme privilege to work with such talented, exciting, fun, like-minded and lovely people.Your design, colors and all round thought in projects it always exciting to see. Look forward to many more projects with JKW.”
ZANE PILKINGTON
“We have a close relationship with Janice & JKD Design, working in collaboration with her team on high end interior fit outs. Janice and the team have a can do attitude and an expert eye for design and architecture, their focus is on the finer details and delivering to the client the best possible outcome.”
ANDY RUSSEL - SWITCH
“We have worked with JKW on a number of projects to this date, and have always found the team at JKW to be creative, with a professional approach in all aspects relating to their clients and the design they are implementing.”
ANDREA AND TONY TRUBUHOVICH
“Tony and I have worked with JKW on the renovation of our Vlad Cacula house in Orakei – she has been a pleasure to work with. Her ability to solve all those wee challenges that come up with renovations has made the whole process so much less stressful than it could have been. Her eye for detail, ingenious ideas, ability to source and creative solutions have given us an awesome result. We couldn’t be happier and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her or use her again on another project – which we might just have for her!! We love the Mr and Mrs Ward bedside tables too.”
SHOSHANA & TOM MAASLAND
“We have worked with Janice on a few projects on our home and she has been fantastic to work with. As well as having a great eye for detail and aesthetics, she is consistently practical and mindful of budgets, always coming up with clever solutions to seemingly tricky problems. We love how Janice listens to us and ‘gets’ us, our tastes and how we live – we think the results perfectly reflects that.”
M & J | BEACHHAVEN & CHRISTCHURCH
“Janice’s design sense, combined with her architectural skill set, is really very special. Over the last seven years she has drawn up the architectural concept for our now fully renovated house in Auckland including the full interior, and done another full interior for a new house in the South Island. One of Janice’s strengths is that rather than just suggesting what she likes, she gets to know you, and figures out how you live and what will fit with your style.”
KIRIANA & WILL TIPPING | FREEMANS BAY
“Janice has an incredible sense of style and her vibrant personality really helps when dealing with the stress of renovating. Her contacts in the industry were invaluable which meant we got a better outcome than if we were to go out on our own. Our house is more beautiful for having had her on our team.”
GEORGE FARRANT – PRINCIPAL HERITAGE ADVISOR CENTRAL
“I worked happily with Janice on an unusual project demanding an understanding of, and sensitivity towards, interior design within the iconic heritage place of the Auckland Town Hall. The project was to adapt a key major room to a new use, and in doing so to recover something closer to the original look and feel. This included a considerable debate about how to strike an appropriate balance between modern needs, new design, and fidelity to heritage principles. I was very pleased with Janice’s willingness to embrace this challenge, and the creation of a result we can be all proud of. It would be a pleasure to work with Janice again on any similar project.”
KAREN & TONY PEXTON – NORTHCOTE POINT
“We engaged Janice to help us with the refurbishment of our home. We are absolutely delighted with the final result – a fresh and modern feel and look which is exactly what we were wanting to achieve. We would highly recommend Janice and her team.”
ANNIE & JOHNNY MANTELL – MANTELLS AUCKLAND
“Janice has helped us on four projects – Mantells Metropolis Apartment, Mantells Mt Eden, Mantells On The Water, and the refurbishment of a Luxury Harbour Cruiser. The work has been very varied, from selection of carpets to designing canopies and awnings to fit with the various designs. Janice has been flexible and happy to temper our own ideas into the overall design. Her knowledge of fabrics that are easily accessible is a strong feature of her work. We recommend her and her work.”