Planted firmly in the hillside and blurring the boundaries between inside and out the house sits on a country road on the way to the Snells Beach in the North Island of New Zealand.  Referencing farm shed and beach the building steps down over the site with walls that open to spectacular vistas of field and sea. Stylish and casual but with a simple elegance. Brick Bay House by Glamuzina Paterson Architects.

” Jo is in her stalking heaven – All’s right with the world!” The real estate market is warming up and I am stalking at full pace again. Thank goodness I live in another state because I would be standing on the doorstep of this Clovelly, Sydney house with a packed bag and a some story I had concocted about my moving in. Love the master suite downstairs, love the kitchen, the pastel flashes of old glass windows, the lush little backyard and the fact that it is 250m to the beach. Yes please! Link here while it lasts.

Flinders Lane Melbourne. You can’t get any closer to the heart of city. Only 75 metres square this clever apartment is stylish and hip. Plywood is used for the fitout with a storage cube providing a now you see it now you don’t parents’ sleeping nook and the baby’s room. Flinders Lane Apartment by Clare Cousins. Contemporary architecture, historic building, dynamic laneway. A perfect marriage. The icing on the cake? It’s listed on airbnb.

David Woolley

Renovations at my new old house having ground to a shuddering halt for more than a year are once more on the horizon. We desperately need an upstairs bathroom. It is a long trudge to our one and only bathroom waaaay down the back of the house at two in the morning. I need, I want a new bathroom close at hand. Now is the time to start gathering inspiration and doodling plans and looking for fixtures and fittings and finishes. My house was built in the 1860s so I’m leaning towards a more traditional look but with a touch of boho or maybe a dash of modern minimalism or… well I’ll know what I want when I see it. I would love a tub for soaking and an open shower. A wet room? A modern basin on an old table? What colour? All gleaming white? A hint of dark drama? Warm wood? Here are a few images I have tucked away in my inspiration files.

Alexandra Angle

Domus Nova

Tine K Home

Zuster

Alex Profit

the marion house book

Domus Nova

Justin Bernhaut

Brent Darby

Lonny

marie claire italia

marie claire italia

Solis Betancourt & Sherrill

and totally impractical, would never work in my house but I want those basins and the shelf above

Ryann Ford

Need help with your bathroom décor? DecorPlanet.com has everything you need. Affordable luxury for your home.

The real estate market is reluctantly dragging itself away from its summer holidays and new listings are popping up online. It’s still a little slow… like the kids going back to school in the coming weeks. Kicking their heels and whinging about everything. Like I am with my real estate leftovers. Call me whiney, particular, choosy and hard to please. I’m fussy when it comes to which houses make it on to the blog. Not quite right, bad photos, I need more photos please! House is amazing furniture is deplorable. Can’t quite put my finger on it listings with something that has me nodding “yes”. This week’s finds include the obligatory exorbitantly priced inner city Sydney and Melbourne homes, a small country farm, a cute little studio apartment and a beach shack that tumbles onto the sand (I shudder at the thought of the price). All via realestate.com.au.