Story: Home décor and furnishings

V-huts, named for their inverted-V shape, were timber-framed tent homes built as temporary shelters for Canterbury settlers in the 1850s while they constructed more permanent houses. The ironically named ‘Studding Sail Hall’, the V-hut of Alfred Barker and his family in 1851, was made into a cosy dwelling with the addition of a few items of furniture brought over from England, including a table, chairs, shelves, clock and chest of drawers (visible just inside the door). The two-roomed hut was painted green inside.