Road Trip

And if last week wasn't busy enough then this week certainly will be!  Just about to get in the car with a load of beautiful bedspreads, cushions, lamp shades etc. for a road trip to Sydney.  We will be in Sydney until late next week installing a beautiful house we have been working on, meeting a couple of new clients for projects in Sydney and attending a morning tea at Porters for my new wallpaper range.  If you want to follow our journey then make sure you click onto Instagram as we will be posting updates along the way.  My Instagram name is annaspiro just in case you want to follow us on our journey! 

11 hours or there-abouts of driving ahead of us!!  Oh and look at what the Porters Paints Waterloo store has done with my Round and Round the Garden wallpaper in the taupe colourway above!  So pretty Waterloo! xx

See you soon.

xx

Anna

Porters Party

Last night we celebrated the launch of our wallpaper collection with Porters Paints at Black & Spiro.  I thought you might like to see a few pictures of the store and window displays which we themed around the collection.  As you know, the designs were inspired by my childhood and my mother's garden.  If you are walking past the store in the coming days you will see and be able to read the little story I wrote about my inspiration for the collection as painted by the very talented Pip Boydell {see image above}...

 Late yesterday, just before our guests arrived, the sample book was delivered via express courier and I have to say that it was just so exciting opening up the parcel to see right there in front of me my very own sample book with my name on the front.  I have been using fabric and wallpaper samples of other designers and fabric houses my entire career and now I have my very own sample book...so excited!

If you are a Designer and would like to order one of the sample books for your Library just call Porters Paints in Sydney.

Thank you to all of our beautiful clients, friends and supporters for coming along and celebrating with us last night and most of all, thank you Porters Paints for giving me this wonderful opportunity!

xoxo

Anna

Beautiful Bits

I thought I would post a few beautiful things which I am obsessing over at the moment.  Beautiful spaces, a few reminders and lovely colour palettes.  How divine is John Derian's house...so in-love!

xx

Anna

images - john derian's home via bon appetit via neo-traditionalist, quotes via miss wall flower tumblr and sequins & pretzels, piano image via note to sarah, top image via a note to sarah, lounge image - deborah needleman via a lovely being blog

Pretty

Here are some very pretty pictures which I took last week whilst installing a few new things at the Norman Park house which we have been working on over the past couple of years.  You may remember seeing this house before as I did post pictures of it here on the blog a year or so ago. 

It's not hard to see that there is only 1 man and 4 gorgeous girls who live in this lovely house...the youngest one being only a few months old.  We started working on this house just before it's owners completed renovating it.  My very first appointment here was just 2 weeks after I had Max and now he is 2.  I often tell my clients that creating a beautiful home filled and layered with special things takes alot of time and this house is pure evidence of that.

xx
Anna

Max Turns 2

Our entire weekend has been about our beautiful baby boy's 2nd Birthday.  Lots of cake, lots of lollies, lots of balloons and lots of fun.  Thanks for the fab train cake mum.  You're the best.

xx
Anna

More Pics

Here are a few more pictures of my wallpaper's in-situ at Black & Spiro.  Hope you're not getting too bored of seeing these pictures!!  If you live in Willoughby NSW and want to see some of my wallpapers, the Porters store there has just installed a beautiful window display around my new collection!!  Very exciting!

xx

Anna

Round & Round The Garden

Here's another ad which shows my favourite wallpaper design Round & Round the Garden.  This ad hasn't yet been published in any magazine so this is a big sneak peek!!  You might also notice the lovely weiss bar painting by Pip Boydell hanging on the wall.  Pip painted us a few pieces especially for the photo shoot a few weeks back.

This design is available in blue and white and taupe and white and here it is in our bedroom display at Black & Spiro in the blue and white colourway.

The pattern was inspired by my days as a little girl running around mum's pretty garden beds in our old family home which I posted a picture of last week.

Talking about flowers look at these beautiful fresh Chrysanthemum's we had for sale at Black & Spiro yesterday for mother's day.  They actually remind me very much of the flowers my mum used to grow in her garden all those years ago.

Hope Everyone had a wonderful, happy Mother's Day.

xx

Anna



For all enquiries on our wallpaper contact us at Black & Spiro or any Porters Paints showroom.

First Ad Out

So excited to see the very first ad for my wallpaper collection with Porters Paints in Real Living magazine this month which has just hit the shelves today.  Also, if you are heading to Designex in the next few days then you will be able to see the entire range of my wallpapers at the Porters Paints stand.  Over the next couple of days I will post some more pictures of the fabulous ads which will start to appear in other magazines over the coming months.

xx

Anna

Mantra

I love this quote.  I live by this quote.  This is my mantra.
xx
Anna

via - pretty stuff

New at Black & Spiro

This beautiful blue and white dinner set stops me in my tracks when I see it because my grandmother has had this as her dinner set for ever.  I have eaten off this pretty blue and white pattern since I was a very little girl at family dinners, lunches and the like.  So what better reason than to sell this in my store.  We now stock this range at Black & Spiro so if you are in need of a pretty dinner set or tea set or even just a bowl or a jug then this classic, timeless pattern could be perfect.  Could even be a good idea for a mother's day gift!!xx

Here's a note from English Novelist and Playright, JB Priestley about the collection;

"Out of original Victorian buildings, the clay is moulded, shaped and decorated to produce works of art...cups and saucers and plates and teapots rush like magic out of the clay.  May the ovens never grow cold, may Stoke-on-Trent, the pottery town, still continue to be the heart of British craftmanship."

xx
Anna

Memories

Today, on one of my long, soul-cleansing walks, I walked past our old family home and snapped this picture of it.  I believe it was here at this lovely old house that I began to learn everything I know today about creating a beautiful home. 

I remember endless days spent as a young girl playing in mum's pretty cottage garden which was at the back of the house.  She grew sweat peas, daisies, roses and all sorts of beautiful flowering things in that magical garden.  Much to my mother's dismay, I would often set up a flower stall right there on the front footpath with my friend from next door.  We would do a roaring trade selling mum's flowers.  These days I can hardly believe that I would have done such a thing. 

The house hasn't really changed since we lived there, even the colour is the same.  Every time I drive or walk past it I am flooded with happy memories of those wonderful, carefree days.

I am thrilled to say that my wallpaper collection for Porters Paints, which we are launching at Black & Spiro in a couple of weeks time, was inspired by my days playing in the garden as a little girl at this lovely old house.  I feel so lucky to have lived in such a pretty house with that wonderful garden.  I know that my time there has inspired so many thing in my life. 

xx
Anna

This & That

I have been spotting these pretty flowering trees all-over Brisbane these past few weeks.  Thanks to a couple of my Instagram followers I now know that this pretty tree is called Rose of Sharon or Yesterday Today & Tomorrow as it apparently changes colour over a number of days.  I will definitely be planting one of these beauties at home as I just love them!  I snapped this photo as I was leaving a client's house in Clayfield earlier this week. 

Today was install day at a charming old house in Coorparoo which we have been working on since January.  We re-wallpapered all of the formal rooms in the house including the main bedroom and we recovered upholstery and installed new curtains, lampshades, cushions, bed heads and bedspreads.  It turned out so beautifully and so true to it's heritage which is exactly how B wanted it.  {PS - Thanks Pete - you always do such a fab job!!}

It's always such a relief when a big install like this one goes to plan.  Phew, I can sleep tonight!

xx
Anna

Happy Weekend



I'm hoping it's cool enough this weekend to light our first fire for the season.  I'm imagining cups of homemade tomato soup with toast and maybe some toasted marshmallows for H&M.  Fingers crossed!  Happy Weekend!

xx

Anna

image - via a well traveled woman via note to sarah

Lovely Morning

What a beautiful morning it is!  So cool and so fresh.  As I walked down the hallway into the back of the store this morning the girls had opened up all the windows.  It was so pretty seeing the sun streaming in and so fresh feeling the cool air filling the rooms instead of the awful humid air we've been used to these past few months!!

xx

Anna

Home Again

With all of my energy and thoughts being put into work these past few months, our house seems to have gone to rack-and-ruin.  I can't stand it when my home isn't in order.  It really gets to me because my home is my heaven-on-earth and when it's a mess, I'm a mess.  Today's Anzac Day public holiday gave me the perfect opportunity to spend some time getting the house in order and what better way to celebrate a fresh, tidy house than a bunch of flowers which I bought at our local supermarket.   I feel so much better because our house is looking like home again.

xx
Anna

Favourite Corner

I think this corner is my favourite little spot in the shop at the moment.  The vivid green and white floral patterned curtains sit so beautifully on my blue and white Higgledy Piggledy Stripe wallpaper.  I can't tell you how versatile this little wallpaper is and it tends to shine even more when it is layered on top with pictures and paintings and bits and bobs.

xx

Anna

PS - The wallpaper collection is launching in a few weeks time.  Sampling can be seen at all Porters Paints outlets and also at Black & Spiro from mid-May.  Orders can be placed through us at Black & Spiro or through Porters or through Designers Australia-wide.  For international and remote customers, the sampling will be available to order online at Porter's website and also orders can be placed online through Porter's as well.  The website is - http://www.porterspaints.com/

Pink Garden Wall



How could you not love Bougainvillia?  Look at this amazing pink wall against the white timber house in the background?  So vibrant and pretty!!

image via - miss flower wall

Open

I'm thrilled to let you know that our back rooms at Black & Spiro re-opened late this afternoon with our new display of beautiful things.  All of the walls have been wallpapered in 3 of my new wallpaper designs for Porters and if you want to be one of the first to seem them then make sure you pop into the shop. 

We've had wonderful feedback so far and I can't wait to show you all through our new rooms.  They are truly beautiful and probably the most spectacular spaces we have ever created at the store!!

xx
Anna

Much Ado About Blue

I grew up surrounded by blue and white and not just a bit here and there.  I am the daughter of a serious blue and white addict.  She has it everywhere. 

When I was in my early twenties I vowed and declared I wouldn't do the blue and white thing like my mother.  I tried to escape it because I wanted to have my own thing.  I wanted to be me, not my mother.  But there seems to be this innate sense which I can't seem to escape.  No matter which way I turn I seem to include a little bit of blue and white.  It's almost like I feel instantly at home when I see it. But I do like to think that I do blue and white differently to my mother.  She's more of a classic blue and white girl whereas I tend to be more this and that and a bit of something else thrown in. 

Over the weekend I photographed this little collection of things which were sitting on my mother's dressing table.  That old blue and white picture frame which houses a photo of my Harry as a baby has been sitting on tables in her house my entire life.  And yet it's only now that I want to sneak it into my handbag whilst she's not looking!! 

Here are a few other blue and white things which caught my eye this week...

Whilst out and about the other day I came across this beautiful pair of antique blue and white garden stools.  I can't begin to tell you how divine they are but unfortunately they are completely out of my price range.

I also stumbled upon this beautiful Antique stool with it's old cornflower coloured upholstery.  I wouldn't change a thing about this beautiful thing.  It would slip into my house with it's age worn style so perfectly!!

And look at this fabulous set of blue and white vintage canisters which we currently have at Black & Spiro.  A perfect complement to any blue and white addicts kitchen!

Inky blue and white batik notebooks and ginger jar also at Black & Spiro.

Blue & white quilts just arrived in last week from our New York buying trip earlier in the year.

And last but certainly not least, these very beautiful hand-painted blue and white lamp bases are too beautiful for words and pictures.  You must come and see them...that's if you can beat my mother to them!!xx

xx
Anna