Rustic meets contemporary

I'm in love with what interior designer Jen Macdonald and architect Tim Chappelle did with this family home in California. They've cleverly modernised country rustic look and it is so sophisticated.  

Photos by Paul Dyer

Modern renovation

This house designed by Lauren Liess was originally featured on Domino. I'm in love with the way she has made antiques look at home in a white contemporary space, something I'm trying to achieve in my own home. I particularly love her library and her mustard couch.  Photos by Brittany Ambridg

Blackbird Goods

Napier, you getting so cool. Today I went into new shop Blackbird Goods on Dalton Street. I didn't know much about it's owner/stylist Gem Camille Adams until I started instagram/blog stalking her this afternoon, now I kindof wish she was my friend.  Check out her beautiful blog at blackbird.co.nz

A 1920’s villa in Napier

I’ve been promising a post about the new house and the big move for a while now, so here it is.

To start from the beginning, we (by we I mean me + my lovely husband, Harper our Shih Tsu Toy Poodle, and Raisin the cat) moved to Napier at the end of May. We were just a bit over the rubbish Wellington weather and house prices, and we wanted a new house to decorate (I say we, but really who am I kidding?) We were in a temporary rental until 15 July and instead of being sensible and finding another rental to go to, we decided to go house hunting instead. We came across our lovely villa by accident—short story is we were supposed to be looking at a different house but we fell in love with our place and put an offer on the same day!

We have been in the house for just over two months now and we are loving putting our stamp on the place. If you’ve been following my blog for a little while you’ll know our last house was decorated in quite a modern style, with pastel pink, yellow and robins egg blue. Well for this house I want to create a more classic décor with rustic influences and subdued colour palette.  I’ve always loved antiques and want to incorporate pieces which mean something into this house - in fact I put a rule in place that if we don’t love it, we’re not keeping it.

Below are some pictures of the journey so far and a bit about what I'm hoping to do in the new place. Apologies the photos aren't better quality.

Moving day at the rental

One of the many antiques I've acquired for the new house, now our pantry

We've made two trips back to Wellington to pick up left over furniture items and buying fabric!

Shelving in the kitchen was one of the first jobs - I bought the brackets from Zoomly and the wood is from Mitre 10, which I lovingly painted one rainy weekend...

Stools I bought from trade me and recovered. I painted one and I kindof wish I didn't so now I'm trying to decide if they should be a colour instead.

The front room, which will eventually be the holiday let, but it's coming along very slowly. Check out those curtains, which I'm happy to say will be gone this weekend and replaced with lovely pale grey ones.

A concept I put together for the holiday let 

This is just some of the paneling I've mentioned in earlier posts. It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't merge with the floor!

Dave starting the arduous task of painting it all. Don't let this picture fool you, I did just as much (actually more) painting than him

A progress photo

I haven't managed to get a decent 'finished' shot yet, but you get the idea!!!

The bathroom which has a shower but no shower curtain? Um...what? Yeah we are having a ring made and hoping to have it fitted shortly.

Right now the animals play in there.

I bought this 100 year old trunk to go in the living room. We like to think that BLM stands for Blackmore. Meant to be.

I also bought these elephant puppets just because.

These are the squabs I had made for the window seats using a pale cotton fabric with a subtle grey stripe. I also sourced the recycled elm table to fit the space because we want to use the window seats on one side. 

So as you can see, the paneling is also in the living room. Our intention is to paint this to match the entrance hall so it is bright and fresh. It has had 90 years the way it is, so it's done its dash.

We had a quote to have it done for us which came in at over $4,000.00 so we'll be doing it ourselves...but it's going to be a big job and might takes us the next couple of months!

This is the room at the moment. A work in progress, but starting to come together.

So that's a taste of what I've been up to the last couple of months! There is plenty more where that comes from so stay tuned -  follow my instagram to see more regular updates.

Fav designers - Emily Henderson

Lately I'm really loving Emily Henderson, an LA based designer who is amazing at styling using one-off eclectic pieces. I really recommend checking out her instagram feed and she has a book coming out soon too. All pics via her website.

Five Things Pleasing - Window seats

Hello! Sorry guys I've been MIA lately - life has been busy and frankly I haven't been very inspired. Luckily I seem to be getting on top of things again. So right  now I'm working on a big post about my new house and all the little projects I'm about to start so watch this space. For now, I'm looking at getting squabs made for the big U-shape built-ins we have in the dining room. Here are some of the pictures I've come across for inspiration.