I’ve booked a table. The one outside under the tree. Food and wine and good company and a heavenly setting. The vineyard, the restaurant and tasting room in a converted farm cottage. Maison Estate at Franschhoek in the Valley of the Huguenots in South Africa. I don’t think it can get any better.

A tiny 1840 colonial terrace in Darlinghurst, Sydney. All that wonderful old sandstone. I just want to run my fingers across its rough hewn surface. My love of old houses continues and I always squeal when I find an old beauty when I’m real estate stalking. And the interiors? In my fantasy (there is always a story that I concoct about the unknown sellers) the house is cool bachelor pad. Rough hewn and a little retro with golden brown tones and an intriguing history. The house. I’m talking about the house. The bachelor? Hmmm…… Link here while it lasts.

Young, edgy, now. Architect Emma Templeton and her design team at Templeton create beautiful, functional designs, exquisite in their simple beauty. Where Oz design is now and setting the bar high for design to come. Short listed for the 2012 IDEA awards in the single residence category Templeton is definitely making waves with their calm, contemporary spaces.

Traditional, mid century, contemporary or just quirky, photographer Nathan Schroder shoots them all. Schroder’s work captures the rooms we all dream about. Love the light, the composition, the angles. One minute formal, the next intimate. And the colour! Always centre stage. Painterly and passionate.

A man with a dream, an obsession, a domestic drama that unfolds through ten rooms over almost 200 years. House as museum, house as living history, house as an unfolding play. Dennis Severs’ House, Spitalfields, London. No electricity, no mod cons. It is as if the members of an 18th century merchant family have just stepped out of the room. Half eaten meal, beds still warm, the litter of everyday life. You can read more about the artist who uses his visitor’s imagination as his canvas and the friends who keep it going  here.