May 7

Weekend Happenings and a Dream Destination

Posted in Architecture, house hunting, Uncategorized

As has become my usual practice over the past few months, part of Saturday was devoted to looking at properties. I’m looking at all options these days- houses near the school, apartments in the city, potential investment units and of course, land and houses in various lovely country destinations outside Melbourne. I guess I’m not quite sure what our next move will be, but the country property is the one that actually excites me.

 

My 7 year-old son and I visited a large but quite depressingly run-down house a few suburbs further out from the city - it has the right space but was so uninspiring, and so far from the trees and character that I dream of (no pics posted here but trust me, it was not an option!). After that I decided to take a look at the slightly more rural properties close to my sister’s place, which I posted about last week. And what do you know? I found my dream weekender (or maybe even permanent house!):

 

It had everything: English-style stone construction (my dream), trees, privacy, the circular gravel driveway, space, and was even within budget. There’s a lot that I’d change about the interiors, but I love the L-shaped layout with a deck in between and kids’ rooms upstairs, and it had a good feel about it, you know?

 

I immediately fell in love and rang the agent and starting planning what furniture I’d need to furnish it. Sadly, when I heard back this morning, the house has already sold. I know I should stop getting so attached to properties, and I’m trying to tell myself that it just wasn’t meant to be, but I can’t help but kick myself that I didn’t look in this area sooner! I would have snapped this beautiful cottage up so fast!

 

So, once again it’s back to the drawing board. To cheer myself up last night I got out some of my ‘inspiration files’ and starting looking through old clippings. I came across a room I had cut out of a magazine a few years ago:

This room (above) had always inspired me. Whenever I looked at it I imagined finding a little weekend cottage somewhere, using the front rooms for bedrooms, then adding on one big room just like this. The central area under the peaked ceiling would be the living area, and the ‘wings’ off to the sides would house the dining areas and kitchen. I love the idea of walking down a hallway into a big open room and everything being relatively symmetrical - you’d walk in and face a sofa table, with the sofa on the other side facing a central fireplace, and armchairs on both sides.

 

Anyway, when I read the fine print on the clipping I discovered the room comes from Huka Lodge in New Zealand - so I looked it up, and Wow! What a beautiful place:

To me this place is that perfect blend of Hamptons style (especially the iron lantern lights and the pitched ceilings with white beams), Ralph Lauren (classic style, dark enveloping colours), and English country house (fireplaces, antlers on the wall, warmth and comfort). And it’s not just the interiors that I’ve fallen in love with; take a look at the exterior and gardens:

New Zealand is such a beautiful place! And what a great place to celebrate a wedding anniversary! (Husband please take note)

It cheered me up no end :)

Naomi xx

 

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Apr 24

A Gothic country property

Posted in Architecture, house hunting, Ralph Lauren, Uncategorized

On the weekend my parents-in-law and I went to take a look at a beautiful old house that has come up for sale in the area outside Melbourne that we are hoping to buy in. When I’d seen it on the internet it seemed to tick all the boxes; a reasonably large block of land (4000 sq metres) for a residential area, loads of character, and beautiful established trees.

On arrival it has these beautiful iron gates and an impressive view through them up to the house. Doesn’t it look beautiful? Even the weather suited the house - all dark and rainy and gloomy - my absolute favourite kind of day.

The garden was full of mature English trees, with lots of gorgeous autumnal colour - reds, oranges and yellows. Can you see the twisted brick chimneys on the house?

And lovely views of the garden through all of the windows. I didn’t take any interiors photos simply because of the number of people at the inspection. The property must be some sort of local landmark because it seemed half of country Victoria was there taking a look!

Unfortunately this house didn’t tick the boxes for me. Though beautiful, the property is surrounded by modern new-builds, and I dream of not having any close neighbours. It also needed more work than we would realistically be prepared to take on, including lots of rising damp. But the main problem for me was it just didn’t give me ‘that feeling’; I felt no connection with the spaces and couldn’t really imagine spending time there.

My dream country house would have one large communal living space (this house didn’t have that):

via velvet and linen

I particularly love this double-height barn-like living space filled with comfy sofas, books, paintings and antiques.

Room for lots of books:

via cote de texas

Lots of relaxed, cosy corners:

And scope to use some dark greys and blues, maybe even black for walls:

And you know I’m a sucker for that traditional, masculine, ultra-warm and cosy den-like look (here it’s Ralph Lauren’s country library):

So, my happy search continues.

Have a great day,

Naomi x

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Apr 23

Full Circle

Posted in house hunting

Hello there. Remember me? It’s been awhile - quite a long while - since I last posted here but I’m happy to be back in the blog world. I never really intended on taking such a lot of time off, but for the past few weeks my energies have been utilized elsewhere and my daily blog ritual slipped down on my long list of priorities. Blogging became a bit like exercising - I felt good doing it but I was sick of making the time in my day, so I stopped until I was desperate to get back into it for the sake of my mental health! There has been so much happening and so many ideas fighting for space in my head that I need the catharsis that is this little blog.

 

Can I just say thank you so much to the many readers who emailed me wondering if I was still alive? It’s always slightly surprising to me to be made aware of the fact that there are people who read what I write here - and it is so, so encouraging to hear from people who share my interests, style and passions (obsessions?).

 

I won’t go into great detail about what I’ve been up to since I last posted (work, kids, more work, house-hunting - you get the picture), but one consistent theme for me has been dreaming of a place in the country, and figuring out how that can actually become a reality for us.

Would we keep our house in Melbourne and just buy a little weekender? If so it would need to be cheap. Or do we see our lives as ever being based more outside the city? This would mean at some stage possibly uprooting the children from their school but it would also mean I could start looking at bigger houses, more character, more land… But we’d still need a small base in the city, mainly for my work purposes. It was in this mindset that I looked at - and loved - an inner city apartment recently.

Yes, it was pretty ugly. Blue carpet, very small and crusty kitchen, bathrooms all in need of replacing, but boy, could I see the potential! It also had a fireplace, french doors, soaring ceilings, an office for me and you could walk to the cbd.

I had it all mapped out; I’d lose the ugly wall lights and blue carpet and install pale bleached floorboards with a hint of warmth. In the dining area (above), I’d put a long buttoned upholstered banquette against the wall, and pair it with a long, narrow timber farmhouse table with walnut bentwood chairs to contrast with the pale floors. Above the banquette I’d have a wall of artwork.

This is a bit more provincial than what I had in mind but I do like the pairing of a bench seat with simple chairs:

I would have opened up the sides of the ugly 1980′s staircase so that it looked more like this:

 

I imagined a new lantern pendant in the stairwell, nicer handrails and a wall of large black and white photos - probably of the kids as only the boys’ bedrooms would have been upstairs:

The upstairs landing was big enough to house a long desk for homework, a small sofa and maybe a tv on the wall.

In the living room the overall scheme would be my city version of blue and white ‘Ralph Lauren style’. My plan was that this would leave me free to go with darker, richer colours and fabrics in my country place. Think sisal, white sofa and curtains, armchairs in navy with white piping, black mirrors against white walls, tan leather buttoned ottoman for a coffee table, bookshelves with a ladder to the ceiling on either side of the fireplace housing mainly books but some blue and white chinese ceramics too. I really did have a vision!

After a couple of weeks of indecision, we agreed to put in an offer, only to find that it had sold the day before! It was - I want to say disappointing - but it was more than that to me. I had become ridiculously emotionally invested, and in my mind it was already my new city pad, so refocusing on the property search was actually a little difficult. That is, until the next place came along.. (which I’ll tell you about tomorrow).

It’s nice to back, and thanks for reading.

Naomi xx

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Jan 20

Around the house

Posted in green and blue, Latest Find, libraries and books, my home, Uncategorized, yellow and grey

I am really, really loving having my kids at home these holidays. We’ve had our share of arguments and wrestling matches (during which yesterday a front tooth was lost - a wobbly one though), but it’s lovely not having to rush off to school every morning. I’m still getting some work done during the toddler’s nap times too. Over the past few days I’ve really enjoyed going through some of my design books and magazines that pile up everywhere.

This week I bought the 2011 makeover issue of Coastal Living (please excuse dodgy iphone pics above and to follow)- it’s fantastic though made me feel woefully out of date as I’ve seen several of the pictures before online (and the prices for these ‘special edition’ US mags is outrageous- $19 for a magazine!). It features several makeovers/renovations that I love, though I like especially the ones where they’ve modified the original house a little but basically just used a ton of white paint and then decorated. These seem so much more attainable and therefore more inspiring, and have me thinking about where I want to live next.

(I didn’t realise this pic was so blurry sorry! But had to include it as the house is so amazing)

Just about all the houses in the magazine (remember it’s coastal living, so this explains it a bit) are weatherboard and two -story with decking along the front. Wouldn’t it be great to find something like this overlooking water? So much cheaper to add on to or modify than brick houses, and there’s something so satisfying about painting timber white- ceilings, walls and floor!

We are off on more weekender house-hunting this Saturday. I drove by the last house I mentioned, but was very disappointed to find that the ‘front’ of the house actually faces the side of the block. Does this matter? It made the place so much less attractive to me, that the living room doesn’t face the street, and that the main bedroom does. What do you think? I know it sounds silly but one of the things I imagined was how nice a Christmas tree would look from the street placed in the living room’s bay window. But actually, the bay window faces the fence..

On the topic of having magazines and design books on every available surface, I found a gorgeous antique Flemish chest of drawers the other day when I was out looking for pieces for clients (this happens not irregularly)

On my travels I also saw some lovely geometric black and white decorative boxes at Early Settler. I forgot to take a pic of them but when I saw them I thought of this room:

(the ones in the shop are small for coffee tables etc). I just love the green of the wall, the blues in the painting against it and the simple black and white furniture pieces. It goes to show how a little black and white geometric pattern can bring a pop to a classic room - and I think I’ve just talked myself into picking up a couple of those boxes!

I’m also loving this grey and yellow mixed with warm timber (and great windows). And this library with an antique rug in blues and bookshelves painted black on the insides..

thomas o'brien

Sorry for the slightly random and meandering post! Have a great weekend.

Naomi xx

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