Barefoot luxury. That’s what the owners, a young family, wanted when they asked South African based ANTONI ASSOCIATES to design the interiors of their recently purchased home. Stone and marble play off beautiful timber floors to provide texture and soften the clean lines of the contemporary architecture. Rough formed concrete is balanced by smooth white bulkheads and soft recessed lighting. Warm, tactile, inviting and definitely a home for entertaining. Open bar anyone?

Shipping pallets and containers. An outdoors art space temporarily created for the 2012 Brisbane Festival.  A performance and exhibition space where the building materials were borrowed from sponsors and returned at the end of the festival. Now I’m not suggesting for you to “borrow” pallets to define spaces within your backyard but what a cool idea. Designed by Brisbane architects A-CH (Atelier Chen Hung).

I can’t help it. I’m still stalking. Still stalking Potts Point in Sydney. Still stalking small apartments. Still stalking the urban cool or in this case the urban sophisticated. A wonderfully dark, masculine space by interior designer Darren Palmer. Luxe finishes. Luxe living. Definitely high end in a wonderful art deco building in the heart of the action. Link here while it lasts.

A few days ago I posted an edgy inner city pad by Nicholas Gurney. Comment was made about the lack of a sofa and a TV. Back came the retort that a funky inner city type would be so busy leading a funky inner city life that he wouldn’t need a sofa or a TV. Now the apartment is for sale (here) with just a few more photos that we haven’t seen already and gee whiz what  do I spy? Sofa, TV and a table and chairs. So was it a case of furniture out for the judging of the Australian Interior Design Awards 2013 or furniture in for the real estate listing photos? Do the urban cool have sofas? 😉

Rising up like a sturdy weed in a pavement crack. A spindly, winding shoot of a building reaching for the sun between the city structures. An ultra-compact concrete vertical house over 3 levels in what was previously a parking space for 2 cars, six by seven metres. And when you have wound your way to the top what is your reward? A perfect small garden with very large view. Small House by Domenic Alvaro.