More Pacific bure than your typical New Zealand bach this family beach house is perfect but definitely not precious. Kids flung on daybeds and stray sand underfoot, wet swimmers hung over railings and always someone grazing in the fridge. The soft hum of summer insects and memories of returning year after year to a special place. The family’s Whale Bay getaway. By Chesire Architects – with initial design undertaken while a director at Jasmax.

A contemporary confection, a French fantasy, a Parisian home of many layers by Elodie Sire of D.mesure. Organic shapes and textures mixed with Moroccan rugs and modern art, a dash of brocante and always the immensely personal style of the owner’s treasured personal pieces.

With the warm weather my garden is shooting away. I swear I can almost see the plants growing. Up until now my backyard has been a little hit and miss. A cutting stuck in here. An overgrown houseplant liberated into a garden bed there. It’s time to get serious. It’s time to channel my inner gardener. My husband and I don’t want to be weekend slaves to the lawn mower. We are lucky to have old brick pavers but as they were once a driveway they cut through the space with surgical precision. It all needs a little softening. We would love rambling groundcovers or meandering paths of crushed granite. Perhaps vines and stands of bamboo. Definitely overgrown. Somewhere shady to sit. Maybe we’ll break up the paving into a checkerboard of plants and bricks and gravel. Something graphic but still casual with space for a veggie bed. I’ve started collecting inspiration. Here are a few ideas from two of my favourite Australian landscape designers… Eckersley Garden Architecture and Brendan Moar. I can see a trip to my garden centre very soon.

Eckersley Garden Architecture

Brendan Moar

 With over 200 years of horticultural heritage, Hayes Garden World attracts over a million visitors a year. Set in picturesque Ambleside in the UK, the centre stocks an extensive variety of interior design, and garden features.

Brilliant photography by Louise Desrosiers for MilK DECORATION.

I love the modern, graphic feel of the work of international interiors stylist and creative director Louisa Grey. Eclectic and stylish. Pattern, contrast, a sense of illustration.