Thursday 30 May 2013

The beautiful work of Lulie Wallace...

Stumbled across the beautiful work of Lulie Wallace today and cannot stop thinking about her pretty floral paintings!

This is my absolute favourite!





and this one too - i have a thing for stripes!



Her prices are very reasonable - find her online store here: http://luliewallace.tumblr.com/

Happy Shopping!!!

Tuesday 28 May 2013

What I am currently obsessing over...

Veranda House new beach house project - kitchen is exactly what I want for our house...

Fireplaces... more on that later

My new coffee table from Town and Country (they are having a BIG sale atm)

My new cabinet also from Town and Country


This colour scheme - perfection!

Hudson's "H" jumper

Literally EVERYTHING in this pic - taken at Magnolia Interiors store on James St

Hudson's new cluster wall...

This vintage pendant for the front veranda - Amazing!
As mentioned above I am currently obsessing over Fireplaces.  We have a internal wall in our lounge room that I bought a mantle for a few months ago.  We had planned to pop a mirror in it once installed but as winter approaches and the house gets cooler by the day we have been toying with the idea of installing an electric or gas fireplace.  There are pro's and con's for each; Pros for electric is price (around $800 from recollections) and requires little to no work for installation - cons it expels a dry heat and doesn't look that great:
Recollections Fireplace
Gas fireplace... pro's looks more realistic expels a much greater more pleasant heat, con's will be time consuming to install and costs twice as much (at least).  We would likely get a style similar to below so that Huddy can't get to it - open flames freak me out!



I would love to hear anyone's reviews of either style- i think at the moment we are leaning towards gas but I will likely obsess a little more before making my final decision...

Tuesday 14 May 2013

Literally obsessed with everything oliveaux is doing...

About Oliveaux - an exert from their webpage...

Founded by Amanda Harris, Oliveaux is a Brisbane-based interior design practice, boutique, online emporium and internationally acclaimed blog.

An interior designer with a degree in business, Amanda has worked across both interiors and textile industries, always with a passion for global trends and innovations.

Amanda's focus on the home as a source of inspiration as well as a platform for expression, informs the Oliveaux approach. Their bespoke service ranges from simple updates and custom creations to full design solutions.

Below are some of here pics posted to Instagram - she is beyond talented and I enjoy drooling over her wares every time I visit her beautiful store at woolloongabba .















Monday 13 May 2013

House progress update...

Between huddy having a cold, my school fete and Mother's Day we haven't completed many house Reno duties in the last week. I have however found time to do a little shopping so thought I would share some of my bargains...

1. Our new hallway nook with our new bench chair "borrowed" from mum and dads arsenal of antique wares.

2. Close up pic of hallway with new Lovestar queen of hearts vase, old looking lock sourced from trade fair, antique blue and white plate and other treasures I have been collecting for years.

3. Another angle

4. My new jasmine trellised pots next to the gate on our back fence. Pots from masters ($30 I think) and jasmine from ikea $20 - bargain they are around 90cm high and already trellised for you!

5. My stash from the brown trading company sale, all stock was about 80% off. Pretty sure they have some things left - their store us at Salisbury for all the locals.

6. My new orchid again from ikea - $25 another bargain and brightens up my bathroom nicely.

Next on the to do list??? We can't decide, front fence, driveway, fireplace in lounge room, side fence, herb garden fence??? Decisions, decisions...











Friday 10 May 2013

New love...

I have always been reluctant to purchase expensive and large pieces of art as I change my mind so regularly, I find it hard to commit to these type of purchases. A couple of years ago I stumbled across an artist named Shane Bowden and fell in love with his Andy Warhol esque pieces. The price point is very reasonable $500 a piece and when I ordered mine they had a special so was even cheaper again. I picked up the large piece (1m x 1m) last week and couldn't be happier, now just have to decide where to hang it! Here's some of his pieces - my ones the first...













Saturday 4 May 2013

Everything must be white!!!

Beware: if you stand still in our house long enough you may be painted white, you have been warned!

Here's some pics of our latest spray gun adventures, I heart spray guns cuts down painting time to about a fifth of regular brush and roller time. We have managed to paint the fence, outdoor setting, bookcase, mantle, veranda doors and most of our grass! Oh well still worth it... The grass will grow back. Here's some pics, we used vivid white by dulux.














Friday 3 May 2013

Ok I'm officially a slack blogger...

Almost 3 weeks since my last post, time really is flying at the moment!

We have been super busy with parties, school fete preparations, building a fence and life in general and I cannot believe it has been 3 weeks since my last post!

On the house front we (and I use that term loosely) finished the fence on the weekend. Although the official handover has not occurred as its not yet painted and we need to buy and install a locking mechanism for the gate, but it's good enough for me! In the words of my sister "that damn fence is still going on?!" Not anymore :-) although now we love it so much we are considering continuing it down the neighbours side, and there's still the subject of the front fence - but for now I think we are done (for at least 1 weekend or two lol).

So the overall cost came in around $900. Which is significantly less what we were quoted to do the job (quote was around $3k).

Here's a breakdown of where we spent the money:
- fence pailings purchased on gumtree $75 for 150 1.8m treated pine, these were a bargain and all straight and in v good condition
- gate $180 from gumtree, guy paid $400 for the gate to be made but when he built his fence it didn't fit so had no choice but to sell it, it's pretty amazing 1.8m x 1.2m LOVE it!
- rails, sleepers, concrete and posts (hardwood) purchased at bunnings $450 in total (approximate)
- hinges $30
- Post caps purchased at finlaysons, these were pretty hard to find and finlaysons were the only ones with nice ones ( I don't love the round ball ones I wanted square ones) anyhow they were $20 each and come in many different sizes, I think we used 7 so that was another $140.

Total cost about $900 (not including beer needed for the worker) so much better than the $3000 we were quoted!

Here's some pics of the fence, of course it will look better when painted but you get the idea...