Styling Idea # 231 Raised Bookcase

INSPIRATION FOR THIS POST

Are we really looking down the barrel of books becoming redundant? If bookstores keep closing and iPads and more convenient are we really considering a future where bookcases laden and colour and tattered with love are no longer?

Please say no! Even if you don’t grab the books everyday (as I would imagine is the case with this bookcase) they create a dramatic styling idea every time.

Styling Idea # 230 Opened Cupboard

INSPIRATION FOR THIS POST

If you live in Sydney I highly recommend a trip to Remnant House if you are looking for cushions. This treasure chest of fabric remnants is a much better way to create cushions. Grab fabrics that would be hundreds of dollars by the meter and create your own cushions galore! The staff are helpful and the prices are very reasonable- which is more than I can say for Orson & Blake. When is someone going to stand up and tell them to shove their terrible service and snobbish ways- seriously Sydney, the store is not that good and they are woeful!

In other news- I am looking at solutions for my new room and storage- ultimately life takes up space and I don’t have any storage! I have cupboards at the low end of the ceiling- awesome for boxes- terrible for accessing anything you actually use. Whatever it is it might involve some on display shelving- wonder if I can be this organised?

This Pretty Space

TRANSLATION: TRY THIS AT HOME

• Use pretty boxes to store little items that cannot be neatly stowed
• Keep your shoes in tip top shape by using suede sprays and leather lotions- don’t let your investment be squashed on the bottom of a pile
• Hang coats together and shirts together to balance to space.
• Crazy prints that my look good on may not be the best for the space- have on display the colours you want and that suit!
• Don’t use any wire coat hangers. Ever

Styling Idea # 229 Dipping Pool

Um arhhh – I nearly missed a day.

BUT I have decided to solider on and make a  commitment to giving you some eye candy before the weekend! It is FREEZING here in Sydney so I hope to be..1)inside 2)warm 3)enjoying the sunshine through glass all weekend. Whatever your plans I hope you have a great weekend

Black White and Yellow

I love the idea of this dipping pool. The perfect size to have warm in the winter and cold and refresing in summer. I love a long pool as much as the next person but when city living calls an oasis like this would be just the treat for that much needed dip. Get your hair wet, feel the refreshing cold water, enjoy a beer, have a red wine in winter- who needs laps I say!

Styling Idea # 228 Pink Doors

INSPIRATION FOR THIS POST

Arrhhh- I am writing this at work as I will not have my computer at home tomorrow (today for you now)

Hopefully by the time you read this I will hopefully have a gym membership and will look super slim and toned already (12 hours later is not too much to ask I say!) That is why these things are expensive isn’t it!

mmmm for your viewing pleasure today – pink candy coloured doors!! Couriesy of Lucy at The Design Files

The Design Files

Styling Idea # 227 Cellar in the Floor

INSPIRATION FOR THIS POST

Mum sent me these images yesterday- she had actually ordered a cellar like this for her house when renovating however delivery from the UK (no one was offering this in oz) was expensive and would have held up the building. Shame shame shame!

Wouldn’t it be lovely

Styling Idea # 236 Wallpaper and Chair Match

INSPIRATION FOR THIS POST

Moving. Really. Honestly?

Who invented all of this STUFF that I bought and now need to carry from one place to the next? Am I sure I need that charger for batteries that no longer powers anything, or that mini Black Cab given as a gift when I left London, or that suitcase with the broken wheel, or Grazia from 5 months ago? And why, do I ask, did I ever buy that t-shirt, that handbag, that bra and that extra bottle of moisturizer that I hate but never manager to throw out because I harbour hopes of lathering up every night. WOW! ……. We buy too many things people.

However, there is nothing like the process of moving to make us buy more. Really, after you have come face to face with the explosion of all things unnecessary and un-useful in your life why after the move is it a really good idea to buy…a camera tripod and a mortar and pestle! Yep…that was me this weekend. Little Miss Stuff who decided she couldn’t live without more stuff.

Kinda makes you wanna look at something like this doesn’t? One chair, one table, 2 books. Arrhhhh so not fussy!

Styling Idea # 226 Rich Tuesday

INSPIRATION FOR THIS POST

I am totally obsessed with blues and turquoise and navy and piping. So to find them all in the same image is heaven. Diane Bergeron’s home was featured in Vogue Living a while ago (so this is not the first time I have seen this image) and for readers of the mag I am sure you will not forget this breathtaking space. I WANT NEED MUST HAVE this wallpaper!

Diane Bergerons Home from Vogue Living

Read more about his talented lady here – I hope your Tuesday is wonderful and RICH

Styling Idea # 225 Dark Wallpaper in Dining Rooms

INSPIRATION FOR THIS POST

If money makes the world go round than what does food do? Surely it makes the world go round too? Or maybe it stays still and we go around it- it would be fair to say that my weekend had food at the center of every moment. I enjoyed everything from pub grub, to Parisian inspired cafes with knee blankets, to robust and delectable breakfast and finally amazing Moroccan and perhaps the best dessert I have ever enjoyed…battered dates with salty caramel sauce at Kazbah on Darling St Balmain.

Long live dining rooms worthy of such incredible feasts! If you cannot cook at least invest in some mood changing, room changing dramatic wallpaper.

SkonaHem

Living etc

Living Etc

Styling Idea # 224 Mail Sorter

INSPIRATION FOR THIS POST

A friend of mine who was recently traveling with a new baby girl through South America on route moving back from Scotland to Broome (busy, difficult and exotic all in one) coined a term that I love ‘the admin of life’. It is such a great way to describe all the things that we need to do to keep up with our world.

Today is the first day of the new financial year- so perhaps we should all invest in a mail sorter for our stylish desks and get the admin of life off to a good start for 2011/2012.

Abigail Ahern

TRANSLATION: TRY THIS HOME

• Use a second hand mail sorter to create a cluttered/organised effect.
• Gather old books and fancy stationary to decorate the holes that are not being used.
• Wooden boxes, clutter tins and ribbons oh- my.