Paddington House

Earlier this year I posted some images of a house I was working on in Paddington in Brisbane. The house is now for sale on realestate.com. I thought I would show you some more images of this gorgeous inner city Brisbane home.

A Beach Party

I came across this gorgeous image today on Chez Fifi's blog. I just adore this concept of lunch at the beach and I love her use of mismatched chairs.

Fit For A Princess

This would have been my dream bedroom when I was a little girl and it even has my letter A on the wall! I do love that this room would be suitable for a girl of 3 or a girl of 30.

Image courtesy of Cottage Living Magazine.

Decorating Tips - Part 1

An example of mismatched cushions above on an Antique french 2 seater sofa upholstered in plain white canvas fabric.

This plain charcoal linen sofa at Black & Spiro looked so beautiful when we added the array of patterned and striped cushions to it. We used a mixture of charcoal, white and yellow fabrics. The yellow instantly brought the sofa to life and incorporated the yellow silk curtains which fell behind the sofa.

It is my opinion that beautiful cushions and lamps can make a room. The plainest or most outdated sofa can be brought to life by the addition of custom made cushions in an array of beautiful fabrics and a table in the corner or behind a sofa can be uplifted by the placement of a unique lamp with custom made shade.

If you are on a tight budget opt for a less expensive sofa in a plain fabric and have some special cushions made (or make your own) in a mismatch of fabrics - this will certainly make your look individual and I guarantee the cushions will enhance the look of your inexpensive sofa! The other wonderful thing about cushions is that you can change them around very easily - I often adivse clients to have two sets of cushions made for their lounge room; one set for Winter and one set for Summer. This keeps things interesting and as I always say a change is as good as a holiday.

Another great idea for people on a budget is to scour Antique shops and markets for old lamps -they can be very inexpensive; my recent lamp purchase at an Antique shop totalled $25.00. Bring vintage lamps to life with beautiful lampshades made in fabulous fabrics and again I guarantee you will add an individual and stylish touch to your room. Some old lamps can even look wonderful repainted in white or a bright colour - use your imagination!

This gorgeous vintage lamp which I placed on a table in a client's house was an Antique shop find. I had a new shade made in a Designers Guild silk which immediately brought the gorgeous and unusual lampbase back to life. It also introduced interest and colour to the timber table.

This beautiful pair of yellow lamps in Chloe Sevigny's apartment certainly make a statement - I love how these lamps contrast with the mirrored cabinet. Image courtesy of House & Garden.

For inexpensive fabrics which you can order online visit Reprodepot or Purlsoho. If you are looking for a particular type of fabric or a designer fabric visit your local interior decorator and ask to look through their library. Please note, some decorators don't like to have their sample books on show to the public. At Black & Spiro I encourage my customers to come and look through our fabric range. I would recommend you call some of your local decorators first in order to find out whether you can look through their fabrics; this will not only save time, it will also give the decorating store advance notice of your visit.

Today I Love

Just a few beautiful images I found on Housemartin's blog which I am going to save into my "I Love" files. Thanks for the inspiration Housemartin!

Happy Weekend!

A beautiful windswept image of Martha's Vineyard which I found on Flickr reminds me of going to the beach for the weekend. I hope you all have lovely weekend filled with happiness and lots of fun with family & friends. See you next week!!

xo
Anna

Simply Beautiful

I adore this image which I found on Victoria Hagan's website - so simply beautiful!!

Ruthie's New Book

Last week Ronda over at All The Best reported that Ruthie Sommers' new book, The LA House is due for release in Autumn. This book is definately on my wish list. I often find myself pouring over Ruthie's website: Chapman Radcliff Home so to get my hands on her book will very exciting!!

Dara Caponigra's Beautiful Home

I have had this beautiful house in my "I Love" file for quite some time now however, I didn't know it belonged to Style Director of Domino Magazine, Dara Caponigra. Photographed by Paul Costello, this house is one of my favourite houses of all time. I particularly love the attic bedroom and of course the all white shell is what completely draws me in. I also adore the long cane ottoman in the lounge room and the white painted stone/brick fireplace - certainly a place I could call home!!


Images courtesy of Domino Magazine.

Gypsy Tables

I have an obsession with Gypsy tables. My brother bought me a Gypsy table (top image) for Christmas a couple of years ago from a junk shop which was originally dark green but knowing I'm not a fan of dark green he pulled out some white paint and a paint brush and painted it white for me. I just adore my table so much and I will continue to treasure it for many years to come. If you see one of these tables in your travels make sure you pick it up, paint it white and put it somewhere special - I assure you it will be one of those pieces you will just love forever!!

The Lake House

Does this house look familiar? Yes, it was the gorgeous house in the movie Lake House starring Keanu Reeves & Sandra Bulluck. What an amazing house this would be to wake up in - so much light. I would love to paint the whole thing white inside and out(including the floor) and fill it with lots of beautiful old bits of furniture.

New Things @ Black & Spiro

Lots of beautiful new things arrived at Black & Spiro while I was away. I thought I would show you some pictures of some of my favourites. I enjoyed creating a fresh display in the front window this morning with all of the beautiful new things.

Balmoral House Featured in QWeekend

Just thought I would show you the feature QWeekend did a couple of weeks ago on me and the Balmoral house I did. The professional photographs of the house looked so beautiful, I must say! If you would like to read the article just click on the above image and it will allow you to read the text.

Hello!!

Hello, it's so great to be back after what feels like such a long break. I am well rested and ready for lots of great blogging. After having a little peak around blogland this morning I realise that I have so much reading to catch up on at some of my favourite blogsites - how exciting!! I do hope that everyone is well and I look forward to hearing from you all. Thanks also to everyone for all of the wonderful emails I received while I was away. It's so lovely to come back to such positive and encouraging feedback. Everything will be back to normal as from tomorrow with my usual daily ABT posts.

xo
Anna

Image courtesy of Flickr.

Time For a Holiday...

Elle Decor via Stylecourt

Via Bijou Kaleidoscope

Via Coastal Living

Via Sarah Kaye

Debi Trelour via Terramia

Paul Costello via Desire to Inspire

Via Casapinka

Via Girl Meets Glamour

Via Katie Did

Via Bijou Kaleidoscope

I am signing off for 2 weeks to spend some much needed time with my family. Thank you everyone for visiting and for all your wonderful comments. I love hearing from you. I will be back on Monday 6th August. In the meantime I have left you some beautiful images which I have found around blog land of late which I adore. And while I'm away please be sure to check out some of the fantastic blogs I have listed on my side bar. Bye for now!!!

xo

Anna

Children's Bathroom

If I had lots of children I would definately want a bathroom like this - almost dorm style! But I only have 1 child so I don't need as many basins as this but if you have lots of little ones around why not consider this idea for a children's bathroom.

Image courtesy of House & Garden.

The Photo Shoot

What at day! I am so relieved it is all over. Jason the fantastic photographer flew up from Sydney last night and was at my home at 8.00am this morning. We spent 6 hours there photographing my home and then we drove into New Farm to Black & Spiro and spent another 2 hours photographing the shop so it was a huge and tiring day! Jason was FANTASTIC and I really enjoyed spending the day with such a creative and talented photographer. I must send a huge thank you out to him for all of his hard work and also a big thank you to Real Living Magazine. I have been asked by alot of my international readers to post some scanned images of the story once it comes out in Real Living magazine so I promise I will post them once the issue is out.