Is it the end of the weekend already? Another working week stretches before us and I’m daydreaming of a beachside getaway to help me make it through until next weekend. Let’s escape to Alentejo Beach House, a contemporary villa rental near Comporta on the beautiful Alentejo coast in Portugal. Three independent bungalows with beautiful ocean views and a communal main house for dining and socialising. Oh the sunsets and the sand and the water and the rolling dunes! Oh the fabulous Portuguese food and wine! Oh is it really a new working week already! Alentejo Beach House another hand-picked piece of paradise via Welcome Beyond.

It’s like I say week after week. If you have to drag your sorry self into work on a Saturday then it certainly helps if it’s somewhere stylish. I would have no trouble punching the clock on a weekend if I worked at the Wolfdene offices designed by Melbourne-based Larritt-Evans.

Photography by Eve Wilson

“Key to the clients’ brief for Brunswick House was to provide better connections between the indoor and outdoor spaces and optimize the use of natural light throughout the house. Soft light bounces off the water of the new lap pool onto the ceiling intermingled with gentle shadows from the trees in the adjacent property on the western boundary. The crisp lines of the fine steel window frames and perforated mesh box overhead provide a contemporary addition to the original double storey Victorian terrace which intentionally contrast the original period features.”

Brunswick House by Melbourne-based architectural firm Preston Lane rounds out a week that had more than it’s fair share of extensions and renovations to older homes in Australia. It may sound like bragging but I really believe that Australian architects are masters of the addition. It’s not just about extra space but about light, transition between inside and out, modern, often open plan living and a distinction between old and new, of due respect and reference to the original but also a celebration of the best of contemporary design.

Photography by Derek Swalwell

Last year Ilse Crawford sold her London apartment and we all remembered how much we loved it. (You can still see the listing here.) Now Dinder House, another creation that had us swooning, is for sale through Knight Frank. Nine bedrooms, 7 reception rooms, 5 bathrooms and THAT kitchen diner in a Regency-era property set in over 21 acres in Wells, Somerset, England. Oh my I have loved this house so hard for so long. The real estate listing photographs, below, don’t do the interiors justice but they do give us a stalker’s peek into other areas of the house and the amazing grounds. This is also the perfect time to share my favourite part of the kitchen. Not the marble and lacquer main kitchen but the scullery next door. Both by Artichoke it’s the behind the scenes pantry that I’ve had in my kitchen inspiration files for many a year. The link to the house listing is here. Price is on application but it does not take a stretch of the imagination to realise almost all of us can’t afford it but if you can, and you buy it, can we all come round to visit?

… and that scullery…

I have always loved this French manor house by Dutch designer Kate Hume. I had seen glimpses of it but never the whole house. On a recent revisit to the website, much to my delight, I discovered that there were more photos and, well, I certainly wasn’t disappointed. It’s stunning. The dialogue between old and new, the casual luxury. Kim first featured a room or two back in 2008 and I love how good design stands the test of time and the foibles of fads.