Kim and I flit all over the web looking for inspiration. Sometimes we land on a site that the other has already visited. What a bummer! Already posted. Ssssshhhh don’t tell anyone but sometimes, very rarely, we post something the other has already featured. Oooops! I loved Isabelle Juy’s portfolio when I found L’Atelier d’Archi except Kim had beat me to it (here). Then I saw the staircase. Love at first sight and not in the original post. Hello lover! You’re going up on the blog. Inspiration for the stairs in my now not quite so new old house. Mine is nowhere near as grand as this but oh how I lust after the Deborah Bowness wallpaper. The drama, the whimsy, the fun.

Dear owners of this pool pavilion guest house by Arquitectura in Canberra, Australia’s capital, please do not invite me to stay in your beautiful modern retreat in your lovely shady backyard. I do believe I’d never move out!

A riot of colour and pattern. In your face fun by Designers in the City. If you like your black and white spiced up with just about every other colour and OTT is never enough this might just be for you!

A beach shack renovation by architectural studio Auhaus. The original humble cottage was remodelled adding texture and warmth to the casual living within and out. Cathedral ceilings increase the sense of space. A second sister cottage or guest pavilion is connected not only by a deck but by repeating the cladding and the childlike house shape. Native tea trees incorporated into the space provide a dramatic connection to the site. A wonderful compound for the family and friends that are a given with a beach home. Why live in a wonderful part of the world (Barwon Heads, Victoria) if you can’t share the seachange?

I plan to lose myself in gardening this weekend. I certainly won’t be able to lose myself in the garden. It needs so much work. I drawing inspiration from this casual garden in Ingleside, Sydney by landscape architect, author and TV host Brendan Moar. Casual but carefully planned. Low on maintenance and high on style. Is it wrong to want a fire pit so much more than a barbecue in the land of the shrimp on the barbie? A little bit cottage, a little bit native, a bit shabby chic. Perfect fit for my old house.