House tour: how to do ethnic style with a contemporary twist

One of the biggest changes in my tastes over recent years has been my approach to ‘ethnic’ furniture and accessories. During my teenage years I went through a big hippy phase, driving my Mum mad by wafting incense through the house and decking out my bedroom with crystals and dreamcatchers. For a long time that’s what bohemian decor evoked for me – deep, murky colours and slightly suspect embroidered textiles. Possibly with those little mirror circles attached.

So, the fact I adore this Sydney home is testament not only to how my tastes have evolved but to how – with the right curator – handmade handicrafts can look fresh, clean and oh-so beautiful in a contemporary home.

{Sean Fennessy and Lucy Feagins for The Design Files}

I just love how simply each room is pulled together. These inexpensive IKEA PS cabinets crop up in modern apartments everywhere, but teamed with the natural fibre mat, whitewashed basket and rustic wooden vase (look out for something very similar when we launch the new Decorator’s Notebook shop) this little bedroom corner looks incredibly smart, considered and expensive.

There’s just enough and never too much of anything in this apartment. I think that’s the secret to adding the warmth and charm of ethnic furniture and accessories to a contemporary home.

Homeowner Cassie runs Kulchi - check it out for more inspiration.

House tour: butter factory turned toasty home

Originally built as a butter factory and most recently used as a candle maker’s workshop, owners Greg Hatton and Lucy Marx had to melt an inch-thick coating of candle wax from the walls of their future home with boiling water before their renovation could begin. And I thought stripping wallpaper was bad…

{all Tara Pearce for EST magazine}

Maybe the interior is a little too rough and ready for everyday living, but as a place to visit I think this home looks idyllic. I love the relaxed vintage vibe and the way the patina of the building has been retained in the peeling plaster and chipped tiles, not the mention the dream vegetable plot and homemade honey.

Not sure I’ll be copying the marrow centrepiece idea though!!!

House tour: light and airy French apartment (with just a little colour)

Do you remember a while ago I posted some gorgeous details from Le Dans La? Recently photographer Melanie Rodriguez did a photo shoot there and the resulting pictures give a wonderful insight into how Aurelie’s home looks as a whole.

The windows in this place are amazing. It looks like it might be a converted factory or something. Yet another home to get me dreaming of loft living!

The more I see it, the more I like this dusky pink wall colour. Not something I thought I would say in my adult life. It looks rather like Calamine by Farrow & Ball. One of my personal favourite paint names… every time I think about it I can smell that smell!

Very pleasant use of dark grey in this home, don’t you think… and there’s something really quite cool about the group of paper lampshades hanging from the wooden beamed ceiling too. A touch of fun, but  in a grown-up way. The children’s bedrooms are really very grown-up too. A little too much perhaps?

{Home of Aurelie Lecuyer by Melanie Rodriguez for The Socialite Family}

What a beauty. This home is just the right blend of calming and interesting for me. For more inspiration from Aurelie’s home have a look at her blog, Le Dans La.

//

House Tour: relaxed loft living in Philadelphia

I’m not really into fashion blogs, especially ones attached to commercial brands, but despite being both of those things there’s something lovely about The Free People. The mix of fashion and beauty mixed with horoscopes and expert hula-hooping tips is kind of offbeat and charming… in a too-cool-for-school American way.

Anyway, the owner of this welcoming loft apartment is the company’s graphic designer. I’ve always fancied a warehouse home one day (I love the high wooden ceilings and exposed brick) and this mix-and-matchy decorating style is perfect for the space.

I’m not sure I would’ve been clever enough to add deep red furniture to a room with so much brick, but actually I think it works beautifully, creating a comfortable and ever so slightly seedy vibe. In a bohemian French way I mean.

You might expect an apartment like this to have a pokey internal bathroom built into a corner somewhere but this bright white bathroom is a most pleasant surprise.

{all Brigette for The Free People blog}

There are a few more snaps of this apartment over on The Free People blog – I recommend you have a browse of their other posts and see what you think. Although you might want to wait until Coachella’s over. Yaaaawn.

//

House Tour: not your usual Finnish home

For reasons I won’t dwell on, I spend a lot more time than the average Brit reading Finnish interiors blogs. Despite having  the most incomprehensible language imaginable, I can usually spot them from a mile off because they almost all the homes have a remarkably similar style. Black, white, big Marimekko prints and a hit of bright yellow.

So when I came across Maria’s blog Diagnoosi Sisustusmania (Interiors Mania) I was pleasantly surprised by the welcoming vintage vibe of her lovely Finnish home.

Maria’s blog mainly tracks the restoration of her house and her flea market finds. I like the relaxed, non-try-hard vibe, mixing vintage bits with inexpensive high-street accessories like the cushions from H&M home. Her style feels achievable and real somehow. Styled, yes, but not contrived.

Maria’s clearly a dab hand with a paintbrush and there are some really cool things going on with the floors in her house. Check out the checked floorboards in the living room and this pattern in the hallway. If I’m lucky enough to have original boards in my new flat I’d love to have a go at something like this…

Upstairs the bedrooms have that magical mix of warm and inviting and fresh and calm.

And tell me… what teenage boy wouldn’t want to have an old VW campervan embedded in their bedroom wall?

{all Diagnoosi Sisustusmania}

Follow the renovation diary and soak up more inspiration by clicking through to the Diagnoosi Sisustusmania blog.

My new favourite blog: Coffeeklatch

I stumbled across this blog beauty quite by accident and it’s immediately become a firm favourite. Think Freunde von Freunden meets the Brooklyn Makers Project, then transport to Belgium, and you’re just about appreciating the creative loveliness that is Coffeeklatch.

{Bart Kiggen / Coffeeklatch}

I wouldn’t have necessarily had Belgium down as a creative hub (mainly out of ignorance) but a few minutes spent exploring its homes, studios and workspaces and I soon realised I’ve been missing out on a whole country’s worth of design talent. This place in Antwerp belongs to artist Kati Heck – head over to Coffeeklatch right this second for loads more tours and interviews.*

*If you’re like me and haven’t yet joined the tech buffs using Chrome, you can paste the URL into Google Translate for a translation of the whole website.

La vie est belle

“Journalist abandons city in favour of tumbledown French farmhouse.”

One day – please god – let someone write those words about me!

Just imagine cooking in a kitchen flooded with as much light as this! Despite the basic concrete floor this rooms looks so welcoming and warm. Who wouldn’t want to fling open those doors and sit down and tuck into a stack of brioche here?

I must admit that I still think the French do relaxed country style better than anyone. There’s not much going on in this room but it has exactly the right balance of simplicity and interest for me. The stack of nude paintings in the corner is my favourite touch.

{El Meuble via Graine & Ficelle / Poppytalk}

When Isabella took on her new home it was nothing more than a weedy wasteland – today though she lives the good life doing B&B and running cookery lessons where guests can pick their vegetable and gather their eggs from the (now cultivated) surrounding farmland, while the kids can get back to nature and help out with feeding time. Even the name of the farm is perfect… Graine & Ficelle – Grain & Twine.

House tour: tumbledown hall brimming with history

Amazing Welsh country houses are like buses round these parts – wait and age and then two come along at once! This C16th hall is rather more tumbledown than the Snowdonian farmhouse I posted a few weeks ago, but is utterly spectacular in its own very special way.

The wood-panelled dining room has hardly been touched in nearly 500 years and you can almost feel the walls wearily breathing history. Just imagine the feasting and tragedies that have taken place in these rooms over the ages.

I’ve posted about my reservations about rough luxe before, but there’s nothing trendy about this peeling plaster – this is the real deal. Is it wrong to like that calamine pink??

Why is this bed so high?! I’m only 5’1″ and there’s no way I’d get up onto that for my forty winks – weren’t people shorter back in the olden days? I’ve spent a lot of time pondering Welsh blankets recently and I love the one in the first bedroom. In a home with very little pattern the traditional geometric design is especially eye catching.

{all Light Locations}

The hall is one of the latest additions to Light Locations‘ books, so you’re sure to see it featured on glossy pages or the silver screen soon.

House tour: vintage and global Melbourne home

Paula Mills is one well-travelled lady. She grew up in Cape Town where she studied commercial art before moving to London to work as an art director. After eight years she left Britain to travel the world, have children and eventually settled in Melbourne, where she now lives and works as an illustrator.

Paula’s home is filled with collections old, new and far-flung. The nicely distressed fireplace was thrifted from the roadside and the mantle is the perfect spot to display an assortment of silver sports trophies. By coincidence, Paula stumbled across one inscribed with “Woman’s Netball Association won by P. Mills 1950” at a local flea market! I’m strangely drawn to religious imagery and really like the various postcards and posters scattered across the walls in this house.

Pink 1950s melamine table. Yum.

I love the mix of shiny white gloss and rough wood in the kitchen, and the little splash of red is a hit with me.

One day I’ll get sick of exposed bulb lights… but not yet! This home office is where Paula works on illustrations for her shop, Sweet William.

{Photographs Sharyn Cairns for Homelife}

The fresh white backdrop shows of Paula’s Vintage bits beautifully, with just one blue painted wall in the living room to cosy things up a bit. Blue interiors have really been growing on me recently, and this home illustrates the lovely warmth it can add to a room. Check out Paula’s living room before she painted the wall here and compare…

House Tour: amazingly austere American farmhouse

Sometimes trends come along and, although you might like them, they take a bit of effort to embrace. Others  just slot into your natural way of doing things and feel like they’ve been around forever… to me, those ones are undoubtedly the best.

The emerging trend for all things uncomplicated connected with me straight away – probably because it’s not really a trend at all. Valuing authenticity, cherishing history and making the most of the simple things in life taps into the nostalgic yearnings we all share. It just feels right. I came across this incredible home on Pinterest and it so completely encapsulates this mood I had to share it.

{all Phoebe Troyer}

Phoebe Troyer‘s Ohio home is so uncomplicated you might call it sparse – maybe even austere. Its simple style has such an air of authenticity I wouldn’t be too surprised if the owners were fresh off the Mayflower! Every single piece of furniture has been chosen so perfectly that there’s not one item that jars or feels out of place. The design is so apparently simple, but there’s an incredible skill in the way the rooms have been put together.

I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen a house like it and I’m completely in awe of Pheobe’s style. If you’re as drawn in as I am, there are lots more photos of the house its beautiful garden on her Pinterest boards.