Bella Homes is an award-winning, family-owned business specialising in the design and construction of luxury homes. They wanted a way to showcase the quality of their builds, to set them apart from the group-home builders — a new, luxury show home that would let their customers see and feel the difference. 

The new Te Mara Estate Show Home in Whangarei is something special, with a bold architectural design featuring quality I-Built engineered wood products from NZWOOD. As Bella Homes co-owner Simon Crawford says, NZWOOD offered a great range, which let them get the look right. “We wanted a lot of textures and materials. We needed everything to be aesthetically interesting to look at, as well as functioning as a home.” 

Strong, Straight and Beautiful

Inside, the show home uses Hyne Beam 17C Glulam (GL17) for the exposed truss open-plan roof structure. Keeping the wide ceilings looking beautiful required the minimum of joins and bracing, so the high-strength Glulam was ideal. These trusses were made to order in a select grade with a sanded, white-wash finish and affixed with proprietary black brackets.

As Simon explains, “I-BUILT’s glulam timber is strong and reliable — it really gave us the look we were going for.”

Outside, decorative half portals added a strong design element using Hyne Beam 21 (GL21) Glulam, made from select Queensland Spotted Gum Hardwoods — the strongest beam available. The rich colouring blended into the cladding and surrounding landscape. Mitred knee junctions were fixed with black structural brackets that matched the internal trusses. 

These were a particular favourite of the Bella show home builder, Scott Carter. “They were beautiful — really nice timber and they looked really good.”

Quality Products

The quality of the products was paramount in this build, and both Scott and Simon say NZWOOD delivered. As Carter says, “Their product was easy to use, high quality, wasn’t damaged when it turned up on site and the gauging was good. It made my job easier.”

Simon adds that the service from the I-Built team has been consistently helpful. “They do what they say they’re going to do. It’s all you could ask for, really! I’d definitely recommend them.”

New Zealand Wood Products (NZWOOD) are the Exclusive NZ distributors of Hyne Glulam in New Zealand. They know the product inside and out, so are able to talk through any project, giving options, and providing technical support throughout the build.