Kitchen love...

As is my habit, I caught up on all of my favourite Australian home design magazines whilst I was in Sydney over Easter. One Sydney home, featured in Australian Home Beautiful, was particularly lovely...

Image via Bree Oliver

I have long been a fan of white kitchens - I've just always imagined a future kitchen of mine with dark granite or wooden benchtops. Well, after seeing the kitchen in this lovely home, I have to say that I am truly converted to carrera marble benchtops.

Isn't it simply lovely? I love it all - the simple elegance of the door pulls, the design of the faucet, the belfast sink, the beadboard wall trim, the contrast with the dark wood floors, and not to mention the lovely flow of space from kitchen through to the courtyard. All of the images come courtesy of the blog of Bree Oliver who was the designer/stylist for this renovation. The whole of the property was beautiful - it is just a shame I can't find any digital images of the other rooms to share...

Learning how to paint furniture...properly...

Image via chocolate creative

Despite the lack of updates, the budget-focused bedroom mini-makeover that I planned in January has been progressing (very, very) slowly...

Here is a reminder of the mood board for what I'm hoping to do to the room (given the usual constraints of living in a rental and being unable to change the wall colour).

Whilst I was in Australia in January I picked up a beautiful new old-white textured quilt cover - I have to buy my quilt covers in Australia as I have a queen-size quilt, and that is a size that is just not stocked in the UK. In keeping in line with the budget, I was able to purchase this at less than half price in the sale for only $79 - a price with which was quite impressed. I've also managed to find some reasonably priced stockists of ticking (for the bed valance) and toile fabric (for the European pillow covers). I just need to calculate how much fabric I require and then I can get busy making...

The only new furniture item I'm planning to purchase for the room are two new (old) bedside cabinets. I've managed to find one at a good price (i.e. under £10) on ebay, and am still looking for a second of similar height/dimensions. The plan has always been to paint/re-paint the cabinets, and so to that end, I attended an Annie Sloan Chalk Paint  furniture painting workshop this week.

The workshop was held at the beautiful Phoenix on Golborne which, unsurprisingly, is in Golborne Road, near Notting Hill in London. You may remember that I attempted a furniture makeover last summer when I repainted the little glass-fronted cabinet that I had also sourced on ebay - I only too clearly remember the days of anxiety with my sitting room floor completely covered in drop cloths and living in perpetual fear that I was going to knock over a tin of paint. Whilst I am reasonably pleased with the finished product, I found the actual painting of the cabinet quite tiresome, due to the number of coats I needed to add to ensure good coverage.

Thanks to the blog-world I had been reading a lot about Annie Sloan Chalk paints, and thought that this would be something I'd like to try for a future project...and in an effort to have some semblance of knowing what I was doing, I decided to sign-up for a Annie Sloan furniture painting workshop. These are held in a range of locations that stock the Annie Sloan Chalk paints - and the closest to me was Jess's lovely shop in Golborne Road.

So, for four hours, I and four other lovely ladies, were led through a whole range of painting techniques by Jess. From distressing and waxing, to crackling, decoupage and gilding...some of which I had never thought I'd use, but have now discovered a whole possibility of options for which I might like to use them for future projects. It helps that Jess's store is also a beautiful emporium of antique and restored furniture and vintage pieces, so it was not hard to gaze around and find some inspiration. Jess also provided some very helpful tips of other places in London and its surrounds (besides ebay) to source furniture - so now I have a new list of car boot sales and antique markets to visit during weekends over the summer.

Here are some pictures from the Phoenix on Golborne website...

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And finally, a few of the lovely images of Jess's shop from the Phoenix on Golborne website for some inspiration for you all...

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Now to get busy painting...

And back to the blog...

...and to London after a lovely 10 days in Australia...and all my threats about the weather must have worked, as it was simply beautiful whilst I was there. So many times I heard people commenting that it was like the "summer they didn't have".

Below are a few pictures from my phone as proof! As the purpose of this trip was to attend my PhD graduation, I flew firstly into Adelaide, to be welcomed by a sunny day with 32 degree weather. After dropping my bag at the apartment, I went first to the university to see my supervisors. I took the scenic route along North Terrace as I have always loved the architecture of the buildings...

Example a - The Art Gallery

Example b - The University of Adelaide

After the meeting, the tiredness was starting to take effect so I took myself off to a cafe for a cup of restorative coffee  and a peruse of an Australian design magazine (I do have to say that Australia has a much better standard of coffee provision than the UK).

I just adore this verandah...

My mother flew down from Sydney at lunchtime and we took the tram out to Glenelg for some old-fashioned fish and chips at the beach...

See? Definitely hot and sunny!

The graduation went well, we had a lovely lunch afterwards with my supervisors, and then it was on the plane back to Sydney for a week at home with family.

And some further proof that the Sydney weather was also beautiful...

So, as I promised my sister, I will now officially stop disparaging the Australian weather (for the time being anyway...). As an alternative, I am now being disparaging about the time it took to pass through Border Control at Heathrow on Tuesday morning - I stood in one of those cattle-corralling type queues, that had 16 rows full of people...and took well over an hour and a half to finally get to the desk. This is not something that you appreciate after having being flying for 23 hours....heaven only knows how they are going to cope with the volume of visitors to this country during the Olympics!

A few random thoughts...before jetting off...

Image via London 24

Firstly, I can't let this week go by without a tribute to the simply fabulous weather that London has received over the last 4-5 days. Beautiful blue skies, perfect sunshine and temperatures around 20 degrees...just perfect. In fact the whole of the UK has been basking in the warm March weather - Scotland has recorded its highest ever March temperatures in the past two days. In Aberdeen it was even warmer than down here in the South....

...and yes, I am gushing about the weather. But given how much of a non-event the past few summers have been here, you would understand why we are all so excited about this event!

Image via

On the weekend I watched Picnic at Hanging Rock. I have loved this film (and the novel upon which it is based by Joan Lindsay) for years. I recently treated myself to a new dvd copy - and I wasn't disappointed...it is still as beautiful and unsettling as ever...

Image via

The film chronicles events surrounding a group of school girls and their teachers during an outing for a picnic at Hanging Rock on Valentine's Day in 1900 - if you've never seen it, I can highly recommend it. To read more about the film, and the equally interesting but also obscure backstory behind the writing of the novel you should have a read of this post by Janelle McCulloch at Library of Design.

 

Image via Maryland Pink & Green

Finally, the taxi is arriving in 45 minutes to whisk me to Heathrow for my next trip to Australia (for my university graduation in Adelaide, and then onto Sydney for Easter with my family). And unfortunately, I don't look nearly as glamorous as this when I stroll into Heathrow...and though I did make a concerted effort to only pack a capsule wardrobe this time, the bag seems as full and as heavy as ever. So, 23 hours of tedium here I come...actually it is even longer on this trip as I have a three-hour layover in Singapore...

... and all I can say is that given how fab the weather is here in London at the moment, Australia's weather had better be planning on putting together a much better effort with its performance on this trip compared to the last (I'd even take 50/50 between days of rain or sunshine...last time it was at least 90% rain)!

Wainscoting...

Image via Design Sponge

You may remember this lovely picture from my post two weeks ago, where I had been browsing blogs and pinterest to help with my savings motivation. Well, this image has stayed in my thoughts...or more particularly, the lovely wainscoting has firmly planted itself in my thoughts as something I would definitely like to try in a future bathroom renovation (actually, probably in more rooms than just the bathroom, but that is what I am focusing on in this post). 


After some searching, I found that the image above is from a design project by Jessica Helgerson. The full home can be seen on design sponge if you follow the link above. But, it also inspired me to start looking for some other pictures for future inspiration...

 

Image via Decor Pad

 

Image via Decor Pad

 

Image via Natasha in Oz

 

Image via Living Beautifully DIY - You must visit Melissa's blog to see the before photographs of this bathroom...the transformation is stunning

 

Image via A Country Farmhouse

Image via Just a Touch of Gray

As you can see, they all have some common design elements...pale or neutral colours, period touches (sash windows, claw-foot baths, sconce wall lights) and beautiful attention to the little details. Hmmm, I think I can see an older (renovation project) property in my future....

Magnolia inspiration...

And by magnolia, I am referring to the tree, not the paint colour. Anyone who has ever rented a property in the UK would attest to the seemingly undying fixation that landlords have with painting their rental properties 'magnolia' - which is actually a really bland shade of cream...what is wrong with any one of a multitude of white shades I keep asking myself...


Anyway, as I was walking home from the station this evening after work, I was a) excited by the fact that it is still light now when I get home, and therefore b) able to notice that in the lovely curved street that I walk down (which is full of lovely Edwardian terraced houses), is also home to quite a number of magnolia trees - which are all coming into flower...

 

Image via

So given that I am currently stalking the internet as part of my ongoing savings plan, I decided to see what some of my favourite retailers, sites and pinterest currently had on offer that matched the pink/spring theme...

 

A lovely pale pink hyacinth in such pretty bottles from pale and interesting

 

And some spring like hues in their provencal soap - also from pale and interesting

 

Donna Hay never disappoints me - pale pink bowls and strawberrries

 

Some lovely fabric from one of my new favourite finds - peony and sage

 

More peony and sage beauty - look at those gorgeous pink tulips in the background...I treated my self to some pale pink tulips at the supermarket last week - they were supposedly guaranteed for 7 days, but have been looking decidedly sad since about day 3. I guess I shouldn't have really expected any more for £3.

 

And one final peony and sage beauty - I really could buy myself virtually everything on their website...if money was no object of course...

 

These little gems were a lovely birthday gift from my mother in January

 

delicious.co.uk - the website name says it all...

And whilst I'm not sure if pink will ever be a major colour in my decorating palate, it is a lovely addition to an overall scheme...

 

Image via bhg.com

 

Image via pinterest

Are you enjoying the spring blooms where you are?

Keeping to a savings schedule...

Image via pinterest

Saving for a deposit for a home can feel very tedious at times....there are days when the temptation to spend frivolously rather than saving sensibly can overtake me. I have to confess that a new dress and pair of shoes found their way into my pared-down wardrobe recently - but at least they were purchased on sale!

So, I've been resorting this week to the blog world and pinterest to restore my savings motivation. Given London property prices being what they are, I will in all likelihood end up in a tiny (err...bijou) abode that isn't technically in London at all. So these 'inspiration' images potentially won't come to fruition (at the very least in terms of space), but it is nice to dream....

Image via A Country Farmhouse

Image via pinterest

Image via Margot Austin

Image via pinterest

Image via pinterest

And of course, in an ideal world, some outside space...

Image via A Country Farmhouse

And at least exploring design blogs is keeping me away from online shopping sites...