Black, white and wood...

The boy is back at school, the year is well underway but I am still floundering around trying to kickstart 2011. It's times like these I really miss a formal job. 

My son said to me last week, "You're always on holiday Mum because you don't ever go back to work." Ah sweet. And so insulting to the SAHM movement. What he doesn't realise is that I really need a holiday after his holiday ends. 

No holiday but in the meantime some inspiration to get me going on a few jobs around the home. 

I just love the combination of lots of white, lovely old wood and a dash of black. It's the dash of black I am aiming for in the next month or so and much as I would love to conjure up some black framed steel doors or windows I just have chairs to paint.  As you may remember I planned this little job quite a few months ago... then it rained for three months and I forgot about it.

I also have things to throw out (again), things to frame and lists to make. I feel better already.

(Images: 1 Elle Decor, 2 via Pure Style Home, 3 via Driftwood Interiors)

Black and white...

Paint colours are never just black and white are they? The very thought of having to choose a new paint colour for the outside of our house fills me with dread. I'm not. But two of my friends are so this post is for them.

I have always loved this image from Skona Hem...

And then found this beautiful Kiwi version in NZ House and Garden. It just sits so well against green.

And it must have been a heart in the mouth moment when buying the paint for this villa. It's an awful lot of dark, dark paint. 

It's a look you don't see much on the lovely villas here and I don't think I would have had the confidence to do it but it works well. Most, like the ones I have shown you already, are white, taupe or grey. Or like ours, a combination taupe-grey. 

I found this in the real estate pages online.... It's rather a little Kiwi house but quite Scandinavian - perhaps they saw the top image too. 

I like it. It makes much more of what really could be a rather ordinary house if it was plain white or in the dreaded cream. 

What these pictures prove is that black or charcoal with touches of white really needs rather good architectural detail to work.

Good bones. Good shoulders perhaps. Rather like a sharp charcoal grey and white pin stripe suit on a fat City trader. Nothing worse.

(Image 4,5,6 found here)

Home shopping...

I know I'm on holiday but it's nice to be able to look forward to heading home. This lovely new store in my part of Auckland looks reason enough.

It was featured on The Design Files  today but I saw it in My Real Villa Life a week ago. That's right in the flesh so to speak. I know shops don't have flesh but I'm on holiday and my brain is having a little break too.  It's right opposite the local library and I spotted it as I dashed past to drop the boy's books back.

I'm going back for the cushions but not for another week or so. A little more holidaying first. 

Douglas + Bec. St Mary's Bay, Auckland, NZ. More here.

Villa doors...

I took a shortcut home the other day and found this...

I can't decide whether it's simply fabulous or not fabulous at all but I have certainly never seen anything quite like it on the lovely Auckland villas I showed you here and here.

Sadly, my first thought is that it looks a nightmare to clean. When did I turn into a 1950s housewife and if I have why does my own house look a lot less clean than I'd like?

I will leave you to ponder just how much copper is enough while I take my boys back across the ditch to Australia for a spring break. Friends, family, a christening, my school reunion, free and willing babysitters and hopefully a little sun.

I may blog sporadically and I will probably visit you and your blogs. I will definitely finish the darn Martin Amis book that has been putting me to sleep most nights.

Why I like this caper....

Nice isn't it?

I saw this today on Linda's lovely Oeke Design Blog.  Linda is an Australian graphic designer with great taste and I read all her posts. She found it at  Happenstance Home a place on the web I had never visited until today. Thank you Linda for the introduction.

In turn, Michigan based Lynda (with a Y) spotted the pictures on Emily Henderson's The Brass Petal. Now what I didn't know until today is that Emily Henderson is the hot new chic design chick in the States.

Minutes later... Ally of From The Right Bank, who lives in Atlanta, posted about Emily too and told me more about her new show which will probably come to New Zealand one day.

I feel hip and happening and in the know. Thank you ladies. These little journeys across countries to new places can happen in minutes and they happen most days and THAT, among other things, is why I rather like this blog caper.

A house for Wendy

It was always called a wendy house when I was a child. That sweet child sized cottage I so wanted. I never really knew why but of course it is Peter Pan's Wendy.

You may remember, shortly after she arrives in Neverland Wendy is injured and Peter and the Lost Boys build a house around her as she sleeps.

Build a house?" exclaimed John.

"For the wendy," said Curly.

For Wendy?" John said, aghast. "Why, she is only a girl!"

"That," explained Curly, "is why we are her servants."

This is THE perfect Wendy House.... nestled in among the trees and with its own pint sized cottage garden.

But heavens why stop there? Wouldn't you just call in the architects to knock a litttle something up on the lawn for your princess?

Or pop online and order this sweet little number from Hamleys. Only 25,000 quid. And now that the British pound has the buying power of a peso it's so much more affordable.  Perfect for the kitchen garden at the country pile.

Or how about making use of the woods that back onto your country retreat? Dreamy. Perfect for those games of Robin Hood and his Merry Men...

 

Sorry I drifted off.  Let's step back into the harsh light of reality. My kids don't play Robin Hood... I don't think they know who he is. They play Star Wars. There is no country estate... we live in a weatherboard villa on a smaller than average section so this really is more like it.

Phoyo (Play House Of Your Own) is a New Zealand made playhouse.  Designed by an architect for her kids in the seventies she's now making them for her grandchildren and anyone else who'll pay for one. It fits together in sixty seconds (I imagine by not reading the instructions we could take an hour or so) and you can paint it to suit yourself. Rainbows, spaceships, cool grey and white to match the house?

It's just that I can't really imagine Wendy in it....

(Wendy house pics from Tomatoes from Canada, William Burgin, Hamleys, Judith Needham and Phoyo)

A little something on the wall...

Our walls are nearly full in this house - prints and paintings strategically placed to avoid contact with my couch acrobats or  a rogue football. Both my boys have a very strong straight kick and absolutely no short term memory. They tend to forget that seconds before I had shouted 'NO BALLS IN THE HOUSE!'

I still love looking for bits and pieces to hang on my walls... or stack against them for a few more years waiting for more space.

I was about to email this to my brother who is a graphic designer and very much into typography but hey what's a blog for but to share?

I spotted it on a wall here, yep Design Files again, and thought how much it scratches that itch for letters and places that everyone seems so obsessed by. But ah the colours and the corrugated iron. So Ostraliaan, so textural (in my best arty voice) Yes, I'm clueless but I know what I like...

New Zealand born but lives in Australia so we'll claim him, Ross Tamlin exhibits  here and here.  Read little more about what makes him tick here.

Hang on I hear something... a ball? In my house... again?  'BOOOOOYS!!!!!'

Sharing the love...

Do you read The Design Files? If you don't you really should.

Every day there is something fabulous to covet, read or just admire. Great interviews and gorgeous pictures - a fabulous window into Melbourne's groovy side with occasional trips to Sydney and elsewhere.

I was swooning over this Melbourne house tour yesterday. I went back three times for a look... then one of my oldest friends emailed out of the blue to tell how much she wanted it. Well, snap!

It's the home of Paul Bonnici and you can see the full house tour and read his interview here. Sounds like a nice man with a more than nice house. The patchwork rug from Loom has to be mine one day. I'd like a Paul Bromley piece too. Just a little one. Yes, Ann get a job.

What I can do - or aim to do - is the pared back look. White walls, bare wood, simply framed pictures, simple linen and quirky bits.

Or I could just sit here and stare a little more. Join me?

Second chance...

A few weeks ago I tried to find a picture that summed up what I liked in one picture. A blog game from From The Right Bank. Well, like searching for the right pair of shoes and finding THE shoes six weeks after you needed them, I've found the room.

The people behind this lovely, lovely space work at the American architects, Buttrick Wong. You can see more here.

Even though it's a Northern Hemisphere room I think it has a very light, indoor outdoor feel and would fit very well in my family's life. Minus the white couches. Or I could sell the children.

My style in one picture...

It's Sunday... time for a bit of 'me' time.  Ally who writes 'From the Right Bank'  is challenging readers to post a pic in the  Your Style in One Picture challenge. I was over at My Pear Tree House yesterday and got inspired - thanks Jane and thanks Ally!

Okay so my style? Am I stylish enough to have a style? Let's not answer that this early on a Sunday morning.

I really nearly went with this but you've seen it before and I need something new to think about.

Do I like this room? Yes, very much

Could I live with it? Yep, for a long time.

It has wooden floors, fresh white paint, soaring ceilings, gorgeous windows and lots of light, comfortable simple furniture, a lovely large wooden dining table and black painted chairs (did you read yesterday about what I'm up to with mine?) and not too much else. I like too that the cook can see everyone.

I'm hoping that behind the photographer is a fireplace, generous book shelves and art on the walls.

(Image from Canadian House and Home. Photographer Ted Yarwood)

Design smarts...

I want one of these. Not the phone, the receiver...

It's a Yubz mobile handpiece - and they claim it even reduces your exposure to radiation...

You can buy it at Top3 by Design for $95. Australian dollars. 

When I lived in Sydney I used to often float through their Bondi store. It was started by a very clever woman, Terri Winter, who aimed to stock what she thought were the top three products in each design category.  

Great for gifts and now they sell online too. Need a new bin? These are the top three...

Terri Winter was featured in last week's Sydney Magazine - my other half brought it back to NZ along with the weekend papers and my latest Australian mags. ( I am still mentally living in Australia - it will change with time.)

Terri was asked to list her top 10 blogs and sites for design inspiration and I thought you might like a look.

• This next
• MoCo Loco
• Core 77 design magazine
• indesignlive
• The Design Files
• 2modern design talk
• Designspotter
• designboom
• Stylepark
• Dezeen design magazine

Enjoy...