“(THID) have always wondered why people need to have a holiday house… why can’t everyday at home be a holiday? For a couple’s home in Richmond, we were inspired by the simple pleasures in life.”

So that’s what Melbourne-based THID did, created a fun family home where inside and out meld.

P.S. The outdoor table base is a hydraulic lift. Coffee table to dining table, easy!

White, blanched, chalky, snowy, milky, ivory, clean, spotless, pale, light, colourless, pure, unblemished, achromatic, without hue. The White Room by Barcelona-based Italian architects CaSA is a minimalist holiday apartment in Sitges, Spain just a few steps from the beach. At just 36 sq m with 11 sq m of terrace this tiny, shiny white box was renovated on a very small budget and is now a light filled refuge, a peaceful place for introspection for its owner, a French Art historian and curator, professor at the Sorbonne University.

I love adaptive re-use of industrial buildings and I’m loving the conversion of this small electrical substation in Paddington in Sydney. I lived in an electrical substation over 20 years ago when the owner went overseas to work for Médecins Sans Frontières. It was more like camping though as the renovation was in its early stages. Perhaps the new owner will let me camp here if they ever go overseas. A lot more stylish… and comfortable. Link here while it lasts.

It’s not often you get to stalk the home of a two-time Academy Award winner but welcome to the palatial Sydney home of Cate Blanchett. The historic Hunters Hill Home has been extensively renovated since Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton, Sydney Theatre Company Artistic Director, purchased the property in 2005 with the re-design a collaboration between Alwill Design and Lesiuk Architects. Gardens are by Will Dangar. The sale is via expressions of interest and the asking price is rumored to be in the $20 million ball park. You can find the listing here while it lasts.

There is something clean, contemporary and killer about the Blue Communications office by Montréal-based Atelier Moderno in collaboration with Anne Sophie Goneau and I’m not just talking about the life size sharks floating around the walls. I still can’t believe I have found two workspaces in a matter of weeks that feature sharks as a design statement. A company mascot or perhaps a work ethic? Anyway as I always say if you have to drag your sorry self into work on the weekend it helps if it’s somewhere stylish.