Views from Inside

Well, the camera has been doing overtime! While it does feel a little weird taking photos of what is now our home - rather than a work in progress - here are some shots of inside.

As an unconfident sewer, I have to point out the homemade turquoise velvet cushion - one of four I'm proud to say! The fabric was bought on a whim on a visit to Auckland last hols and it perfectly matches, as I had hoped, the rug.

Entrance to the living space and kitchen, capturing the view of the trees.

View from the deck through to the kitchen and dining space - plus an amazing floral creation of sunflowers and cabbages a friend made for me.

Kitchen/living wall niche painted in Resene Triple Masala.

The bathroom off the living room.

The wallpaper is from Laura Ashley if anyone's interested, bought on sale at an amazing $48 a roll which is a bargain in wallpaper-world!

Front door and stairwell detail. Finally the glass balustrades are in and are the correct measurements!

Am loving the sandstone wall but it does seem to attract the huntsmen! Although we have had two in the dishwasher so maybe there's just something about the house. Whatever it is, I'll have to warn our English visitors who are arriving in two weeks!

Until next time ...

Jx

DIY Lampshades

So ... I had a plain lampshade that I thought could do with a zshush.

And I bought another one so we could have two new bedside table lights.

I found some instructions on the Beach Vintage blog (because I am incapable of working out how to do these things on my own!).

I bought some fabric from Cloth Fabric (Kangaroo Paw in Surf on Cream), some cream ribbon and spray adhesive.

And began ...

It was trickier than I thought as the shades taper in slightly at the top so the fabric couldn't be cut on the straight and needed to wind around the shade so it wouldn't bubble when sprayed with adhesive.

The hot glue gun proved tricky too. I'd never used one before and didn't realise how quickly the glue set and can become lumpy if not let to spread. Cue: daughter #1 who is an expert and helped me glue on the ribbon.

Between us, the lampshades were done in no time and if you don't look too closely, they don't look too bad!

During the day and at night ...

I'm now going to make some cushions for the bed from Cloth Fabric remnant samples!

Mood Board for the Living

Thought I'd show you a bit of a mood board that's starting to come together for our living space. I'm pretty much sticking with neutrals for the big stuff - apart from the turquoise rug of course, as posted here!

So, basically, what we've got as shown above is, from bottom left, up and around ...

Spotted Gum timber floors (wide planks with hidden nails)
Caesarstone benchtop in Snow
Osborne & Little wallpaper (Adara collection, design Zaria) for the washroom off the living/dining
Unique fabric - Barker in Flax - for the dining chairs
Resene paint - Triple Masala - for the wall that surrounds the dining space and goes into the TV room
Porters Paints - Donkey Grey - for the other two walls
Westbury fabric - Lugano in Rye - for the sofa

I now need to bring in some more turquoise with a few cushions and have yet to decide on the pendant light over the dining table. But it feels like it's finally coming together.

Fabric Love: Ink and Spindle

Am feeling a creative urge coming on and have found myself oogling and googling online fabric stores with a view to making some cushions.

And I really love Melbourne-based Ink and Spindle's hand-printed textiles. These are some of my favourites ...

Wrens in Inky Blue

Gingko in Dusty Pink & Red

Kangaroo Paw in Charcoal & Sage

Birch Forest in Robin's Egg

But then they have all sorts of others in different colours, too ...

Little Forest in Sage & Lime

Lace Fans in Saffron

Bonsai in Deep Red on Unbleached

Birch Forest in Almond

The fabric bundles are tempting ...

Check it out for yourself at the Ink and Spindle website or follow their blog.

But that's enough from me! I have a deadline looming ...

The Swedes do it Again!

Now I have to give a big thanks to Sheila over at Folder of Ideas who, inadvertantly, helped me find out where one of the wallpapers I am quite keen on comes from. I blogged about it last week here and saw it in the latest Real Living magazine.

Image via Daily Imprint

The black and white wallpaper featured in this bedroom is from Swedish inspired design Funkis, from their Dejavu collection. It's so sweet and also comes in other colours such as textured grey and slate, gold and white, lime and purple.

They also do fabric ...

Lighting from Denmark ...

Jewellery ...

Clogs ...

Plus bags, clothing and homewares.

I can't possibly show you all their wonderful stuff but pop on over here and you may even want to visit their online store!

I can't believe I never knew this place existed, particularly as there are two stores in Sydney (Bondi Beach and the city). So thanks Sheila! And you can check out her post featuring decorating ideas with one of the Funkis fabric here at Folder of Ideas.

Yardage Design

I have a new project, which was spurred on by my discovery of some fabulous hand screen-printed fabric from Melburnian Nicole James, creator of Yardage Design! Nicole hand screen-prints natural fibre-based cloths such as organic cotton, linen and hemp using water-based inks. The fabric I was particularly attracted to was her Agapanthus design which she does in white on coffee-coloured cotton, or purple on cream.

We inherited two rather tired and grubby looking cane chairs up at the batch that are still structurally sound and comfy to sit on. I thought I would spray paint them white and replace the old, starting to mould, cushions with ones made in Nicole's agapanthus fabric shown here that arrived in the post last week, with a cream cotton backing I picked up at Spotlight on the weekend.  

Nicole also has a fabulous blog (which is how I found out about her in the first place) and a website and online store which I highly recommend you check out to see her other wares, such as bunting, tea towels and eco-bags.
 
I'll show you the end result when it's all done!