Friday Fields for Wistful Dreamers...

Friday Fields for Wistful Dreamers... It's All Possible!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend whatever you have planned - take care. S xx

Images from Visualize.us

Long Island Cottage Country Living...

When it came to transforming a tiny cottage into a true family home, Donna Francis, owner decided to keep it simple by sticking to a scheme of black and white.

Spruce up old metal chairs with replating...For a deep but subtle glint the once-dull metal school chairs to a refinishing shop to be nickel-plated (hygradeplating.com). In the kitchen, shiny chairs sidle up to a rustic cherry farm table.

Put your finds on-show... Glassware and pewter chargers gleaned from yard sales and antiques shows fill a hutch in the kitchen.

The family room boasts an 11-foot-wide aerial photograph of Long Island and a comfy yet stoic looking chair covered in black-and-white ticking.
In the living room, a Shabby Chic love seat sporting a squiggled slipcover energises the otherwise neutral scene and also provides a prtin alternative to another stripe.

In the house's new addition — designed to look old the owner had splurged on an ebonized four-poster for the master bedroom. They found oil painting at a local antiques store, and a sturdy bench makes a more practical choice than a just-for-show ottoman at the foot of the bed.

Images & Article from Country Living

Wake Up your Walls...

Be Brave - pop some bold colour accents into your living space, like this!

'Pottery Red' from Behr

I found this article & images from 'Country Living' of this fabulous Kitchen-Dining Living Room in a Pennsylvanian home in the States. I love the bold use of this 'pottery red' colour on the walls , internal door frames and island cabinetry - coupled with white trim & white decorative plates, although bright and strong - by keeping the colour scheme to 1 main colour and 1 accents, and 1-2 highlights, the effect is streamlined, synergised and contemporary whikst still cosy through the styling of the furniture & decorative pieces.

Here's a little exert from Country Living article... 'Colorful Farmhouse Style'
Anne Gridley and Gary Graves bought a home in a hurry, then spent the next 15 years tinkering in order to create an old house that feels continually renewed.
Gridley and Graves have spent 14 years amassing the oyster plates that line the walls of their Pennsylvania dining room. Graves built the table from old barn floorboards to fit the room's narrow proportions. The sofa cushions flaunt a funky, flea market fabric. The couple searched for their vintage appliances online. "That fridge is more energy efficient than a new one," Graves swears of their 1930s model. Scalloped molding gives these shelves sweet-shop appeal.

Images from Country Living

Leading Me Up The Garden Path...

Above - Blue metal gravel path is tonal and soften with healthy lavender bushes.

Above - A sleek path with over sized rectangle format blocks spaced apart for dwarf mondo grass over a water feature makes for a clean modern look.
Above - Metal borders help to create a sweeping path filled with large format square pavers swimming in shale off cuts, the structured path is softened by the flowering grass plantings - the style echoes elegant refined Zen-like calmness with refinement of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Above: Natural sandstone in 'crazy paving' laid into the grass helps to create an urban woodland atmosphere.

I'm a very keen gardener {thanks to my Mum & Grandma} and I often find elements in other gardens that I would like to incorporate into mine, or my client's... Here I found several different styles of garden paths using different materials that would suit any garden from the organic cottage, to the sleek minimalist modernist & refined elegant Zen, to the natural urban woodland...

What type of garden path would you like to be led up?

Images from Sunset Living magazine

Realm Thoughts... An Inspired Suggestion Card

We recently stayed at hotel realm in Canberra (the Nation's capital) but before we left this little suggestion card caught my eye... In the organic sleek - yet still cosy - style that is the hotel realm's nuance, I almost mistook this suggestion card [for feedback on your stay] as a stationary card because it was that nice. So nice that I would buy it as a design to use for notes and 'thank you's' to friends alike. I adore leaves and veined leaf images for their simplicity, organic origins, natural balance & symmetry, and am partial to them at the best of times, almost all colours, shapes and sizes, so maybe my eye caught it on a familiarity level as well, but what a simple yet effective way to give a suggestion card a positive presence. I am now on the look out for inspired [design] in the suggestion card arena - this area that could be and most usually does get taken for granted could be on of the lovelier last inspirations of your stay that you have!
What have you seen in your travels? Have you come across any great hotel feedback or suggestion card designs?

Images from hotel realm suggestion card - imported by Verandah Home & Garden Living Solutions.

Friday Fly Away!

What more can I say... hoping you have an beautiful weekend! S x

Images from Visualize.us

High Chroma Pop!

Here's 3 great way to share a pop of Rock melon/ Tangerine - Tangelo into your life, and living spaces... I can't choose just one I like them all!

Above - The Wainscoting in Off-White allows the Rock melon wall, and vibrancy of the Coral print in the upholstery, to sing a in a sunny corner.

Above - fabric design from Mandalay Designs, I love this colour combination -a sublte way to bring in orange / peach & coral palette to your loving space that is fresh, contemporary, versatile and gorgeous.

Above - High Chroma colours make for such a modern youthful approach to what could be a dull window seat, bu t not when using White on White, with full strength colours as this Tangelo upholstery window seat, teamed with Azure and Apple Green soft cushions...



Images from House Beautiful & Mandalay Designs,

Dining Chair Affair...

I have been lusting after some new dining chairs for our 'beloved' mid century oblong hand-me down dining table. The chairs that I have been looking at, that would most suit our twist on contemporary classic dining area, would be a style from the mid-century era such as Eames which would give a more modern touch - such as these Eamses DSR Plastic Side Chair with Eiffel Base Steel, [the top image] also with the timber frame -as a stool. I'll keep hunting around... I have a few others I have my eye on and will share with you shortly!

Fact: The DSR Plastic Side Chair with Eiffel Base Steel Designed in 1950 by Charles and Ray Eames, the DSR chair incorporates the use of a bent and welded wire base and injection moulded polypropylene seat.

Images from Metropolitan Home, McGrath Real Estate & Luminere

Fairy Tale Wall Scapes

Detail view

Landing view

I love this artistic expression of a magnolia tree (one of my favourite blooms) 'growing' through the staircase in an almost fairytale scene - this textured wall scape has been created in the Kips Bay show home by Working with artist Jo Lynn Alcorn and wall-covering company Maya Romanoff, interior designer Amy Lau - here they created a massive three-dimensional staircase installation of wallpaper cut, shaped, and applied to resemble flowering magnolia trees. Although not for all tastes and not for all spaces - the sweet dramatic wall treatment certainly gives new meaning to bringing the outside in...

You can find fabulous printed patterned & textured wall paper through Australian supplier - Porter's Paints.


Visit the Kips Bay Showhouse link; find out more about the Kips Bay area a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan.

Images from Kips Bay Showhouse & Maya Romanoff

Blue & White ...On My Mind.

The combination of the high gloss walls and super white wall panelling makes for a striking elegant statement.
Definition through Pattern, Visual & Tactile Texture through Surface Materials such as the metallic finish of the lamp to the matte surface of the upholstery & sift furnishing.

Stripes, Ditsy Florals & Stripes in similar colour/ tones ties this look together.

Mrs Howard's showroom - I love this Octopus triptych..

Solid plains mixed with print pattern makes for a tonal colour palette to remain interesting and far from monotonous.

Monday, Monday... Blue & White on my mind... again! How could you ignore these fresh, sophisticated, contemporary rooms - I know I can't!

Images from Southern Accents & Mrs Howard's

Sunday Snooze & the Pooches Who Know How to...

Trying to strike a pose for a 'Real Living Magazine' cover - 'Real Living' mag has had awesome pooch covers!

The real 'boss' of the house, our 3.5 year old Cavalier King Charles, Lucy - she's Vogue ready at all times!

Our gorgeous (nearly) 3 year old Cavoodle, Zach... loves to sneak up to our room for snoozing &posing on the Sheridan!

See P-oodles love to sneak up onto the bed...

Lounging around... a dog's life - all dogs seem to find several fabulous snoozey spots in the home.

And often it's all about seeing who's watching to pick the right spot!

Most of us are fortunate enough to have pets, and know the love of 'your best friend'... I have two dogs of whom are my '1st borns', I don't have children (as yet) and these two dogs , my husband and I treat as our 'fur babies' also known as Lucy, a 3.5 year old pure bred Blenheim Cavalier King Charles (think Elizabeth Taylor - the Cavalier - not the actress as 'Charlotte's dog from SATC - although we got Lucy before Elizabeth Taylor was popular'); and Zach, a 3 year old Honey coloured Cavoodle (Cavalier Kind Charles x Toy Poodle) - who we think is a little Pinocchio, just like the puppet there was a little boy inside just waiting to get out!

Often my some of my favourite photo shoots from great interior magazines incorporate the owners pets in the shot... such as these above from Domino magazine. There are a couple of my favourite Australian interior & lifestyle magazines that do this more often than not - Real Living magazine, Australian Country Style, Australian House & Garden and Australian Home Beautiful - each with covers & editorial shoots with great pets! Next time your flicking through your favourite mag you might find your favourite breed!

Images from Verandah Home & Garden Living Solutions & Domino magazine

Friday Fields...to my husband xx

Happy Friday & Welcome Weekend... !!

To those of you thinking of your love story, or wishing for a love story, or are embarking on their own story & not yet knowing it's a love story in the making... here's to you! And here's to my wonderful, gorgeous husband...my darling I love our love story. S xx

Images from Vi.sualize.us

A Mid-Week House Snoop!

I have started another affair with a home I found recently through McGrath real estate located on the Northern Beaches in Sydney, I adore the white painted trim & rails on the verandah, the charcoal blue weatherboard and the Adriondack chairs. I think at some stage I have seen this house or similar in Home Beautiful or Australian House & Garden - I will have to go back over some issues to find the article - stay tuned... But gee - Don't you just love it!

Images from McGrath