Tuesday, February 28, 2012

My Belgian find

Say hello to my 1930's Belgian oak coffee table.
I found him looking dusty and lonely at Collectors Corner in Salisbury and now he's polished and looking quite the gentleman in my dining room.
I don't know why I've decided it's a 'him' but he definitely is!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Vogue Living House

I pretty much love everything about this house. It belongs to Nellie Tilley in Sydney and it might possibly be perfect.

I'm definitely going to get one of the antique sunburst mirrors if I can only find one....

T

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Antique (window) shopping

Yesterday I had a whole 5 hours to myself. No kids, no husband. Just me. And now that Eoin is in Kindy I'll have 5 hours to myself every second Wednesday. I'm revelling in the possibilities.

Yesterday I decided to indulge in some antique shopping. Well, technically window shopping as I didn't buy anything - yet.

I headed to Wallrocks Antiques where the lovely and very patient Jessica showed this antique newbie around. They'd just received a new container of goodies so the showroom was a jumbled, musty, treasure trove.

Due to budgetary constraints I was only looking at small tables and there were some beauties.






I loved this 19th century French walnut jardienere. Jessica suggested a marble top which I think would look wonderful.








The other table I really coveted was this Louis XV occasional table. The carving detail was absolutely beautiful but unfortunately a bit out of my league.

Tina
xxx

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

French Cafe Chairs- Je vous aime!

I have developed a huge and hopefully soon to be fulfilled desire for French cafe chairs.
I love to see them contrasted with a more formal table for that interesting juxtaposition.
Tomorrow Tracey from Porchlight Interiors is coming over to show me her ideas for the dining room and I'm pretty confident there'll be a cafe chair in there somewhere.

T
xxx

Friday, February 17, 2012

Bali Blues

I suppose you've all heard about Air Australia. Well, we were some of the unlucky customers. We'd booked flights for a family holiday with friends to Bali in September to celebrate my birthday. I've been talking to the credit card company and hopefully we'll get some of our money back either through them or our travel insurance. But in the meantime we are out of pocket a few grand and now have to book new tickets. That are much more expensive. So do I hold my nerve and wait for a special or just bite the bullet and book now?

To contribute to my bad morning I went to the Magnolia Interiors sale and the inlay telephone table I longed for had just been sold. Devastated.... I knew exactly where I wanted to put it - at the top of the steps with a plant on it.

On a brighter note I took the boys to get their hair cut. Can you guess which one is the joker?

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Flo and Kate

I'm in love with the most divine pair of Kate Spade canvas flats in the Florence Broadhurst Japanese Floral print. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to buy them from Australia so I might have to console myself with the crossbody bag that's available from Nordstrom's.

I still want those shoes though.....

Monday, February 13, 2012

Dining Heaven

This dining room has the perfect mix of formality/informality. It's bright and airy and blue!



 The pictures are from Miss Mustard Seed and I love the mix of vintage and modern.

The curtains are lovely and the rug is fantastic!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

T

Water feature

The renovations were put on hold for a bit as we had guests for the weekend from Sydney. On a hot and steamy Brisbane weekend we breakfasted, lunched and dined around town. The boys were spoilt with new toys and a good time was had by all.
I enjoyed showing them our new house, relieved that I'd had managed to paint the dining room, stairs and landing before they'd arrived.

Thankfully however I'd left the ceilings for later as we were going to change the position of the light fittings. This turned out to be a wise decision as on Saturday lunch time water was detected dripping from the dining room ceiling under where the upstairs bathroom is. By the time the plumber had come and gone it had turned into a huge water stain with a collapsed section of ceiling. Annoying? Definitely. Embarrassing? Slightly. But at least I'll only have to paint it once....

Friday, February 10, 2012

Table fixation


Don't know if I'd actually get any work done sitting here - I'd be too busy admiring the craftmanship

I have developed an overwhelming need to buy an inlay table.  The craftmanship on them is exquisite and I read that it takes 3 weeks to make one with all the bone/mother of pearl inlays being carved by hand,  mainly in India.  As India is getting more prosperous and wages are rising I figure that if I don't get one now, soon they'll be so expensive I'll never be able to afford one.  Convincing argument?  Works for me...

Perfect lamp table



These also come in pink!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Holiday Inspiration

After Christmas we treated ourselves to five nights in the Byron Bay Hinterland staying at the Federal Retreat.

We stayed in an old cottage that had been charmingly decorated. There was an abundance of overflowing bookcases, reading nooks and antique furniture. The paneled walls were covered in an eclectic collection of art from a rather erotic Brett Whiteley drawing in the bedroom to a Norman Lindsay etching. It was a house for spending long hours reading in the verandah-dimmed light or tinkering on the (slightly out of tune) piano.


That house made me realize how empty of interest our house actually was. It's amazing how used to a house you become. When we first moved I had intentions but then I quickly got used to the emptiness of the house and stopped seeing it.

So I returned to Brisbane with a resolution to make my house into a retreat full of beautiful objects.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Shopping and Painting


I dropped into Oliveaux Interiors today at Woolloongabba. There were some absolutely gorgeous things especially a inlay table right up the back of the shop. Could have stayed much longer but I was accompanied by my 4 yr son ago doesn't have the greatest patience when it comes to looking at cushions - though he did like the pineapple print ones.

Back home I finished the second coat of Dulux Whisper White in the Entry/Dining room and stairs. Bright green feature wall begone!!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Beginnings

The plan is to redecorate our 'new' old house.  Well, not that old by anyone else's standards but oldish for the Brisbane suburbs.  We moved in last September but what with redecorating the granny flat, christmas etc  we never managed to get a start on our own space.  I should clarify the 'we' into 'I'.  My husband, R,  is blessedly unaware of his surroundings but patiently puts up with all of my madcap schemes.
Koukla Beach on Zakynthos


I want to make our house into a 'Koukla'.  This is a word that has a special meaning for our family.  In greek it literally means 'doll' but is used colloquially to mean 'pretty girl' or for a 'pretty thing'.  It's also the name of the seaside hamlet where my parents have a house on the greek island of Zakynthos.  We even named our new kitten 'Koukla'.  So my goal is to make our new house into a pretty home - a Koukla.

Koukla the kitten, chosen to coordinate with the rug.