- Terry Fergusson-Hughes and his husband Kyle are selling their renovated Pāpāmoa home.
- The couple transformed the house into an entertainment space with a Bali-inspired garden and art studio.
- They are downsizing after hosting events like the Mid Winter Christmas Collective to support local artists.
Internationally acclaimed Kiwi artist Terry Fergusson-Hughes and his husband Kyle are selling their eye-popping Pāpāmoa retreat.
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Fergusson-Hughes, whose striking Marilyn Monroe portrait was recently chosen to be part of a Milan exhibition celebrating the Hollywood icon’s 100th birthday, bought the three-bedroom house at 45 Santa Barbara Drive with Kyle three years ago for $1m.
The couple had quit Auckland and were looking to reconnect with their Bay of Plenty roots. Their friends thought it was ugly, but they saw potential and set about turning it into the home they had always dreamed of owning.
“The funny thing is I liked the house next door,” Fergusson-Hughes told OneRoof. “Basically, Kyle sold it to me because I just wasn’t sure. I have a lot of ideas and dreams, and Kyle brings me back down to earth.”
Terry Fergusson-Hughes with his Marilyn Monroe piece, which has been selected for PassepARTout Unconventional Gallery’s “100 Ways to Say Marilyn” exhibition. Photo / Supplied
Fergusson-Hughes and Kyle turned their three-bedroom house into a tropical paradise. Photo / Supplied
The home has been enhanced with skylights and special lighting to complement the couple’s art collection. Photo / Supplied
They wanted a place to entertain their friends, and that’s what 45 Santa Barbara Drive became. “Once a year we have a fundraising dinner called the Mid Winter Christmas Collective. We have 28 people for dinner; they each make a dish, and we raise money for a fund that I have called The Bushman’s Son Fund that helps local artists in the Bay of Plenty area.”
The couple turned the garden into a little pocket of Bali, the garage into an art studio for Fergusson-Hughes and an office for Kyle, and chose lighting to bring their art collection to life.
Fergusson-Hughes, who works under the moniker the Bushman’s Son, found himself in the spotlight this year after receiving an unexpected message from someone he initially assumed was a scammer.
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“I use social media to promote my art a lot. The [Marilyn] piece was called The Cost of Hollywood Glamour. I put it on Facebook and Instagram [and] I got an email from a gallery in Milan that was celebrating Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday. They were choosing 100 pieces from around the world, and they wanted me to include mine,” he said.
“We thought it was spam, honestly, until I looked at the gallery’s name and realised it was legit.”
Fergusson-Hughes said the painting wasn’t one of his favourites, “but that’s always the way. The ones I don’t particularly like always sell first. And I go, ‘Oh OK, I like it now’.”
Kyle, who is a carpenter in his spare time, was the creative force behind many of the home's striking touches. “It was quite a dark house, so we had some major skylights put in throughout the property in the kitchen and dining room and down the hallway,” he told OneRoof.
The couple turned their backyard into an entertainment hub where they held fundraising dinners. Photo / Supplied
They are selling up and downsizing. Photo / Supplied
“We have four or five hero pieces of art. A Lester Hall, there’s a Rita Angus, and some other stuff that I like to collect.
“Because we have those special pieces, we had a whole lot of art lighting put in, which somebody else is now going to enjoy.”
When asked what they loved about the home, the pair said: “The neighbours.”
“We’re so lucky, and we’re going to miss them, the neighbours on both sides and across the road,” Fergusson-Hughes said. “It’s a nice street. Sometimes you sit out the front with a glass of wine, and you hear kids playing down the road and not on their devices.”
The couple call the home their swan. It was an ugly duckling from the street when they bought it. “When we showed everybody, they went, ‘Oh my God, that’s such an ugly house’. And now it’s been reborn into this swan, if you like. It was dated, but it was just the way it was built.”
Kyle said the house had a special atmosphere. “Everybody talks about it, and we do get a lot of people because Terry’s a great host. It’s got this feeling, this vibe,” he said.
The couple are selling up to downsize. “Kyle and I have called it our sea change. There are two of us here and our two dogs, and it’s not a small house,” Fergusson-Hughes said.
He added that there had been around 22 groups of people at the first open home. “It looked like a music festival.”
- 45 Santa Barbara Drive, Papamoa, Tauranga, goes to auction on August 6
