Never Fails

 

Oh what a gorgeous slice of cool this Sydney pad is. The perfect amount of original mixed with a clean skin of fresh white paint. Never fails.

 

And as for that swan boat print, I truly truly want one.

 

Images from citizens of the world

Hand It Over

 

This place is making me impatient for summer. We actually had a bit of warmth here on the weekend, which made me ridiculously happy.

 

And then to stumble across this place with its white washed walls and stone terraces around the pool, it all seems  so perfect.

 

I am sorry for you kids up north who are trying to cling on to your last days of summer, but, it's time to hand it over!

 

Images from elle

Balanced It

 

Have always had a soft spot for holiday houses still slightly stuck in the 70's. And this is a gorgeous one.

 

They've selected just the right details to keep and have balanced it really nicely with a new skin of white and some cool new pieces.

 

Images from vogue

Our Bathroom - The Before's

 

 

 

I had a reader write to me last week with hearty congratulations on our new bathroom, but they also asked "where are the before's??"

 

Good point.

 

There actually aren't too many before's, but I think the images here give you enough of an idea - roman shower/bath thing, brown bubbly glass shower screen {mostly rusted}, massive vanity cupboard that spanned the whole wall where we now have the bath, old green/brown tiles, all topped off with an 80's rag paint finish  festooned with stencils. Just brilliant.

 

Apart from the old shower making the linen cupboard behind it mouldy, there was enough eyesores in this room to make a renovation high on the priority list. When my 15 yr old son was looking for a project for school this seemed like a perfect choice. He's always been pretty keen on projects around the house, and is a very handy sort of chap. This project was meant to span a year {but there was no way I was sharing my ensuite with two boys for that long} and take the student through the creation of something of their own design from inception to finished product. That's how our new bathroom was born.

 

At first he wasn't 100% sure about my design ideas, but as he searched up a design palette, more and more he came to like the concept.  It was a good thing he did, because I was his client after all. So what I wanted was what I was getting!

 

He worked ridiculously hard, and was so good. We did get in trades people to do the very tricky bits, but whatever he could take on himself, he did. The biggest job was demolishing the old bathroom. That was ridiculously hard as every surface had to be taken back to the base. The concrete glass render finish needed to start on bare brick. It was a hard slog, but now we all love the concrete finish so much, it was worth it.

 

So there you have it, some of the before's, a fair few of the in the middle's and a couple of the after's {for perspective!}. It's true bathrooms are one of the hardest rooms, right up there with kitchens, but the input equals the satisfaction of the finished room.

 

Images by the diversion project

Look Is Done

 

Who knew that wallpaper ripped off the wall could look so good? If I was this home owner I would've stopped there too. What a rotten job it is pasting all that gloop on and scrapping the wallpaper off like peeling skin.

 

I love the parchment brown and rough look. Add in crumply linen bedding, and the look is done.

 

Now I am eyeing off some particularly fine vinyl paper right in front of me! Could be worth a shot.

 

Images from stadshem