mmmmmmmm… m. elle. It’s easy to see why this mother and daughters design team (Mary Lynn Turner and Marie and Emily Turner) made Elle Decor’s 5 to watch list. Sophisticated interiors throughout their portfolio but it was this mountain home that had me from the first picture. Understated elegance yes but also casual and inviting. Cocooned in dark rooms with blazing fires and layered textures. Enticed by the bright and white. It’s a stone and aged wooden beam dream with conifer clad hills thrown in for free. Retreat is definitely the right word. What a wonderful interpretation to match a stunning site.

Behind this beautifully restored Edwardian facade is a house with two personalities. There is little to forewarn you as you stalk on by this Hawthorn, Melbourne home. Through a purple door the original rooms of the house give a hint at an owner who, while respecting the past, embraces modern design… the chairs, a light here and there, the colours. But then as you break through to the rear of the house a second home awaits you. Clever and contemporary, sleekly modern and  definitely 21st century. But wait there’s more! The garden. OMG the garden! Did I say two for one? Make that three! If you need to ask the price you cannot of course afford it. It even has it’s own website for the sale.

Alistair Nicholls loves architecture. Alistair Nicholls loves interiors. Alistair Nicholls loves design. Alistair Nicholls loves photography and quite frankly is more than pretty bloody good. He’s fab. It’s the Brit effect. He cuts though the affected, feigned and faux. Rooms are real and their beauty is genuine. And all this revealed through a talented photographer’s eye. Enjoy!

… lot of work, dodgy and wobbly but city views… I’m jaded

WINKS – weekend links. Here we list what has come in during the week, things we’ve found and things we think you’ll want to see. If you’d like to see your blog or website featured email us and if we think it fits with our readers we’ll link you. So what’s in this week?

• Bemz have released a new line – Loose Fit Country Style. Part shabby chic, part English rose, a dash rural French. Taking IKEA in another direction. Scandinavian goes farmhouse.

• If casual beach style with layering of raw naturals, recycled timbers, rattan, corals and shells makes you quake at the knees then Kate and Emma at Island Style Living are kindred spirits. So evocative of Aussie beachside holiday living. The memories!! Online store with simply gorgeous (and simple in their beauty) pieces for your home. Shells are my weakness!

• I also have a weakness for the brutal and the natural, the rough with the smooth and furniture that is more sculpture than big box cookie cutter. Love the work of New York based John Houshmand.

• Haus Interior let me count the ways I love you. I so wish that I could walk through your doors and shop shop shop. I guess there is always online. Summer 2010 stock in store now. Wire vase you will be mine 🙂

• Award winning British textile designer Selina Rose’s new 2010 collection is a cool mix of eye popping colour, simple yet sophisticated, nature-inspired pattern and her trademark fretwork-like felt cut-outs. Love love love!

Buildings have a sense of place and time. They relate to where they are, when they are and vice versa. Buildings have a past and a future and the whole complex web winds around the inhabitants and the environment. Architect Chris Dyson and his team take pride in the sense of place of a building whether it is a Georgian reno in Spitalfields, London or a large development in China. What I love about his portfolio the most is his reworking of traditional buildings in a modern way. Taking their past into a future by understanding what they were, are and what they could become. No foisting a purpose or “persona” on them. No bowing or breaking. Just fulfilling and freeing.