London Inspiration

I'm in London at the moment, immersing myself in their amazing and inspirational interior designs from the quaint English cottages to grand palaces to modern vintage. I came across this store in Knightsbridge, drawn in by the amazing lighting in the window. I would love, love, love this for the stairwell but alas the small ruched pendant lamp on the far left was £735 which, converted today would be $1,170. Ouch! I might be sticking to the IKEA one....

Fireplace...in Brisbane?

Image by Eco Smart Fire

Is it crazy to want to put a fireplace in the new house? In Brisbane, the average Winter generally only goes down to 11 degrees and the height of summer can get into the 40s. We don't really have a Winter here.

I love, love, love this fireplace by Eco Smart Fire and would love to put it (like this pic) at the top of the stairs. I could imagine it heating the entire house during Winter just to take that edge off  the chills at night. It would be in the along the same wall as the lounge room and would warm the space up during chilly Friday night movie nights. On the other side it would be opposite the reading nook, so I could put a little reading chair and lamp and I could read a book while warming myself near the fire.

I may actually be a little biased at the moment, as I've just arrived in Dublin, Ireland where it's SPRING and reached a high of 8 degrees! It's beautifully crisp and cold and everywhere you go is the smell of a crackling open fire.

Anyway, it's $1980 and I'm not sure if that even includes installation so I'd have to be REALLY sure it's a good idea before I went ahead.

What do you think?

Red Rider

Images from Red Rider Vintage

OMG I love, love, love this store and I've never even set foot in it! It's Red Rider Vintage in St Kilda and I've fallen in love with EVERYTHING they have...online anyway.

They specialise in vintage furniture and seem to carry a lot of Danish furniture, which I LOVE! Oh I wish I still lived in Melbourne, at least just to go furniture shopping.

I would love to furnish my new place with this style, especially this red couch below.

www.redrider.com.au

Lighting Lovliness

Image courtesy of DesignBuild Homes

It's been 17 months since the flood and we've just moved into an apartment and truth be told - I'm going stir crazy. It feels like NOTHING is happening, even though the plans are well underway.

To make myself feel better and feel like something is happening, I OBSESS over interior design and am considering starting to actually buy some of the fixtures to store until the build. That way I feel like I'm making some progress.

So lighting is my latest focus. Namely the ceiling pendants above the breakfast bar and the ceiling pendant for the stairwell. The main pic above has the pendant lights I love above the breakfast bar and the one in the dining room is the type I would love in the stairwell.

Ikea Foto Light - $59

I like this one from Ikea. It's $59 which seems pretty reasonable to me. The breakfast bar is very long, almost 3 metres I think, but I think three pendants would be enough.

This is the Coral Lamp by David Trubridge. I think it's the lamp in the main photo. I can't find a price for it, which means it's probably expensive.  Either way, I love it and wondering it would be big enough for the stairwell. Or I could do what they've done and put it above the dining table as well. I was worried it would be too much featuring lighting in one spot, but it looks pretty good they way they've done it.

I still also love this Fillsta pendant lamp, also from Ikea. It's on my Pinterest board. The largest one though is 78cms, maybe not enough impact, so I was thinking maybe hanging three of them in three different sizes in different lengths in the middle. Thoughts?

Kitchen Inspiration

Photo from Caesarstone 

Have been thinking (well, dreaming) about the new kitchen. Because I'm having timber floors, I think a completely white kitchen like this will be ok and not too washed out.

I love the three pendant lights over the breakfast bar and the pure white splashback. I think my kitchen will be very similar. I will probably have a gabled edge on the breakfast bar and an inset rangehood instead of a freestanding one.

These also must be self opening doors as there's no handles. I like that minimalist look, but I don't like constantly cleaning the dirty marks of the cabinetry. So I might still have chrome handles, but very discreet ones.

Interiors Shopping!

Image from essastone

Soon I will get to go shopping! I have a long list of items that I need to make decisions on and I can either go with the builder's suppliers (unlikely) or, as long as they are delivered before building starts, I can go shopping and supply them myself.

I've had a good look at the PC and PS items and there's reasonable allowance so if I shop wisely I might save in some areas and put the extra into other areas.

The bathroom, kitchen, light fixtures and flooring are where most of my decisions need to be made. One thing that will make things easier is that I'm going for a white theme in the kitchen and the bathroom, timber floorboards for the flooring and fixtures will be chrome. Easy!

I love this bathroom, but I'm still on the fence about the vanities. Are white tiles, white bathtub and a white vanity too stark? Do I need to introduce some timber look in the cabinetry? I'm planning a wall hung vanity with above counter basins and I concerned all white will be too...white.  Thoughts anyone?

I am having a freestanding bath in the main bathroom, but the budget doesn't extend to this gorgeous stone one. Mine will be acrylic. Just being realistic.