… if you will. I have always wanted to find an old cottage, some place that hasn’t changed in all the years it has stood. A time capsule. The simple life. A few spartan rooms stained with history, heavy with memories. A place like Railway Farm just outside of Malmsbury in Victoria. I have been real estate stalking and found a rough gem. This 3 room hut, let’s face it it’s hardly a cottage, was built around 1865. Slab and tin, brick floor, walls paper in old newspapers, hot in summer, cold in winter and wonderfully beautiful in its own way. A pioneer hut unchanged except for ever thickening coats of paint on ceilings and walls. 56 acres of land, a well, stone walls and no electricity. Perfect for weekend getaways for those who crave the rough luxe… minus the luxe. Perhaps I can bring that along each weekend. Dreaming of how I would furnish it. Thank for indulging my daydream. Back to normal programming soon. Link here while it lasts.

Want to get away from it all without leaving home? Ever craved a resort style oasis in your backyard? I think this Paddington, Sydney house might just be the answer. It feels like a tropical beach house only kilometers from the centre of Australia’s biggest city. Free flowing open plan living spaces with great connection to the outdoors. Throw those doors open and welcome the sun. Cool off in the plunge pool meters from the living room. There is even a studio above the garage for your friends and family who want to check in for a break. Small space, big style. Link here while it lasts.

Toronto based Taylor Smyth Architects create poetry or so they say. Buildings relate intimately to their surroundings, embracing the site, celebrating the vista. The Sunset Cabin at Lake Simco, Ontario is a simple building and simply beautiful. A one bedroom cabin, a private retreat in the woods, a bunkie, a getaway that looks to the setting sun for inspiration.

Australian interior designer Bronnie Masefau‘s work is all about the family. In fact she embraces it whole heartedly. Home as sanctuary, home as hearth, home as centre of it all. It’s about gathering at the kitchen table to share meals and life stories, leaving the outside world at the door, homework spread across desks, someone practicing musical scales in a family room. Nothing precious in her designs except those who live in them and that makes them very special.

Timeless, classic and traditional, layers of history and collections, life’s experiences held tight. At other times a spare asethetic, the sense of less is natural. It’s a look that harks back to an age before the mass produced, a time of the artisan and the simple. A look that is even more relevant in these times of mass consumption. History and the time worn, vintage and the long discarded but newly rediscovered. It’s a bower bird approach to beauty. Australian stylist and interior designer Justin Bishop.