Displaying posts from June, 2011

Not sure how I feel about today’s stalking house. I want to love it. I think I do then something jars and I wonder what exactly is wrong. I love the textiles. I love the art. I love the courtyard. The playing card plunge pool doesn’t do it for me. The bathroom is great but the tile is all wrong IMO. The place just seems cluttered but I know if I walked into this house I would want to explore everything, pick up the vase, touch the pillow, rub my toes into the rugs. The lighting is wrong and the photos are stretched but I still like it. Just need to pack some of it away… and save up to change the pool tile 😉 Maybe I just feel whingy  and whiny today. Link to this Malvern, Melbourne home here while it lasts. Thanks to my secret real estate stalker. You know who you are. Keep up the good work.

You may recall this post from last month, where I blogged the home of Jack (a co-worker of mine) and his wife Shannon. In that post I mentionned that they were selling that house because they had just purchased a log home. !!!! Well, log homes are not the easiest to work with in terms of decorating and keeping them from being dark and dreary, as Shannon expressed in an email to me:
I am writing to request pics of…you guessed it…log interiors. My only issue with the logs in our new place is that I NEED light, airy interiors and log homes can be dark, dark, dark. That’s sometimes a function of lighting but also of having so much wood. We are planning to refinish and lighten the floors before we move in in August. Plus, I’ll be brightening all of the drywalled surfaces. There’s lots of darkish greens and blues. The kitchen is maple, but with a dark blue-green stain…I’ll eventually repaint that a creamy white, etc. I’m also going to update the lighting and add lots more lights. The master bedroom is actually a loft overlooking the living room and its 3 large west-facing windows (plus there are more windows in the back of the bedroom). I’m planning to paint the floor of the loft a glossy white and this will be the first place where I’ll try my big experiment: white-washing or bleaching the interior log walls. I plan to convert the place from “rustic Montana” to “Scandinavian bright”. Anyhow, if ever you have time, anything you find on log interiors would be helpful.

Here is a little peek at Jack and Shannon’s new home:

It turns out my stash of photos did not include many log home interiors. So I gathered up those and included some that feature wood panelling or whatever wood surfaces I could find that might help give Shannon (ok, and Jack – LOL) some options.

Aftonbladet
(LOVE this but i think they overdid it on the gloss – in fact this would look WAY better matte)

Le Journal de la Maison

Hus & Hem

Hus & Hem

Hus & Hem

Anna Kern

Hus & Hem

Sköna hem

Maison Hand

Jon Jensen

Louise Rastall

Deko – Plaza

Sania & Susanna	Hus & Hem
Vårt Nya Hem	Vårt Nya Hem
George Seper	GP
Hus & Hem	Marie Claire Italy
Deko – Plaza	Mlinaric, Henry & Zervudachi

Last month I also blogged my sister’s cottage makeover where she started with a dark and dreary spaces and a whole bunch of white paint did wonders to brighten it up. Here’s a quick before and after:

Beauty rich and lush, luxury layered upon luxury. High end interior design. Aspirational or inspirational. Fresh colour palettes work mix it up with references of past design genres. Fashion background means rooms are well dressed, a well tailored elegance. Rooms by Michel Boyd of Smith Boyd Interiors. There is always a place in my heart for the luxe.

London estate agency Domus Nova sent over photos from another one of their fabulous properties (see previous posts here and here). This one is a funky 2 bedroom garden maisonette, with open concept living space, long and narrow layout at about 1183 sq ft. HELLO white Panton chairs (my fav!), Flos Taraxacum 88 pendant lights, lavender sectional, rad artwork…

Interior designer Craig Kettles of C designs can take a really crummy house and turn it into a comfortable and timeless space – there are before and afters on his website that are quite impressive. And his kitchens, with a bit of country charm, are fantastic (LOVE the industrial lighting he seems to use quite often).