Kitchen and interior design studio in Hawke’s Bay, working across New Zealand
Our homes are built for a life nobody lives anymore, let’s fix that.
Joinery-led kitchens, bathrooms and whole-home built-ins for New Zealand women. Floor plan first, finishes last, so the bench stays clear and mornings run themselves. Your spare time goes to your people, not to decluttering, cooking and cleaning.
NEW BUILDS AND RENOVATIONS
Joinery-led
Everything that runs your home is built in. The kitchen, the wardrobes, the laundry, the vanities, the cabinets. Get them right and the bench clears itself, everything has a home, the room works without you thinking about it. Get them wrong and you feel it every day.
That's why I start there. Floor plan and joinery first, before we choose colours and finishes.
This is how you get a beautiful and a practical home.
KITCHEN DESIGN —
BATHROOM DESIGN —
WARDROBE DESIGN —
LIVING ROOM JOINERY DESIGN —
LAUNDRY DESIGN —
SPATIAL PLANNING —
KITCHEN DESIGN — BATHROOM DESIGN — WARDROBE DESIGN — LIVING ROOM JOINERY DESIGN — LAUNDRY DESIGN — SPATIAL PLANNING —
F-L-O ™
FINALISE THE FLOOR PLAN.
Where ease or frustration gets locked in. We resolve the layout first, before anything else complicates it.
LOCK IN THE SERVICES.
Lighting, power, plumbing and appliances support the plan. They don't get squeezed in later, after the expensive decisions are made.
OVERLAY THE FINISHES.
The room already works on paper. Now we layer in the materials, colours and fittings that make it feel like you.
WORK WITH FBDinteriors
THE GAP
Most home advice gets it backwards. You're told the fix is to buy more storage, get more organised, change how it looks. Jars, baskets, a cupboard, the perfect mood board. But if the floor plan, the storage placement and the zones are wrong, none of it fixes the real issues.
THE RESULT
So you're the only one who knows where anything goes. The bench is covered by 5:30, the system you set up lasted a fortnight, and you're quietly sure everyone else has this figured out and you're the one who doesn't. You don't. The home does.
WHERE WE’RE DIFFERENT
When you work with me, you don't get a stylist who starts at the mood board. You get a joinery-led designer who starts at the floor plan. I follow one process, FLO. Finalise the floor plan, lock in the services, overlay the finishes. The room works on paper before anyone spends a dollar on finishes to ensure it’s both beautiful and practical.
Real homes.
Real families.
Real changes to everyday life.
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Kitchen Renovation
NAPIER HILL
Before: bottlenecks, all cupboards, cluttered benches, nowhere for school bags or room to cook.
After: two of you can cook without colliding, the school bags have a home before they hit the bench, and the bench stays clear without anyone working at it.
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Extensive Rebuild
NAPIER HILL
Before: a planned extension with nowhere clear to walk through it and decisions still hanging.
After: a layout that flows, rooms that earn their space, and a brief so clear the builder knew exactly what to build before he started.
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New Build
HERALD ISLAND
Before: building their dream home but scared of getting the storage wrong and stuck with it forever.
After: kitchen, wardrobes, pantry and built-ins designed so the whole house has somewhere for everything, the day they move in.
Meet Your Designer
I'm Nichole Davis, the joinery-led designer behind FBD Interiors.
I've designed over 500 kitchens and interiors for New Zealand families, from one room to whole-home renovations and new builds. My work has picked up national awards and been featured in design media.
But the part that matters to you is simpler. I find what's not working, design the joinery-first plan to fix it, and hand your builder documentation so clear there's no guessing on site. You spend less, you don't redo it, and the home runs itself once you're in.
Plan. Design. Layer.
We start with the plan behind your home, so the 5:30 cook, the morning scramble and the Sunday reset stop draining you and start running themselves.
Then we layer in the personality, colour and materials that make it yours.
What every project includes
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3D Visuals
See your space before anything's ordered, so you're choosing from your actual home, not guessing from a tile sample.
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Documentation
Every tradesperson gets clear, detailed plans. No improvising on site, no "I thought you meant."
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Fixed scope
You know what's included and what it costs before you sign. No mid-build surprise invoices.
Design is about 10% of your spend. It protects the other 90%.
The decisions made here are what keep the build on time, on budget, and out of the redo. Get the order wrong and the 90% pays for it twice.
What Our Clients Are Saying
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I put this off for two years because I was convinced something would go wrong and we'd be left with a half-finished kitchen and a bill we couldn't explain. Nichole walked us through every decision before anything was ordered. When we saw the 3D render, it was genuinely emotional. that was our kitchen, exactly how I'd imagined it. The build was smooth because the brief was so clear. We're in it every day now and it still feels like the right call.
— Sarah, Havelock North
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My husband wanted to just get a builder in and get it done. I wanted to know what we were actually getting before we spent that kind of money. FBD was the middle ground we saw every finish, every fitting, every detail in the renders before a single thing was ordered. No surprises on site. The builder said it was the most complete brief he'd worked from. We made one change during the design phase that I know would have been a disaster to fix mid-build.
— Kate, Napier
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Our kitchen was the room we worked around, not in. Low benches, no storage, layout that made no sense for how we actually cook. I didn't want a new kitchen. I wanted our kitchen to stop being the worst part of the house. The process felt nothing like what I expected. No overwhelm, no pressure. Nichole managed every decision in the right order. Now the kids do homework at the island while I cook. Mornings are a different kind of morning.
— Mel, Havelock North
No overwhelm.
No decisions before you’re ready.
No chasing trades for updates.
Just a clear design process, done in the right order, by someone who’s done this hundreds of times.
The questions most people don't ask, but are thinking.
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This is exactly why I render your home in 3D before anything's ordered. You see your actual space, your colours, your fittings, not a tile sample and a leap of faith. You sign off on the real thing, so the kitchen you move into is the one you already approved.
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Most blowouts come from decisions made on site, mid-build, when it's expensive to change. I make those decisions on paper first, in the right order, and lock the scope before you sign. You know what's included and what it costs going in, so there's no surprise invoice halfway through.
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Less than you're afraid of. My job is to carry the decisions, not hand them to you. You tell me how you live, I bring you a plan that works and visuals you can actually picture, and I hand your builder a brief so clear you're not fielding questions on site every day. You stay in your life. I run the design.
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Design is about 10% of your spend and it protects the other 90%. You're paying for design either way, it's built into every builder and joinery quote whether you see it or not. The only question is whether it's done in the right order by someone who catches the costly mistakes before they're built, or done backwards and paid for twice.
Start where you are
Ready to talk it through?
You’ve got a rough idea of what you want, but you’re not sure what a designer actually does or what it costs. This free 20‑minute call walks through your options and whether we’re a good fit.
Want to
self-diagnose?
Answer 8 questions and get a personalised breakdown of which zone is letting your kitchen down and costing you your sanity. It only takes 2 minutes.