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.

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.