Displaying posts from May, 2012

I have this recurring daydream. I’m checking out my favourite interiors store. It’s end of day and I’m locked in accidentally. No panic. In fact I’m really rather pleased. I get to pretend this is my home. Variation number two is where I hide in the bathroom to be deliberately locked in each night and it really is my home. And now that I know what Sydney store PAD looks like I’m going to be working it into my fantasy. Passionate About Design, PAD, is based in Waterloo and the team comprises Olga Lewis and Kellie Murray and business partner Chris Yang. Think Hollywood Regency meets vintage, Palm Springs, statement pieces, exotic Asian, luxurious fabrics and layer upon layer of loveliness. It’s an aesthetic built on passion. From interior decorating to styling to renovations, from classes to one off pieces to pulling together a room and giving you heaps of advice. As for me, it’s my new home. In my dreams 🙂

(Keep up date to date with what’s new via their Instagram)

Set amongst the Pandanus trees just back from the sand dunes and rainforest, within ear shot of the crashing surf, down sandy path to the shore is a family beach house with room for everyone. Rooms for when the weather is balmy, rooms for when the sea air is chilly. Rooms for retreating to and rooms for breaking out even a perfect spot beside the sheltered pool and a clearing on the sand dune for a chair. It’s casual living with just about everything you could need… and maybe just a bit more. I think this family likes its knick knacks. Nothing wrong with being a bower bird, your home is your home after all, but just a little less stuff, a little more editing and straightening and I’d be hopping in the car and driving to Suffolk Beach south of Byron Bay and begging to stay until summer comes and goes. Thanks to my stalking partner Andrea for this one. Link here while it lasts.

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If you’d like to send me photos to include in next week’s “pets on furniture” post, please ensure your photos follow my basic rules: First, the pet must be on a piece of furniture. And said piece of furniture must be clearly visible in the photo, so it takes center stage rather than your pet. Think of it more of a photo of a great piece of furniture that you want to show off…and your pet happens to be sitting on it. And second, the photo must be of decent quality. If it’s dark or fuzzy (from a camera phone) then it may not make the cut. Photos, your name, location and a brief description can be sent to desiretoinspirekim@hotmail.comand PLEASE don’t send closeups of your pet! Thanks!

Charlie, our 2-year-old Cavalier King Charles, just loves our new wingback chair.
– Alice (Murrieta, CA)

This is Savannah, our 15 year old beautiful rescue cat perched on one of her favorite chairs (it’s centrally located – thus she can track our 19 month old’s whereabouts at all times).
– Ashley (Jersey City, NJ)

This is Portia cosying up on the couch with a crochet blanket and some cushions.
– Penny (Melbourne, Australia) 

Here comes Kipshas, our cooperator at building and making home. Participating in every step of our life and friend of everyone in our family. Standing in our new Kitchen on one of two our “piece of Art” chair (got such value after painting walls). One in kitchen, one in bathroom.
– Laura & Vydmantas

Photo is of Pearl (black, 7 yr old) & Stinker (fawn, 3 yr old).
– Tracy

Lucca enjoys this spot in so many ways… on colder days she sprawls across the heat vent behind the ottoman; and on warmer ones she takes her “sun siesta” on it.  Clearly no sleeping is involved in this photo… here she’s engrossed in birding!  (Note: the reupholster said in 20 years of work, he had never see a pattern align so perfectly!)
– Janet (Charlottesville, VA) 

This is Vinny – our 1 1/2 year old Maremmano (Italian sheepdog) who is a breed of livestock guardian dogs – as you can see, he is more happy snuggled in the comfort of our home than out with the sheep!
– Lauren (London)

If you’d like to send me photos to include in next week’s “pets on furniture” post, please ensure your photos follow my basic rules: First, the pet must be on a piece of furniture. And said piece of furniture must be clearly visible in the photo, so it takes center stage rather than your pet. Think of it more of a photo of a great piece of furniture that you want to show off…and your pet happens to be sitting on it. And second, the photo must be of decent quality. If it’s dark or fuzzy (from a camera phone) then it may not make the cut. Photos, your name, location and a brief description can be sent to desiretoinspirekim@hotmail.comand PLEASE don’t send closeups of your pet! Thanks!

This is Tigre, my 1 year old Bengal. He follows me around the apartment and gets his curious little self into just about everything; including my photographs :).
– Marie-Louise (Vancouver, BC)

I’m sending the picture of my cat Feio (it means “ugly” in brazilian portuguese) he’s a lovely, fluffy gentle old fat guy with just one full function eye, one ill leg and a huge need for love. I adopted him about 3 years ago and I think he is about 13-14 years old right now. He almost doesn’t get to climb furniture because of his leg, but he absolutely loves sunbathing in my set of white poufs. It is the one thing, other than my lap, that he thinks it’s worth the effort.
– Karine (Porto Alegre – Brazil)

Here’s a sweet picture or our greatly missed Mainecoon kitty cat, Kennedy, lounging in an Overman pod chair which he adopted immediately upon it’s arrival in the house! We had to let him go to pussy cat heaven Jan 8 2011. You can see a little tribute video I made in his honor here. We still miss him dearly. He was such a character and such a good kitty cat. The Overman pod chair has also moved on to a new owner in New Orleans.
– Mr. Modtomic (St. Louis Missouri)

This is out exotic shorthair kitten, Mia. She makes herself at home anywhere including on my vintage sleepy hollow chair that was my grandparent’s.
– Holly

Clyde lounging on his favorite orange throw with a mural of George Nelson in the background. He’s a bit of a design snob. But then, he lives in The Hamptons, NY.
– Cheryl

I enclose a photo of my two beloved girls, Mafy and Lalit enjoying an early spring afternoon, each on her own titanic chair in my garden in Padova, Northern Italy.
– Anna

Bubosha sleeps on the bed. Only.
– Anna

A French alpine chalet unlike most you have seen. Fluid, organic lines. A muted palette. Concrete, metal and plastic play against ribbons of wood. Part sculpture, all luxury. The Chalet la Transhumance in St Martin de Belleville by French designer and interior architect Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance.