Brick kitchen

With a little more time to spend browsing blogs I've been clicking through the blogrolls to see what comes my way. I ended up reading a post about whitewashing bricks, featuring this lovely kitchen. You really can find the instructions to do anything on the internet. While I can see the beauty and performance in sleek and shiny kitchens, the textures and greenery in this one spoke to me. Love the mirror and the light fitting and the brick / steel / wood mix.

Image: via White Flower Design

Birds eye view

About 10 years ago I spent a lot of time in planes flying around Europe over the farms and fields, for hours and hours. These beautiful rugs by Liz Eeuwes are inspired by these aerial landscapes - what a unique idea I thought. The first rug is inspired by Scottish landscapes and the second the tulip fields in the Netherlands - a view I missed out on personally. I just love the colour palettes and the detail where she has included roads, little farms and their shadows.

Images: Liz Eeuwes

Egg basket

Busy busy with lots of milestone birthdays (not for me - but for others in my life) so have not had much time to spend here this week. The pressure is now finally off - and wouldn't I love to be curled up in one of these chairs looking at that view. I do love egg chairs but now that they are all over the place - ie poor copies in real estate agents lobbies, the wicker is a refreshingly different take on the classic.

Image: Nuevo Estilo

Country Road, take me home

Country Road cushions were made for my living room. I inherited lots of roman blinds made from a narrow striped dark blue and white ticking-ish fabric and I have an armchair in white, a brown leather sofa, a big red bean bag for the kids and another white slip covered sofa going in soon. So to draw it all together I throw a selection of different textured red, white and blue cushions around the place - many of which come from Country Road.

As my kids sit, jump and play on these every day, they don't last for ever but thankfully Country Road change their range all the time. The important thing for me is that the core colours seem to stay and most have removable washable covers !!

Images: Country Road

Desk organiser

As I write this my keyboard is sitting on our 'temporary' desk which we have now had for three years. It is actually not too bad -its a full size plain interior door on legs which as its so long can seat two people comfortably. As the study is still in 'temporary' mode it is also the house dumping ground and holding area, which always happens I find if a room is half done. We long for the day when we have organised the study and put in proper cabinetry like this. The side shelves look like Vitsoe shelving which I love and have written about here before.

A friend said to me once though - if you want to live minimally you need somewhere you can stash things until you've got them organised or thrown them away, so I wonder how we will manage when we no longer dump everything in the study . . .

Image: via Habitually Chic

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