A Contemporary, Californian Farmhouse

As a design blogger, I am constantly looking at beautiful homes and gathering ideas for myself and others and I believe this exposure has influenced me greatly in being a little more adventurous with my own interior style. I used to have a house full of antique pieces but now I prefer a mix of contemporary and traditional furniture. I still love traditional style, however I realise the most interesting spaces are when designers mix things up, especially in a building that has contemporary architecture and this is why I love this Californian Farmhouse so much.

House Tour - A Holiday Home Near Cape Town

A couple of years ago I was invited to South Africa for a friends wedding, unfortunately I wasn't able to attend and I was terribly disappointed at the time, and still am, I felt like I missed out twice, not only my beautiful friend's wedding but the chance of seeing the stunning South African scenery and amazing wild life. Usually when one thinks of South Africa, safari's and dusty plains spring to mind, however, the beauty of this country extends far beyond to stunning mountain ranges, wineries and idyllic coastline. It is on such coastline that I discovered a home far away from the 'big five'.

An Atlanta Guest House

Last week on 'Spaces I love', I featured an image with a barn door (a current crush of mine). This space turned out to be the guest house of a large Atlanta home. 

A Touch of New England in County Kerry, Ireland

I love New England style homes, I am so passionate about the New England look, I am currently trying to incorporate this style into my small cottage. While looking for some inspiration, I stumbled across this New England style interior. What first struck me was the unusual, large glass pendant lights in the dining area, by the time I had explored a little more, I was totally smitten.

A Stockholm Home Reflects the Owners Love of Relaxed Coastal Style

Sofia Nasland is the woman behind Matilde & Co, a homeware store filled with items that reflect Sofia's love of coastal cottage style. Sofia, along with her husband Esbjörn and their two children, live in a picture perfect, New England style, two storey house by the sea. Sofia has decorated combining elements of French, English cottage and New England style for a relaxed coastal look.

A Spacious Swedish Apartment

Sweden is well known for great design especially when it comes to space saving furniture as most inhabitants live in small to medium size apartments. When it comes to style, most of the Swedish interiors I have featured on the blog, look as if they have just been plucked off the pages of Vogue magazine. Today's home tour is an apartment in Vaasa, not the norm as far as space is concerned as it is large with a spacious living area, three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The owners have been able to be generous with their furniture and have turned this apartment into a relaxed home with a definite Scandinavian feel.

A Romantic Danish Living Space - Country Style in White

I often dream of living in an all white house but wonder about the practicalities and if it might feel a little cold. However, the owners of this Danish home had no qualms about going all white to create a light abundant living space. If you look closely you will see it is not completely white,  antique wooden furniture and other materials have aged to a gentle patina of warmer tones. Far from cold and sterile, this living area provides a comfortable space for the family to relax.

Kitchen Inspiration - A Touch Of Country

I am currently seeking inspiration for my kitchen makeover which I plan to have underway by Spring. I have found a company in Auckland who will replace the doors and bench tops so I can keep the existing cabinets in place, to this I plan to add new wall cupboards and replace my overly large gas/electric cooker with a sleek induction top and under oven. My current kitchen is white, modern with a lot of stainless steel and cheap Formica tops and simply doesn't have enough storage. My house is 1940's, classic style panelled doors, high stud and wooden floors. The overall feel of this open plan living area is currently one of discord as the current kitchen is in contrast to the other end of the room which has more classic styling. I hope to achieve a more unified look in my makeover by replacing the flat doors with a traditional style and the Formica bench tops with a lovely granite. I also want to achieve more storage and better use of bench top space. I have been looking for lots of ideas and drawing some inspiration from the following kitchens...

Image sources: 1|2|3|4|5|6

Any thoughts or comments are welcome, next week I will post my kitchen mood board and a before shot of the kitchen. Hopefully my guest bedroom will be completed within the next week or so and I can post the before and afters shots.  I am waiting on the window treatments at the moment and also waiting for the foam for my headboard (I will be sharing how to create a headboard). The room is really coming together beautifully and I am looking forward to sharing images of the full makeover.

Love white interiors - Then you will love this New England style riverside home

Recently my posts have been about adding colour to your home. However, a friend pointed out, she actually loved her all white bedroom and I must admit I had to agree an all white interior can look fabulous and this New England style, riverside home in Berkshire is the perfect example. With the river at the end of the garden, an interior of shutters, white washed wood and seaside accessories, this lovely home could easily have you believing you lived beside the sea.

I love the outdoor hammocks, you can see more ideas with hammocks in my recent post on outdoor patio's 

 Rattan is perfect for the coastal look adding important texture

If coastal is your style and you missed the posts below, you will find lots more inspiration...

A coastal interior

Fabulous seaside interior in this Hampton's style home in West Sussex 

Shabby chic seaside cottage

linking this weeks home tour with the following blogs:

I should be Mopping the Floor

Savvy Southern Style

No Minimalist Here

My Romantic Home

Stroll Thru Life

Images copyright of jjlocations (this lovely home is available for photo/film shoots).

A Unique Swedish Interior

I have always felt that Sweden leads the way when it comes to Scandinavian style. When we think of Swedish interior design we think white and bright but this fabulous interior I am sharing today is a little "out of the box" for Swedish style.  This is not just another white interior with minimalist decor, this fabulous home has twists and turns in the way of unusual architecture such as the stone, cave like walls and ceilings in two of the bedrooms.  I love the occasional use of colour against the white backdrop seen in the artwork in the living area and the bold floral wallpapers used on feature walls.  Each room has personality of its own adding interest and life to this fabulous home.

Images courtesy of  Fantastic Frank

Fabulous Seaside Interior

The Hamptons you might think, but surprise, this fabulous home is actually in England, in West Sussex. The  architecture is perfect for its seaside location, a lovely wide verandah to relax out of the sun, with an upstairs balcony giving widespread views of the sea.  Imagine living here all year round it would feel like a permanent holiday.

I love the shutters in the bedroom, well I guess I am biased as have very similar in my own room. The mirror in between is a great way of creating a feeling of more space... I have a light bulb image above my head , a perfect addition to my own shutters.

Please visit JJ Locations to see more images of this fabulous home.

Hope your having a fabulous weekend, Cold Play were in Auckland over the weekend but sadly I didn't have a ticket, I would have loved to have gone.  Sometimes I can hear concerts when the wind is blowing this way but no such luck Saturday :(

Visit another Seaside home with definitely a touch of shabby chic

Bathrooms - Beautiful Ideas To Inspire You.

I've been for a long walk today with Poppy, its Spring here but a dull, cloudy day which seems to have made me feel a little grey and missing my mum.  I think tonight I might run a deep bath, throw in a lot of lavender oil, light lots of candles, and just relax, have an hour doing nothing, just for me :), "drown my sorrows" as they say, well not "drown" them but half submerge them maybe.

My own bathroom is inherited from its previous owners and is quite pleasant but if I had the money I would definitely remove the traditional "bath against the wall" and put in one of those fabulous freestanding baths. I've gathered some inspiration to share with you today, bathrooms that appeal to me and I hope will appeal to you. I think my favourite is Image three, I love the style of this room, romantic and restful and I love the botanical art print. Art can make or break a room and in this case it most certainly "makes" it and makes it feel more like a room and not clinical and cold.

Which design appeals to you, I would love you to leave a comment, it helps me to know my readers styles...

Image sources  1|2|3|4|5|6

If you love freestanding baths but today's inspiration lacks a little colour,  visit my earlier post "Bathroom Bliss - Absolutely Divine Bathrooms"  for some "wow" bathrooms.

Hope all my lovely readers have a great weekend... of me working away, sanding and painting my mums kitchen. I have almost finished the inside of her house, just two more rooms to go then its the mammoth 1/4 acre garden and exterior of the house to complete. I know she'd be thrilled to see how its coming along, I am just sad she is not here to see it, as I know she'd love the new wall colour, it's made the house seem so much more sunnier.