lounge: design ideas

For the lounge room I have some ideas that have been nicely implement in this room as seen on Apartment Therapy - a New York-esque space, with full length sheer curtains along an entire wall, grey walls (I'll be going darker than in this example), black framed prints, wood floors, and grey/black shag rug. A nice mix of textures.

exterior: front window ideas (2)

Second window-strengthening-treatment idea is reliant on paint, possibly including mouldings to add texture and depth. I like that the white window border in the second photo looks both modern and heritage, a throw-back to the render band.

[house in Perth]

[house in Shenton Park]

exterior: front window ideas

The front windows of the house are rather weak compared to the two large and prominent front gables. It may be necessary to perform some treatment around or below them to increase their stature.

One suggestions is to place a hefty feature below the window, such as these limestone features, seen around town. However the windows are probably too low for this exact treatment, but it could be incorporated somehow. Also, it's a little too Californian bungalow. I'm not a fan of the triangular shapes in the bungalow look, but a more squared off variant might work.

[pics of houses around town]

rooms: wall decorations

I just stumbled across this cool 'wall dot' of a deer in headlights by Australian designers Pony Rider. It is available for AUD$79 [order at https://ponyrider.myshopify.com/products/bambi-nights-wall-dot]. They say you can re-stick it up to 50 times. Very cool. Might order one soon!

On the topic of wall decorations that aren't paint or wallpaper, I also love some wall decals found on etsy by PillBoxDesigns. This nosferatu grabbing the couch cracks me up every time I see it:

while the bat tree, gothic window and lace up corset are also pretty cool:

bathroom: toilets

A modern looking toilet is essential. Especially one with no surfaces like ledges, nooks or crannies around the bowl that require extra cleaning (who _doesn't_ hate cleaning the toilet!) I want a hidden cistern design as, besides looking nice, it should enable the benchtop with basin to extend behind the toilet, spanning the whole width of the bathroom and giving maximum bench space.

So far I haven't seen anything I like better than the Cube from Caroma.

[http://www.caroma.com.au/product-ranges/toilet-suites/cube/cube-wall-faced-invisi--series-ii-suite]

Though I have this picture saved and can't find where it came from:

I snapped a shot of this loo while out bathroom shopping on the weekend, it could work as a second option:

Some toilets at Parisi Bathware are lovely but I'm sure the prices will be astronomical.
I couldn't find this nice black number on their website, nor any of the others in their flash intro screen. I hate that!

but these were interesting:

[http://parisi.com.au/images/uploads/products/1612.jpg]

[http://parisi.com.au/images/uploads/products/1133.jpg]

bathroom: vintage medical laboratory

One bathroom idea I am also enjoying playing with is a vintage medical/laboratory inspired look. Think: stainless steel and glass cabinets, butcher/subway/mosaic tiles, laboratory sink shapes and tapware, red cross motifs.

I found one medical inspired bathroom on the internets, shown below. It comes from kitchenbathideas.com . It has a cute red cross shower curtain which is certainly the most literal medical aspect, but it also features a stainless steel/glass cabinet (above and below the counter), tubular rails for the hand towels, x-ray boxes backlighting images for artwork (cool) and a  hospital-lab-vintagey-yet-modern feel mosaic. The light blue and red colour scheme is very medical.

       

[images: kitchenbathideas.com]

Some more examples of cabinets that might work in a medical/laboratory inspired bathroom:

[last two pics sourced from this great post at design hole online]

Unfortunately I doubt I'll have room for a freestanding cabinet, and possibly not even for a decent wall (above counter) cabinet due to the limited space above the vanity because of a strange and wide window configuration (I'll spec it out later).

For some reason this vintage/deco bathroom also makes me think a little laboratory/medical/insane asylum.

bathroom: subway tiles

I've been through a few bathroom inspirations, but one I keep coming back to that melds the old and the new, the vintage and the modern, is the classic subway tile, or, at it is more usually called locally, the butcher tile.

Right now I'm thinking I'd love it in grey - white being too predictable for bathrooms, black possibly being too overpowering.

Currently the bathroom (which is to be completely re-done) has tiles to head height. The de-tiled walls will therefore be pretty rough. I'm not sure if re-tiling to the same height will require a replaster. If not, I'll probably retile to that height ($$ permitting), or possibly go for a roughened dark grey concrete look in paint. If replastering is required to tile anyway, well, I might just go to waist height or ankle height trim with the tiles. I won't know until I get in there so for now I'm free to dream away with any look!

All of these grey tiles are lovely, some are ceramic and some are glass:

[image: Ocean Grey Glass Subway Tile
http://www.theglassmosaicoutlet.com/ai-07.html]

[image: possibly from a PotteryBarn catalogue]

These are white subway tiles, but the grey wall looks amazing next to them..

Below are black butcher tiles, looking good. Love the Florence Broadhurst paper above them. The black and white floor titles are another feature I'm very enamoured by, so this picture is very valuable. The frameless shower screen adds a juxtaposing modern element. Of note here is also that there is a white border between the floor and the wall tiles. It really helps to break up the black and is duly noted.

[image: from http://www.gregnatale.com/ (warning Flash site, urg).]

Lastly, another subway tile + black and white checkered floor, showing both horizontal and vertical tile patterns. I like horizontal. The tiles here have too much colour for my house palette but you get the idea. Again, the white border at the floor.

[image matched to: http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/9/2007/07/smallish_xPicture%207wtmk.jpg]

a note on images and inspirations

As I search the web for inspiration I often download images that inspire me, that feature a look I'm exploring or have some element I wish to refer back to. Ultimately, I forget where these images came from. I plan to link back to the original source for images I've downloaded where possible, but many times I simply forget, so if I have used (and not given credit for) an image of yours or you know the source please let me know and I'll properly link to the image and apply credit where due. I have no desire to impinge on anyone's copyright, I am simply using these images for inspiration and hope they inspire others! Surely that is the ultimate reason these images exist in the first place. So, enough covering my ass...

Blogs and sites I have most likely found such images through include:

Google images: http://images.google.com
Apartment Therapy: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/
That Bow: http://thatbow.blogspot.com/
Alkemie: http://alkemie.blogspot.com/

[Update]
I use http://www.tineye.com/ to help find the images again.

new beginnings

Starting this little blog to document the renovation of my new house. The ideas stage is the fun part, so before I get stuck into any of the hard work I'll be exploring and playing with lots of ideas, dreams, whimsical fancies and of course harsh realities like colour schemes, textures, fixtures and fittings. As the project progresses this blog should show how the various inspirations have come together to produce the final look (not that any look is ever truly static, final or finished, thankfully).

My style is a complex and evolving beast, but I have always enjoyed some incorporation of the macabre and look forward to incorporating it in both bold and cheeky fashions. Style wise, I love both modern and old, vintage and synthetic, soft, hard, striking and subtle. I hope to produce a final look that is multi-layered and full of juxtaposition yet works coherently and is, in its own unique way, very much a place to call home.

Let the adventures begin...