Shady character Mark Allinson
Award-winning shade sail designer Mark Allinson. Photo: Neil Wilson.
Mark Allinson became an upholsterer when he stopped being a teacher, but these days he also spends a good deal of his time designing, making and erecting shade-sails. He says that he has really enjoyed the way his business, Shade Upholstery and PVC, has developed in new directions.
“I like the variety and I like the retraining and all the new learning that’s been involved,” he said.
Mark explained that people have become really conscious of shade in their outdoor living areas.
“A well-designed shade-sail can make a deck area more usable at the times of the day when people most want to be out there.”
One of Mark’s recent projects, in Richmond Road Pohara, was so successful he entered it in the under-250 square metre section of the annual competitions run by his professional body, the Outdoor Fabric Products Association of New Zealand (OFPANZ). To his delight, his job was the winner.
“When I got to the conference and saw the details of the jobs I was up against I knew that my one wasn’t going to be disgraced, so that was good. I was pleased to win at the conference, and then a while later I found out that winning there had automatically qualified the job for the competition run by the world body that OFPANZ is affiliated to. It’s pretty amazing and a complete surprise,” he said. “I won’t be going to the conference where they announce the winners—it’s in the US—but it’s nice to be represented there.”
Mark said that the winning project, at the holiday home of Allan and Barbara Bruhn, was a particularly testing one.
“It had to open up to the north and shed water away from the doors that open onto the deck, but also give good protection from the summer sun to the east and west. I went for two kite shapes in the sails and offset the supporting poles slightly, giving a nice asymmetrical feel to the finished project.”
Neil Wilson
