Inviting guest bedroom

Lots that is clever about this serene guest bedroom.  The shared central bedside table saves on space but what pulls the scheme all together is the size and layout of the six prints over the beds.  Plenty of reading material in the bottom of the bedside too.

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Image: Antonio Martins

Pop by Sheridan

This is exactly what I have been looking for to update my blue and white bedroom and to get the Kelly Wearstler look for way less. New from Sheridan is an affordable range of mix and match bed linen - this pillow case is $15. You can shop online or at certain stores. The one disappointment is that the flat sheets are all plain - so if anyone from Sheridan happens to read this please extend the range to include patterned flat sheets - especially in orange.

Images: Pop by Sheridan, Kelly Wearstler for Schumacher

Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta

This is a scheme I designed for the son of a friend of mine, he is just six but the brief was to choose furnishings that he would grow in to rather than outgrow. The print is a perfect artwork for a boys room - it has both the NATO and nautical flag alphabets and is very reasonably priced from my long time favourite Keep Calm Gallery in London (who will mail prints to Australia)

Click to enlarge

Images: Keep Calm Gallery, La Maison, Sheridan

I'm off

I really love my own bed and am going to miss it a lot - especially tomorrow night when I am somewhere in the sky between Sydney and Abu Dhabi. I will be posting from Ireland - I'm looking forward to the trip enormously. One of my current fave songs by Angus and Julia Stone is appropriately named 'Big Jet Plane' and I thought you might enjoy it too.

Image: Dwell Studio via the Stamford Wife

Northern exposure

Three more sleeps are we are off to the northern hemisphere. Ask any Sydneysider who has lived in Europe what they miss ( apart from friends and family ) and they usually say the choice of shops, especially high street chains like Zara. I believe Zara and GAP are soon to start opening here in Australia, not sure if that will include Zara Home. LK Bennett here I come !!

Image: Zara Home

I could do that . . .

Recently I actually made something with a sewing machine - not a big thing for most people but a first for me and I was very proud of myself. A friend kindly trusted me with her machine and with some practice runs and a lot of referring to the troubleshooting section of the handbook I made a blind for my kitchen door.

So, now I have new category in my folder of ideas - the 'I could do that' category, all of which so far are rectangular because of current level of sewing skills. I think I might be able to manage a cool cushion like this one - and so much more practical than pile of different sized pillows.

Image: Lucy Berridge via Desire to Inspire

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

Biedermeier bedroom

This bedroom is from the portfolio of long time favourite of mine Nathan Egan. The antique Biedermeier furniture takes pride of place and the plain white linen and neutral walls allow the furniture to star in the room. There is an interesting little piece on the Biedermeier era in design and architecture on good old Wikipedia. For those in the mood for a little history lesson read more here.

Image: Nathan Egan

Blue haven

I'm cracking through the bedrooms I've collected in the folder of ideas - I always find it hard to go past crisp blue and white bed linen. I don't know where this linen is from but it has a distinct Tord Boontje flavour . . .

Image: via Design Shimmer

Rapture and Wright

If only my weekend was going to be as serene as this bedroom looks but no. Beautiful fabrics from Rapture and Wright.

Image: Rapture and Wright

Crosby Street Hotel

London based Firmdale Hotels are famed for their fabulous interiors so when I was alerted to their new hotel opening in New York by this is a design blog I had to have a look. For hotel lovers and interiors loves alike it is well worth clicking through www.firmdale.com to ooh and aah at the fabrics, furniture and art works.

Images: Firmdale Hotels

And so to bed.

It has been a bit of a full-on week for me this week - chicken pox (son #1), close family member had a stroke (thankfully mild but still a shock) on Tuesday, kindy class art work due on Thursday for the annual art show fundraiser (I painted red accents onto 21 little darlings drawings of the Cat in the Hat) and so on - I won't bore you with all the details. So now after the weekend I am well and truly ready for my bed.

Love the turned legs on the side table and the Shaker-esque bed head. I know in the real world our side tables are not this beautifully styled - but it is still nice to enjoy them. Off to my water glass, pile of interiors mags and books, my glasses and bedside lamp then.

Have a good week.

Image: via Brabourne Farm

Edland at IKEA

I never have time to visit IKEA during term time and try to avoid it all costs during the weekend so I usually make time to go during the school holidays. This was quite a productive trip which is good - you never get those three hours of your life back again !!

One new range that caught my eye is the Edland series. It is a lovely soft grey colour, the drawer pulls are ceramic and a nice weight and the drawers are lined with a patterned fibreboard inside. The range is designed for the bedroom but I think it could be used in other rooms especially the dressing table and linen cupboard below. One comment I would make is that these are not heavy weight pieces and would only be suitable for light storage. I'm thinking pink and grey would be a bit different and lovely for a little girls room. More to share from my IKEA safari soon.

Images: IKEA

Kara

Harlequin fabrics and wallpapers have some lovely designs in their Iznik collection. I particularly like 'Kara' - it is on the big square cushions in black with a neutral wave pattern and vice versa on the cream cushion at the back. I think its very effective as a bed cover in the pink colourway in the second photo below but I would prefer it in the more sophisticated black and beige.

Images: Harlequin

Flower power

I spotted this lamp - the Lotus Tripod - in an article in House and Garden about a Melbourne home built in a beautifully converted Anglican church hall. The photo at the bottom is the master bedroom and adjoining deck. More about that house later but for now back to the lamp. It is from Surround Interiors and it would appear that you can customize it. It reminds me of Vietnamese silk lamps - as if one had opened up like a flower.

Images: Surround Interiors, Homes and Gardens

Favourite rooms: Bedroom

The greens and greys in the bedroom photographed by Dan Duchars are very restful and calming. I love the blind fabric and the deep grey carpet which the room can easily get away with given the huge window and glass doors. Personally I wouldn't want a canopy over my head when I am sleeping but maybe with such soaring ceilings you might feel a bit lost without one.

Images: Dan Duchars

Bunk room round up

The bunk room at the bottom (from the latest Inside Out) prompted me to share my bunk room photo collection. Bunk rooms fall into my ' when I win the lottery I will have a big holiday house and it will have at least one fantastic bunk room, maybe two . . . ' category - you get the idea.

The airier designs below are probably better suited to an Australian holiday house but, having won the lottery, I would also have a holiday house in Ireland and those nice cosy curtains could work just fine !!

Images: via Swish and Swanky, Emily Jenkins Followill, Rod Mickley, Todhunter Earle, Inside Out

Favourite houses: Amsterdam apartment

This beautiful apartment owned by fashion and interior stylist Peter Shaffrey was featured in the latest edition of Image Interiors magazine. There are so many things I like about it I had to include most of the photos here. The space in itself is fabulous - high ceilings and huge windows. My list of things to love about this apartment - dramatic hallway, the living room, sleek kitchen, the gorgeous art deco bedroom furniture. I also don't mind a bit of laboratory / vintage industrial in interiors - hence the close up of the little retort stand beside the bed. There is lots more to see on Peter Shaffreys website. His home page has an Oscar Wilde quote on it that I have always enjoyed:

"I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best "

Images: Peter Shaffrey

Quest for a chest

It is much easier to buy new furniture than to find an old piece which matches your requirements. I am committed however to finding my perfect antique chest of drawers for our bedroom. The bottom photo is not unlike our bedroom, but ours is whiter and brighter so I am on the hunt for a beautiful glossy, possibly bow fronted, large chest of drawers like these.

Images: House & Garden, Vogue Living