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.

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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.

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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.

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.

House tour: cosy Welsh farmhouse

People who grow up near the coast often say they have the sea in their blood – wherever they live, they can always hear the waves calling them home. I grew up amongst hills on the edge of Exmoor and I feel the same way about rolling landscapes… the longer I spend in London, the stronger my yearning for the countryside gets. Perhaps that explains why knitwear designer Kathleen Holland, who was born in mountainous Peru, chose dramatic Snowdonia for her weekend retreat.

Kathleen’s passionate about her Peruvian roots and the colours of the country’s spectacular landscape are evident in her alpaca clothing designs. I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of months of my gap year in Peru and Kathleen’s colour palette inspired by purple-flowering desert cacti, the golden grasses of the altiplano and cloudless Andean skies brings back a flood of wonderful memories for me too.

Kathleen’s decorating choices for the farmhouse interior are equally inspired by the Snowdonian landscape. The beamed ceilings and slate flagstone floors act as a rustic backdrop for traditional wood furniture, including the much-loved Welsh dresser and heavy dark stained grain chest, which Kathleen inherited from her in-laws who previously owned the house. On top of it, handfuls of foxgloves and daisies spill out of an old milk churn.

{all Simon Brown Photography via Remodelista}

The bedrooms are decorated with just the right blend of simplicity and beauty. The wrought iron bedstead in the master was made by a local blacksmith and Kathleen has draped it with linen from reclaimed grain sacks to make a relaxed headboard.

Oh, how I would love to be snuggling down in one of the antique beds under a heap of Welsh wool blankets and vintage eiderdowns this weekend!

House Tour: inside a Victorian collector’s cottage

Ok, it’s the cottage that’s actually Victorian, but peep inside this antiquey Australian home and you’d be forgiven for thinking the owner hailed from a bygone era too!

Amazing huh? Although the cottage has been standing since 1836 when it was built for the local blacksmith, current owner Deb Kavaliunas has only been living there for a year. The items inside it however are the product of a lifetime of collecting, foraging and gathering. This wonderful display of apothecary jars makes my own collection look pretty pathetic!

I have to be honest with you and say these cabinets of curiosities awaken my inner dust phobic but it’s the kind of place I would love to visit and there are so many lovely antiques I would stuff under my jumper in a heartbeat. I’m already developing a penchant for battered toys (remember my wooden toy horse) so those teeny dolls’ house chairs and little boats are calling me.

{Photographs Sharyn Cairns / Styling Heather Nette King via Homelife}

So, charmingly curious or challengingly cluttered? For me, I love it to look at but couldn’t live here myself – an edited version would be just perfect for me.

And if you’re as blown away by Sharyn Cairns’ atmospheric photography as I am you should definitely check out this elegantly faded home from my house tour archive.

Lots of rural charm in the country

Radostina posted this wonderfully tumbledown farmhouse in southwestern Sweden on 79 ideas yesterday and I knew straight away that I had to share it with you.

Owners Gunilla and Sven Montan have spent 15 years painstakingly restoring the farm using traditional materials and techniques. The building has been decorated using linseed oil, lime plaster and mineral paints with just the right amount of the rough character left intact. I love the quirky touches, like the light above the sink which is an old heat lamp from the piglet pen.

Three years ago the couple decided to move permanently to their holiday retreat and have now converted the assorted barns and hay stores around the farm into accommodation for when their children and grandchildren come and stay. I can imagine the farm is a paradise for children, with blackberries and apples to pick and chickens to chase.

{Magdalena Björnsdotter for Lantliv}

White, rustic and remote – I’d go tomorrow if I could!