On and on forever. Blue sea melts into blue sky. The perfect backdrop for this small but casually elegant seaside cottage at Palm Beach north of Sydney I recently found real estate stalking. As lovely as the home is, it is the deck and that view that just might clinch the deal for any prospective buyer. If they need a little more convincing then the stone wine cellar and bathroom are definitely a talking point. By no means large it is big on style and long on lingering drinking in that view. Imagine lying cosy in your bed and watching a storm roll in. Link here while it lasts.

Saturdays are normally about helping readers with their design dilemmas. Today, instead, it is all about a wonderful retreat in an exotic location, full of creativity and it’s a reader’s home. Maureen Booth is a painter and print maker who lives just outside Granada, Spain in paradise….in a chicken coop. Well her guests actually live in the coop. This bijou building is an artist’s and writer’s retreat.

“Yes, it was a chicken coop. After that it was a dog kennel, then a painting studio, then it was a junk room for years  before we got around to enlarging it, re-roofing it and renovating it. Artists love it, both for the peace, the atmosphere and the five-meter-long workspace.”

Nothing grand, very honest, practical and wonderfully romantic. A reclaimed Spanish outbuilding with a view full of inspiration and a garden full of respite. El Gallinero.

Deep, rich, sophisticated. The dark side of interior designer Melissa CollisonSwoon. Design and food and travel. A magic carpet ride of style and colour.

Simple luxury and luxuriously simple. An eclectic mix of old and new whether casually elegant or out and out glam. Layers of texture and eras. Today’s interior designer is Sydney-based Melissa Collison. But there was so much I loved about her portfolio I couldn’t choose. What to do? I’m focussing here on the lighter side of Melissa’s work. Oh don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean light weight. Oh no. There is nothing frothy and inconsequential about these rooms. The attention to detail, the mix of eras and the quality of finishes as well as the joy and creativity. These are happy rooms. Fresh and vibrant and young. But wait till you see Melissa’s dark side.

Where have I been? Why haven’t I seen photographer Bob Martus‘ work before? The light. The colour. How everything is so real that I feel I can just reach through the computer monitor and pick up a flower, spin a globe. Hello! New photographer crush.