From a childhood spent in a house bus to a corporate career in finance, Wānaka interior designer Kate Evans has taken a winding road to her true calling. Now, she’s bringing a focus on liveability, nature-inspired design and community spirit to Central Otago.

Words Lucinda Diack

When interior designer Kate Evans talks about what draws her to houses, she traces it back to a childhood that lacked a permanent one. She shares, with a smile and an unbridled sense of joy, how her parents ‘sold everything and bought an old school bus.’ Her mother painted it bright blue, with dolphins and whales cascading down the side. Complete with custom-sewn curtains partitioning off bunk beds, the family spent years traveling around Australia. While Kate admits she used to envy friends who had beautiful, stable homes, that unconventional upbringing sparked an early, deep-seated fascination with spaces. Her favourite childhood books were always about houses, laying a foundational love for design that would eventually pull her away from a corporate accounting career

While numbers and spreadsheets might seem like the antithesis of a creative calling, Kate credits her financial background as her secret weapon in the design industry. ‘The reality of the design world is logistics and managing budgets,’ she says, ‘which comes pretty easily to me,’ she says.

That practical mindset heavily informs her current design approach, which is grounded in achieving a feeling more than a look. For Kate, true inspiration is drawn directly from the outside world and nature. She steers away from fleeting, short-lived trends – noting that by the time a multi-year build is completed, trends have already shifted. Instead, she aims for a timeless, contemporary and relaxed aesthetic, where the client is the heart of the story. Whether starting with a client’s beloved piece of art, a specific rug, or simply guiding them through colour palettes and visuals, her goal is to create an authentic environment that makes people feel completely relaxed the moment they walk through the door.

Today, a large part of her role at Curated Wānaka involves stepping in right at the start of a project to collaborate closely with clients alongside their architect. It is a partnership that bridges the gap between technical structure and ‘pure liveability’. While an architect focuses on the grand shell, Kate zeros in on how a family will actually live and interact in the space.

 

That meticulous, highly personalised approach has also fuelled a major boom in her Airbnb furniture installation service. While standard property stagers typically roll out the same look using whatever inventory they have on hand, Kate treats holiday homes like custom residential designs. Her team uses a tight, seamless system that provides owners with full rendered interior visuals of the exact furniture being procured, ensuring every property reflects an individual anchor point rather than a copy-paste aesthetic.

Kate’s desire to push boundaries recently led her to open what she humbly refers to as a ‘little shop’ in the township of Luggate – an undertaking she admits quickly turned into a massive beast.

Born out of a desire to support the local community and beautify an area people usually just pass through, the retail space has become a vibrant hub. For those traveling through Central Otago, skipping Luggate means missing out on a hidden gem. The area in which the shop is located, fondly known as On The Green, provides a place where visitors can grab a coffee, do a spot of shopping, chat directly with local working artists or access the beautiful hidden walking and cycling trails that wind along the local creeks. Far from the heavily commercialised tourist spots, Kate’s Luggate sanctuary is a masterclass in relaxed, contemporary Central Otago liveability. Much like her interior design.