Aug 15

Cozy dark neutrals

Posted in dark walls, dining rooms, living rooms, neutrals

I am a big fan of dark-walled rooms. Especially for tv rooms and studies. And bedrooms. I think dark walls can help to make white or light coloured furniture and architectural details look so much better. Don’t these rooms give you that feeling of being enveloped?

 

White is usually the preferred wall colour in open-plan kitchen/living rooms just because there are so many walls to cover, and if you don’t like the darker colour it’s a hard mistake to reverse. But I love this room (above)! The dark grey/brown walls combined with the lighting, tall windows with sheers curtains, dark floors and accents of chrome make it really glamorous and sophisticated.

 

Darker textured wallpaper can have a similar effect (above). I think the white sofa and black side tables look so much better against the darker seagrass wallpaper than they would against plain white. It also helps to tie the cushions and the artwork together, creating a sort of textured, natural theme.

 

This moody dark brown is perfect for an elegant formal living room (above).

There is nothing more appealing in a house in my book than internal views through rooms to spaces beyond. The dark grey bookshelves in the distance make a beautiful focal point at the end of this hallway (above).

I’ve had this dining room saved for quite awhile- the style might be a little too ‘country’ for my tastes, but I just love the wall colour paired with linen upholstery and the timbers in this room. And I love round dining tables – so much friendlier than rectangular ones!

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Jun 22

What a lovely way to dine..

Posted in classic style, dining rooms

It’s a freezing winter morning here in Melbourne, and I know ‘cos we don’t have central heating! This dining room is so ‘me’; I’m always drawn to rooms that are essentially classic but with modern elements that take away any fussiness. Here, it’s the bare floorboards, the absence of cornices and the modern unframed artwork.

Did I mention that I’m planning to switch my rectangular dining table for a round one? I’ve toyed with this idea for awhile now (will a round table accommodate enough people? Or rather, will it still be big enough for me to use it as a place to sort the clean washing?). I saw a fabulous table on ebay but they wouldn’t sell it sans the 6 ugly matching chairs. So that hunt is still on!

 

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Jun 8

A new favourite designer: Kimberley Ayres

Posted in Designers I Love, Uncategorized

I’ve been admiring the work of designer Kimberley Ayres lately. Her rooms are always fun and I love the way she uses colour. This dining room (above) caught my eye awhile ago. I love the zinc table and the white-on-taupe moulding, but I really love that it’s such a small room, but that she’s made it such an appealing space. Let’s say you have a little room that you want to actually use, but it looks on to another room and has no sense of being a separate space. Or maybe it looks straight into the bathroom or laundry! The room is too small to accommodate doors opening into it, and you don’t want it to be too closed off or hard to access. The perfect solution? A flat panel of colourful fabric that matches the curtains and that serves to close off and decorate at the same time!

Shades of sea green/blue. I’ll take that seafoam-coloured lacquered desk and the coral light fitting please! (Why don’t we have stuff like this in Australia?)

There is nothing I don’t love here!

The lady herself. I adore the shape of the bedhead. Note all the warm colours she uses: ochres, yellows and browns, it makes these rooms so welcoming and friendly.

There’s my chandelier again (above)! Mirrored walls are so great in dining rooms I think, it really does double the sense of space. And of course, faux-bamboo chairs and zebra rugs (poor zebra) work for me, too.

Doesn’t Imeperial Trellis work great as the dominant fabric in this living room (above)? Note also the strip of greek-key trim down the back of the armchair; I love those little details. Target has a white horse-head exactly like the one above at the moment for $40!

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