Country Road baskets

Ducked in to Country Road yesterday to look at new stock. I love when the sales are over and the Christmas stuff is finally removed from the shops. CR homewares has lots of attractive black and smoked black glass homewares in store. These are Vara baskets and they are very nice indeed. Although lovely as a purely decorative item I was trying to think of storage applications. The smaller one could be used in a powder room to store little guest towels - maybe one would need two - one for clean and one for used.

Image: CR

Chain letter

There seem to be no sign of a wane in popularity of geometric patterns in fabrics, wallpapers and rugs. This is a classy design at a very good price from Kelani. 'Chains' designed by Vicky Payne for For Your Home is $35 per m.

Images: Kelani

Glass garage doors

It's the end of the summer holidays here and my kids go back to school tomorrow, but we still have a few more days in holiday mode as we enter the last rounds of the Australian Open. The tennis this year has been very exciting so all eyes are on Melbourne and with many night games, many a late night watching.

And so to Melbourne. I have posted about the light in this bedroom before but wanted to return to this Melbourne home as I wanted to record the 'up and over' garage door style window which opens the bedroom wall to a private roof terrace complete with built in stove no less. I came across this great post here on glass garage doors by Melbourne based Camilla Molders at designalogue. These are brave designs with walls that move - but pretty unbeatable if you want the outside-inside feel.

Images: House & Garden

Happy Australia Day

Off to the beach and then barbecue lunch with friends to celebrate the national holiday. Love these built-ins - the wood panelling is so much more interesting than a big wall of matt white cupboards.

Image: James Merrell

Calvin Klein

CK home furniture is coming to Sydney. As you would expect simple lines and luxe finishes like this upholstered gold leaf sleigh bed which sounds horrible but looks pretty good I think.

Image: Calvin Klein

Hot in the city

Phew. It is hot in the city today - 41 degrees and windy. These days are really like wet days when you have kids because you can't leave them outside for any length of time. This image from Fast design screams heat to me. The chair is called the Forest Karmstol I'm assuming because of its clever tree design.

Images: Urban Living

Royal Seat

We just had a visit here in Australia from Prince William. Despite the ongoing debate about Australia becoming a republic he was very well received and appears to have his mother's touch when he meets and greets. Anyway it reminded me that I wanted to post about the Prince Charles chair by Modernica.

I saw the chairs first at Spence & Lyda during a design event here in Sydney and thought the armchairs looked really good providing seating at the main desk. The chair is not actually named for Charles Windsor but for Charles Eames and comes with or without arms and in a variety of colours.

Images: Modernica, Folder of Ideas

Light storage

I have posted about Vitsoe in the past here and love to find applications of this iconic storage system that I haven't come across before. This home is in California and the owner's goal was to have a home with storage and light. Such a great idea I am thinking that this could also be a way of screening a not so great view eg a side fence or something but still letting the light in.

Images: Home Beautiful

Daphine by Lumina

Like most design bloggers magazines are a key source of inspiration for me. When something catches my eye and is not referenced in the accompanying article I often drop the designer, architect or magazine a quick email to follow up on my find - with mixed results I might add as not everyone responds.
Thanks to architect and designer Vincent van Duysen's office I did get to the bottom of finding out where the light in this picture came from. The image is from a spread in Vogue Living featuring Vincent's apartment and these lights are dotted around the apartment. Being in grave need of task lighting at home and hoping to find elegant solutions I emailed his office and they kindly replied. The Daphine floor light by Lumina was designed in 1972 by Tommaso Cimini. It comes in black and silver, in a desk version and with a dimmer if required. I need to go to ecc lighting and furniture to see it for real.

Images: Vogue Living, Lumina

Out to sea

Maps are a great addition to kids bedrooms and play rooms especially when they get to the questioning stage of where's this and why etc and for talking about the news, good or bad in the world. These wallpapers are by Ralph Lauren. I'd love to do a child's room based on one of these as the colours are a bit different - a departure from pink and light blue.

Images: Out to Sea, Expedition by Ralph Lauren

Spanish Style

This dining room is in a house in Andalusia in Spain designed by Thomas Urquijo and was photographed by Tim Clinch for the book Spanish style. I do love a round table and the drama of the light fitting. Even though I really like the room I feel it is missing a splash of colour - but I suppose that could come from people and the food - especially in Spain.

Image: Tim Clinch

Turquoise - Pantone colour of the year

Farewell Mimosa yellow and hello Turquoise. Pantone announced the 2010 colour of the year before Christmas. See link for all the background. Sydney is right on trend as on a good day like today the sea looks like this.

Images: Sculpture by the Sea, Pantone

Time to table scape

I always feel after Christmas is a great time to take a step back and look at your side tables and mantlepieces and re-evaluate what is there. Mine are covered in cards and lights and garlands at Christmas so once Jan 6 rolls round the house looks very bare when I have taken them all down. So I've been going through some cupboards, pulling out some prints that haven't been displayed for a while and earmarked others for framing. Then off to get a few flowers and I'll be back on track.

Images: Tom Scheerer via Glimpse of Style, Phoebe Howard via ABT, Notebook

Samantha Robinson

My favourite find on my trip away was Samantha Robinsons porcelain bowls and vases which I saw in a lovely homewares shop in Huskisson. These photos really do her work no justice at all - they are so delicate in real life and the colours are beautiful. I'm still reluctant to display such treasures while co-habiting with two small boys but soon they'll be older and I'll be able to invest. Her website is beautifully designed also - well worth checking out.

Images: Samantha Robinson

Back from the beach

Yes back from the holidays. This is the side of the fantastic beach house we rented with our friends. As my girlfriend and I are both interior design students we were delighted with the house and all its good ideas like the row of hooks along the wall (the (hot) outdoor shower is behind the greenery on the left) and the wooden gate is actually some very snazzy metal that looks like wood but is a bit more sea-air proof. Lots more great pics to share as we go through the year. As I know in Ireland everyone is freezing I'll try not to post too much beach until the cold snap passes!

Image: AL