Sign Writing

There is something so blatantly beautiful about spelling out your love on a wall!  I'm a big fan of using typography in interiors anyway, but it is extra special when the words are personal.  Other ideas: Frame a love letter * Paint a plate * Stick letter magnets on a piece of old tin * Write on a plain tea-towel and pin it to the wall * Print tiny messages on coloured plastic milk lids and create a pattern of words... can you think of more options?

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Decorating Tip: Styling With Trays

One of the easiest ways to style a coffee table or ottoman is to use a tray as the foundation.  Whether you add some gorgeous books, candles, flowers or glassware, a tray will contain and frame the items beautifully.  I love to use trays on ottomans because they provide a flat, stable surface that can be picked up and moved away at a moments notice.

Penny Saver Decorating

Penny Saving Decorating Tip: Scatter beautiful, bright paper pinwheel flowers across a wall to add instant zing and flair.  Use left-over paper to cover old books.  Cheap, creative, quirky and punchy!

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Book Nook

We are big book lovers in this house so when I saw this brilliant book nook I had to share it with you.  What a cosy little space for a small bod to crawl into and devour literature!  Note the white wall cladding and contrasting dark paint colour above the picture rail, all designed to make the nook feel comfortably spacious, yet  intimate.   You could turn an unused hall cupboard into a book nook just like this one... if only an unused cupboard wasn't something beyond total comprehension!

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Concrete Interiors

Please don't faint, but my latest passion is concrete - concrete floors, concrete benchtops, concrete stairs!  For me, the look works best when combined with natural timber.  The juxtaposition of the raw, industrial concrete aesthetic against the warm, organic vibe of wood is so beautiful - they lend an authenticity that's difficult to match.  The kitchen above has the perfect combination of elements to create a contemporary rustic space that feels totally real.

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Tranquil Bedroom Colour Scheme

                                    

Seafoam Green and White is one of my favourite tried-and-tested colour schemes for a bedroom.  It is calming and restful while still providing contrast and impact.  I find it a particularly good solution for walking the middle ground between masculine and feminine - it is soft and fresh without being overly pretty.  I manage to get this past most men without too much difficulty!

Try the following paint colours to create an interior similar to the one above:

Walls: Dulux Roland PG1D1

Trim and Ceiling: Dulux Natural White PN1E1

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Moshi Moshi POP Phone

I was recently given one of these super cool retro-inspired Moshi Moshi POP handsets from Nation Union (RR: $49.95).  You simply plug it into your iPhone, iPad or laptop and hey presto, you feel like you are speaking through an original 1950s Bakelite telephone!  Not only is it practical (I no longer accidently put people on hold with my earlobe) but it's ridiculously fun talking on a pink phone!  It comes in a whole range of rainbow colours... except white... clearly that would be way too dull x

Mother Love

It is Mothers Day here in Australia and as I sit writing this my own Mama is 500kms away.  It is hard living so far from each other - there are times when I just want to feel her arms around me, to rest my head on her shoulder and feel her restorative love envelope me.  There is nothing quite so calming, so peaceful, so perfect as being cared for by my Mum.  The sincerity and power of her love flows directly through me into my own child - I can nurture, because I am nurtured - we are part of a beautiful, sunlit circle.

Thank you Mum for mothering me
For nurturing me
For replenishing the well of love in my soul

I love you

x

Image & words by me

DIY Project - White Painted Floorboards

I love my home.  I love my life.  I love white.  I love girly, pretty stuff.  I do NOT love orange pine floorboards circa 1988 combined with yucky second-hand stained timber furniture from the charity shop!  It's one thing to have a house full of beaten-up vintage beauties, but it's another to have a house full of 'soon to be shabby chic if only I could be bothered to pull out the paint and could find an additional 10 hours in my week' cut-price bargains!

Finally, after years of talking about it, we painted our floorboards white... HIP HIP HOORAY!!!    Did I mention that we rent?  Did I mention that we didn't ask for permission first?  Did I mention that we also have a cat living here illegally?  We are such naughty decorating, pet-owning delinquents, painting walls in bold colours and renovating our kitchen without whispering a word to our landlord!  We are officially insane but we have so much fun.  Never mind the fact that if we ever leave this apartment we will need to spend a solid fortnight returning it to it's former, innocuous glory.

The process was hell, I won't lie.  Hideous beyond all words and imagination.  My handy husband, in his infinite wisdom, decided to use a tiny belt sander to strip the floor - it took hours and hours and hours, leaving us all covered in layers of the finest sawdust you ever saw (tip: hire a floor sander and damn the expense!).  There were small toddler footprints of orange crud caked onto our carpet for weeks!  While in the throws of decorating dementia, I decided to 'pretty up' my tired old desk before falling in a paint-splattered heap, declaring to never ever pick up a paint brush for as long as I lived.

But the results are totally worth every harrowing minute of renovation angst.  Our studio space is now bright and light and oh so stylish that it takes my breath away some days.  

Our journey...

Leo and Daphne Cat (the illegal immigrant) doing a final inspection

Our beautiful storm blue feature wall - this is my husband's side of the studio!

Hard at work sanding - this took FOREVER and nearly resulted in divorce!

At this point I was hyperventilating imagining our landlord knocking on our front door

The Monkey eating dinner amongst the chaos, totally unperturbed!

The goodies for my desk makeover

My new work space, complete with pink desk and white floor - honestly, it feels like sitting in a musk-flavoured, candy-floss cloud of happiness!

For the floors we used:

White Paving Paint

For my desk I used:

Milk Paint in Marshmallow from Porters Paints finished off with bees wax.  Milk paint has a beautiful rustic, chalky finish that was traditionally used in Shaker style furniture.  It is made from milk by-products mixed with powdered oxide pigments to produce a wonderfully subtle palette of soft colours.

Milky White Interiors

White paint is my antidote to all the world's ills.  Today I felt the need to become immersed in the luminous serenity of some milky white interiors to regain my sense of self.  Chandeliers, teepees and giant bunnies... can you feel the calmness wash over you?  Its pure magic I tell you!

x

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Shabby Chic for The Jetsons

Check out this gellato-coloured, sun-kissed interior and tell me it doesn't make you happy!  I could never be glum if I were able to spin around in that Bubble Chair and hug a pretty pink cushion every day. Rustic powder-puff heaven meets quirky 1960's space-age bling... just the kind of off-beat interior that fuels my rocket x

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... for my love

xxx

x

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The Vintage Bookworm

I have a particularly vivid memory of spending an entire rainy afternoon at my grandmother's house reading her original copy of Snow White - carefully turning the crumbly-edged pages, my fingers touching the ragged linen edges of the hardcover - the smell of the old ink, the slight dampness of the paper.  In that moment, a love of all things old and precious was born.  Vintage books have always held a strange allure for me.  There is something so moving about all those colourful spines with gold lettering that have bravely held together someone else's words for the children of the future to behold.  Magic.  

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Chaos Theory

I live in a crazy house.  A tiny home that is literally stuffed to the ceiling with a toddler, a husband, Daphne Cat, our "must, MUST have" vintage finds, fabrics, stone samples, books, teapots and so many beaten-up old chairs we have no idea what to do with them all!  From sun up til sun down, life is beautiful and chaotic.  It is our constant quest to improve, rearrange and store all our stuff in a way that inspires us.  My husband and I run our design business from our back sunroom (which on rare occasions doubles as a dining room) so we are passionate about living and working in a space that reflects our style and which promotes original thought... throw into that equation a vocal toddler with his own, very definite ideas on interior decoration!

So I'm always on the hunt for proof that other people manage to live a similar, crazy existence while maintaining their creative identity.  Here is a stunningly original family home that is so colourful, cozy and happy - enjoy!

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Add a Little Joy

I loved this... so literal, so quirky, so cool!

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Peaceful Tones

This gorgeous collection of images is from one of my favourite blogs, Hannas Form.  I love the combination of neutral, organic tones accented with touches of silver.  Beautiful, restful and natural - great inspiration for an interior palette.

Buttoned Headboard

This stunningly beautiful winged headboard from The White Company is my current favourite.  I love the way the gentle tapered edge gives just a suggestion of cocooned comfort without appearing too overbearing.  So elegant.  So wow.  So want it x

Little Girl's Study Nook

When I was seven, I remember being totally smitten with stationery of all descriptions and the idea of sitting down at a desk to do "work".  I had a vast collection of glitter pens, stickers, rainbow pencils, fluorescent paper clips, erasers shaped as fruit, post-it-notes in all shades of pink and purple and reams and reams of paper.  So when I saw the above image, my seven-year-old self nearly fainted with longing.  I can just imagine sitting up there, earnestly filing and shuffling and sorting my stationery - such a gorgeous, simple space for a little girl to pretend to be big x

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Make a Statement

Even me, self-confessed addict of All Things White & Pastel, occasionally sees the need to create bright, bold, beautiful decorating statements.  I don't do it often.  I prefer to limit such outbursts to a few, stunning and memorable moments when the desire to bring a dynamic punch into a home seems like the most natural course of action imaginable - when the combination of pattern, form and colour are so delicious, I can't possibly pass them up.

My rules: Do it right.  Do it well. Do it BIG.

Don't be shy, or half-baked, or demure - the result will look silly if you second-guess your gut.  Have the courage to paint a bookshelf in candy tangerine orange or a hang a crystal-encrusted chandelier in your loo.  The point is to do it because you love it, because it makes your heart sing, because life is way too short to surround yourself entirely with neurotically well matched bedlinen. 

Be brave and say it loud... the effect will be magical when it sets sail on a sea of whispered whimsical thoughts x

The Importance of a Comfortable Sofa

I offer people decorating advice on a daily basis - I tell them what colours to paint their walls - what tiles they should use in their bathroom - what fabric to cover their chairs - sometimes they listen, quite often they don't!  But the one piece of advice I almost shove down their throats with religious fervour, is to choose the most comfortable sofa they can possibly afford.  Looks are obviously a consideration too, but life is simply far too short to have a sofa that is all sharp edges and slim tailored perfection when your rear end is craving a fat, juicy feather cushion.

I have sat on sofas that could double as a rock formation.  I have literally bounced off sofas that have been so over-stuffed with cheap foam they look like they've had a trip to the plastic surgeon.  I have sunk deep into the recesses of poor construction like I'm being sucked into a bed of quicksand.  However you manage it (stop eating for a month - recycle teabags - wash your hair in laundry detergent) promise me, PROMISE ME, that you will save up and buy a beautiful, shloompy, squishy, divine sofa in a gorgeous fabric that calls your name every time you walk through the door!

Your bottom will thank me, of that I am sure x

The Butterfly Theory

Metamorphosis.... every little caterpillar is capable of it!

x

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My Endless Sea of Love

Oceans to cross
with a sea of letters
floating like paper magic on the tide

A story began
a prophecy completed
stitched to the wings of a butterfly

Love lives here
in the cracks and the corners
with the eskimo kisses from our boy

Happy Valentine my handsome man

x

Tissue Pompom Revival

I know the old tissue pompom has been kind of done to death BUT....

have you ever thought of using one on a bed?

LOVE

it

a LOT

x

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Patterned Rugs

I am so into patterned rugs at the moment - Armadillo & Co have a beautiful designer range out at the moment but for those with an old existing rug at home that needs updating, check out this brilliant DIY idea above!  Just create a simple stencil and paint over the top.  I love that you can choose any colour under the sun by doing it yourself - the possibilities are endless!

Armadillo's Moroccan inspired designs provide great ideas for stencils

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Pretty Rustic

I am loving the effect of adding a sprinkle of femininity to worn, rustic, handsome interiors...

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