I've been dreaming about bathrooms

dappled light and dark walls

natural finishes

continuity of bath joinery and vanity gives a clean line

around the room

floating timber grain cabinet and stone basin

low dividing shower wall

timber and white - clean and simple

It's time for our bathroom to get a makeover. Now that I have started to look at all these modern spaces I can only see the flaws in our old 1957 time capsule bathroom. I had hoped that one day we could rebuild the room to resemble a modern day version of the fifties style, but alas, it will not be. I long for a simple, bright, practical, easy to clean room. No pink, no blue, no teeny tiny tiles on the floor with stained dirty grout , no more dribbly pathetic shower rose, no more mouldy shower curtain, bad ventilation, poor lighting, no no no. I will continue to dream and hope that one morning when I walk in for a shower the bathroom fairy will have worked her magic!

40 before 40

Next June I will be celebrating the big 40. I've never been one to focus on numbers but I must admit to feeling a little anxious about leaving my 30's. You see I remember quite clearly my Dad's 40th.... and yes at the time I thought he was... well... old. Is that me? It can't be!! To add fuel to my own fire there has been another major change in my life that has left me questioning that number. I am due to become a Mum again in April.... yes .... there is a baby in the making. I am 13 weeks pregnant (although I look about 5 months thanks to pathetic stomach muscles). We are very excited! The last few months have been spent going to bed at 8pm, napping during the middle of day (often bolt upright on the lounge after convincing the kids they should sit and watch a bit of TV with me) and eating like a horse (my way of keeping nausea at bay). Happy to see the back of that first trimester. Yes-sir-ee.

So with the April change coming around I started to put together a list of  incomplete jobs around the house that I wanted to finish before then. Let's face it, not much gets done when a little baby enters the house. While writing this list, I remembered the 30 before 30 list that Nicole of Making it Lovely put together. My list then morphed into 40 before 40.

1. Install bookshelves and a laptop  space (and unpack the gazillion boxes of books downstairs)
2. Get shelves made for the kids bedroom
3. Clean out the cellar
4. Install an external shutter on the kitchen window before summer
5. External blind for our east bedroom window
6. Install the kitchen rangehood (been in the box for 2 years)
7. Find a nursery chair (currently loving the Tessa T21 swivel chair by Fred Lowen)
8. Wallpaper our bedroom walls
9. Relocate my sewing room downstairs
10. Find a low line sideboard for the Lobby  update
11. Hang mirrors (in our bedroom & nursery)
12. Clean out & have a Garage Sale
13. Paint external doors
14. Ride my bike (been in storage for 5 years)
15. Go on a family holiday
16. Deliver a baby Quinn Alice
17. Prepare side yard for the kids swings
18. Minimum 4 date nights with my husband
19. Decorate the Nursery progress update
20. Make & donate a toy to Softies for Mirabel update
21. Plant fruit trees
22. Organise my magazine collection
23. Clean out the bathroom cabinets
24. Create a vegetable garden
25. Make a minimum of 5 handmade items for Xmas
26. Paint the front fence
27. Teach Ruby to sew
28. Play the piano more often
29. Paint the laundry and downstairs bathroom
30. Make Sachin's birthday crown
31. Family day trip to the Art Gallery
32. Plant a Xmas tree somewhere in the yard
33. Seal the concrete in the shed
34. Find a lamp base for Nana's lampshade
35. Finish the half made sofa covers
36. Make a dress for me
37. Organise a slide night to view Pa's old photos
38. Learn to use my camera on manual settings
39. Camp in our tent (at least one night)
40. Make a nut loaf in Nana's old tin

So there you go. That's my wee list. I'll be updating and crossing things off as I optimistically accomplish things over the next 8 months. Who knows, I may even manage to share the odd post about completed tasks if A. I find the energy and B. it seems interesting enough to share.

Maybe you have a list of things you'd like to get done. Jump on board! Share your list and we'll see if we can spur each other on :)

progress in the garden (Project 1)

I've been promising to share with you the progress we have been making in our garden. Inspired by this post by Anna over at Door Sixteen, I decided it was high time I put together a little photo journey of our work in progress.

We've owned the house now for almost 3 years and spent the first couple of those years concentrating on the original interiors which needed our TLC.

So about a year ago we started on our exterior makeover with the demolition of an old farm shed that sat at a 45 degree angle across the corner of our rear yard. We had no fences and the billy goat next door frequently popped in for a visit - much to my initial shock - in true city girl style.

While I'm writing this I'm thinking it is going to be an essay of a post as we literally have 4-5 outside projects on the go at the same time. I think the better way to do this is to tell you about one of the projects, the most finished one. Note I say MOST finished as I question whether any of the projects will actually ever be truly finished. I love to read Studio G - garden design blog - and recall an article featuring a most amazing garden which was owned by a landscape designer himself. Anyway, he admitted that it had taken 10 years to create which has stuck in my mind as an OK target to have for our time management. What do you think???

Enough of the blurb, here's the pictorial journey of our now private front yard. It is where the kids spend most of their time, directly accessed from a downstairs playroom (the sliding doors), visible for me from the kitchen upstairs and a great place to ride their bikes!

In it's sad and sorry state pre-makeover

no more escapees of the 2 or 4 legged kind - all fenced in

as all good renos go - while removing the concrete we broke the gas line

then a blank canvas

pavers go down and get a couple of sealer coats
(I cop some fairy major sunburn on the back of my neck...ouch)

garden bed walls are built

the sandpit gets filled, garden walls are painted black
and the family moves in!
oh..and we also lined the metal fence with a willow screen

planting has started - the unfinished brick walls in the centre are for
storage and will eventually have hinged timber slat seats with big 'ole
comfy cushions for sipping G&T in the sun

As with all projects there are still unfinished jobs. The seat being one and a pergola the other. This area gets hit with the sun quite severely in the Summer so we are hoping to build a shade structure before then so we can truly enjoy our new outdoor space.

The most recent edition is the Magnolia tree (Little Gem variety) which we planted on the weekend in the large box. On the other side we have combined Kangaroo Paws and Cordylines (Coffee & Cream). The lowest planter is filled with kitchen herbs and colourful flowers. So far the garden seems to be thriving but the true test will be the months around the corner. 

(sorry about the images being all out of alignment... I'm afraid it's in the too hard basket tonight.... might try to look at it tomorrow)

my lovely bluestone

I've been planning and dreaming about this wall for about a year now. Today it came to life & I'm totally smitten. It's just a stone wall you may say - but to me it is a work of art. I suspect I may be having a love affair with it for quite some time.

Renovating can be trying at times when you don't have the right people on board, but when you get lucky it can be an utter joy. We are thankful to have found the diversely skilled Neil - a trusty man of many trades. He has almost been a permanent fixture here over the last 6 months, doing everything from building brick walls to paving and now the stone book leaf walling, followed by laying irrigation & turf.

The curved wall will step down into a grassed lawn area. It will be so nice to see some life and greenery in our dry dusty back yard. Given we are using roll out cut turf it will be instant colour. Another week and a bit to wait but it's all action and great to see so much production happening outside. With a 4 day weekend ahead of us for Easter it should mean lots of time spent in the great outdoors.

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter and enjoy lots & lots of yummy chocolate. I know I will!

the kitchen is finally finished

Yay! Only 18 months after it started!!!

We love it. We spend so much time in our kitchen - cooking, eating, chatting, crafting, cleaning, drinking, entertaining, colouring, planning......... It truly is a multi-tasking space where we congregate.

Here's a pictorial journey from start to finish.

After sitting in the sunny diner one morning for a coffee I immediately decided it just had to stay. See here for the kitchen floor plan & design ideas.

we boxed around the original diner seats with new joinery

it may not be conventional, but it did the trick!

the splashback appeared 1 year later....

and the diner table was finally fitted last week - it's a hit with the whole family!!

down under + family friendly

Sound interesting? Well it is.... it's all about our family home! You've heard me ramble on about our renovations over the last year, so now you can check out some of the results. The house is still far from finished but thanks to selective photography we can show just the bits that are worthy and publicly presentable.

A while ago Tammy Everts from Apartment Therapy sent me an email through Flickr to see if I would be interested in an interview and a feature House Tour on AT. Would I? OMG.... absolutely!

Fast forward a few weeks and here it is.

Thanks so much Tammy and the team at AT. I am thrilled with the results.

PS. It's currently the no. 1 house tour on the website (.... I know.... I'm shameless... )

gardens in my head

Lately I've been doing a bit of garden design. Slightly challenging for an Interior Designer with a brown thumb, but a wonderful brain stretching, learning experience. I don't remember researching this much since my days at school! You see, the stubborn / perfectionist / control freak parts of my personality have stipulated that I must conquer this new outdoor design genre (much to my families frustration) as if I were an experienced Landscape Architect. Yes, I'm biting off more than I can probably chew given our house currently sits on approx 1100m2 of weeds, but I won't be beaten! Needless to say I am discovering some fabulous exterior products that are getting me excited. Watch this space as there may be a potential gardener in the making...

Coral Bench

Jak & Jil

Leaf Swing

mouth watering gardens

1. Untitled, 2. Kid friendly courtyard, 3. Melbourne garden, 4. Xeriscape in Santa Monica, 5. California style, 6. After: garden overview, 7. Xeriscape at minimalist house, 8. Durham Botanic Garden, 9. knautia macedonia, 10. CRW_5569, 11. ., 12. Andalucia, 13. Modular Garden with Curved Deck, 14. Asymmetric Family Garden, 15. Modular Garden with Slate Patio and Deck, 16. Low maintenance garden with Slate and Pebble surfaces, 17. Low Maintenance Contemporary Garden in North London, 18. Courtyard Garden with Limestone Paving and Hardwood Deck and Bench, 19. Cool Contemporary Garden, 20. Tatton Park Flower Show, Cheshire, 21. Garden design, Tatton Park Flower Show, 22. Garden Design at the Melbourne Flower show, 23. NZ Landscape Design. NZLANDSCAPES.COM. Garden Photos New Zealand. Dry River Garden., 24. Exterior 41, 25. patio

There is no end to the inspiration I find on Flickr. We're now in garden landscaping mode at home and these designs are getting me excited!

apartment therapy

Hey hey!

Seems our house is getting a bit of exposure at the moment. Woo hoo!

Check out Apartment Therapy - Clean & Organized, Black, White & Green - organized??? I love that! Those who know me will be doubled over in laughter at this moment.

Aaaaaah.... the art of illusion :)

wallpaper

The renovations here at home have reached the blank canvas stage. Time to start adding character and putting our stamp on the rooms. I've been recently searching for a black & white wallpaper for my bedroom and thought I'd share my favourites so far.

The above image comes from Scandinavian Wallpaper & Decor, the Australian online retailer for Decor Maison, a Swedish wallpaper brand. This design can be found in the DM Photo Collection.

I discovered the next 2 Danish designs over at Ferm Living Australia. Oh, I want them all! How about one for each wall?

Not for the bedroom but I just had to add these graphic designs by Tracy Kendall. She also creates a bespoke sequin range of 3D wallpapers based on a 1920's flapper dress. Her designs will change any preconceived ideas you may have about wallpaper.