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Musings from the desk of an interior designer and design educator. How do I spend my time and what do I find interesting? This is a photo of my design studio which is set in the garden of our Californian Bungalow. It gets plenty of natural light and has lovely views of our garden. It is also the repository of many of my books on design. Yes that is an old Imac that I am very attached to. I still do much of my graphic layout work, for projects on this machine, but internet and auto cad I do on my MacBook Pro that I take everywhere with me.
Every home needs a space where you can carry out your hobbies. A room that has lots of natural light, plenty of storage and some stylish furniture and furnishings to create that sense of well being. So we set about creating a room by renovating our garage. I have been writing about traditional interiors and shown you aspects of our house in Melbourne , but I also love mid century modern design as well as eighteenth and early nineteenth century antiques. Our second house in country Victoria another Californian Bungalow is the repository for our other collection of furniture and the new room created over the last twelve months provides a home for a Fler day/night bed settee, a Danish rosewood sewing table, a teak coffee table and Fler arm chairs. This room holds the collection of furnishing fabrics, dress fabrics I have squirrelled away, books on crafts and sewing and many craft implements as well as my toys. I confess I have never really grown out of "Leggo" or "Barbie". The storage pieces are all Ikea. Affordable, flexible and attractive. I love Ikea and have become quite good at assembling their furniture. I have pretty much memorised all the dimensions of my favourite pieces ( tragic ) which I include in many cost effective interiors. I still have some finishing touches to complete, window coverings, cushions, and refinishing the series 7 chairs, for a splash of colour. ![]() A glimpse of the large work desk that sits under the south facing window that lets in plenty of light for all those detailed projects. The windows are waiting for their curtain treatments. Next project on the long list of things to do. The pure wool carpet is from Supertuft and is called 'mocha', a warm mid toned grey colour.
![]() The east wall has cupboards to conceal all the ugly bits. The vintage singer sewing machine table was my mothers. The Kartell round storage unit came from a Ballarat 'op shop' for $15.00. The creamy colour was perfect. The Fler swivel base chair was also found at an 'op shop'. It is re-upholstered in 'Woven Image' wool.
![]() The west wall is filled with Ikea 'Billy' shelves and a 'Beno' dvd unit just fills the space to make it wall to wall. This is where the bulk of my furnishing fabric collection lives. 'Liberty of London' fabrics feature quite heavily. The little Danish sewing table hold Ikea 1:6 scale dolls furniture.
Yes it is still cold but all that rain has to be good for our water catchments if not for my renovations. So to make the most of having time to snuggle down this weekend I decided we might christen a tea set that I bought a few years ago and have been waiting for a special occasion. So I baked a cake, donned the cashmere and we settled down to enjoy a cup of tea in our lacquer red coloured sitting room, where just the colour warms you up. We cleared the brass and glass coffee table of its usual 'tablescape' and laid out our Rosenthal tea set. I placed it on an old 'Liberty of London tray'. Two generously sized tea bowls, and saucers, two side plates matching milk jug and sugar bowl and a grand teapot. The design originates from the 1780s and is the classic blue and white hand painted floral pattern. You can see from the photos it is very pretty and very classic. I served black tea that we bought in Glasgow at the 'House for an Art Lover' in its Charles Rennie Mackintosh tin, which has a 'chinoiserie feel' being black with some little red accents. When tea was first introduced to Europe it was very expensive and the caddies where the tea was stored were items of beauty and kept on display in the sitting room rather than the kitchen. I trimmed the cake with bay leaves for decoration and we broke out the silver teaspoons and cake forks and played ladies for a couple of hours, basking in the warm reflection from the red walls. This room we designed to be used as a winter sitting room or a dramatic night reception room. |
AuthorHi I am Elizabeth an interior designer who lives in Melbourne, Australia in a little Californian Bungalow cottage with my partner, Max, who is also an Interior Designer, and our beloved furry children, Doris & Ernest. I believe that design can make our lives more rewarding and productive. I love, architecture and design theory but my everyday passion is fabrics and decoration, as I don't think we should get too serious but have fun with our homes and enjoy the process of creating our own environments. I am interested in classic cars, and collect Georgian and Mid Century furniture. Archives
July 2018
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