Lotta Cole

Lotta Cole is a Swedish interior designer based in London who wanted to share a project she just completed in Notting Hill. The flat is situated in the heart of Notting Hill, and the design scheme mixes bright splashes of colour with reclaimed materials and quirky details, such as the antique spoon handles in the kitchen, antique mirrors in the stair, and wooden door knobs throughout the flat. The project was completed May 2011 by Lotta Cole Design. Love the Smeg fridge - and the colour!! Thank you for sharing Lotta!

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A larger slice of heaven

Remember the minimalist church conversion last week? Well the owners traded up ... to a bigger church. Again by Zecc Architects. (Thanks for the heads up Zecc.) Still the clean minimal lines with respect to the original structure. Look at those stained glass windows, the plaster work. It's a play on spatial qualities, lines of sight, the enclosed and the soaringly open, the secular and the religious remnants. Monkish in how spartan it is but elegant in its restraint. And if they trade up again will it be a cathedral?

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My home renovation - bathroom ideas

I am just DYING to have the work on my house started, but we've had to redo the plans to try and save a small fortune so my husband can get an extra 16" of height for his basement "man cave". While our plans are being finalized once again, we've started the quest for interior and exterior finishes and we frankly don't really know where to begin. It's a pretty daunting task for 2 people who have never really done any renovations before (except my kitchen a few years ago). We're going to need pretty much everything - a staircase, windows, exterior finishes, fireplace, bathroom fixtures, hardwood, tile and on and on... You guys help out our readers when they have design dilemmas so I thought maybe this time you could help me out. I am hoping you can give me suggestions on where to shop, design ideas etc. Since I am located in Ottawa some of the products should probably be relatively accessible locally (ie. staircase).

We also have another dilemma. This renovation is going to cost us WAY more than we initially thought, which means we're not sure we can complete the finishes in all the rooms (and I'm not even talking about furnishing them - there's talk about leaving the floors with only the sub-floor, completing only one bathroom...). This brings me to my next call for help. If anyone out there would like to help us with some of the finishes by offering great bargains for materials, even freebies (!!!) I'd LOVE to chat  (email me at desiretoinspirekim@hotmail.com). There would of course be blog mentions/publicity in return.

So today's post is about bathrooms. We will have a master bedroom ensuite, another full bathroom upstairs, and a powder room next to the front entrance. (For a peek at the plans see this post, keeping in mind the layout of the bathrooms is totally up for grabs). I'd love to have some fun with the powder room and do something really industrial and I have a thing for black and white bathrooms so I hope one of the other bathrooms can be done in those colours. I went through my stash of bathroom photos and found some of my favourites. Any ideas/sources etc. that you can suggest, let me know in the comments or via email! Thanks!

Annette English	Martha Stewart
Pappas Miron	Design*Sponge
Adela Cabré	Hus & Hem
Design*Sponge	Design*Sponge

Dwell

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Rustic idyll

More and more I feel myself drawn to the rustic ... the sophisticated rustic. The beauty of natural materials juxtaposed with contemporary luxury. Texture and minimalism. Solid, firm, permanent. One foot in the past, one in the future. I've featured Spanish firm Minim before and we have had a small glimpse of this Priorat house but when I found architectural photographer Eugeni Pons' portfolio I gasped. There is a richness, a warmth, a touch of humanity in these photos. Simple but luxe, rustic yet modern, it is a complex space. It may seem simple but it's a carefully considered play of opposites. Voids and solids, rough and smooth, past and present and Eugeni's shots capture it perfectly.

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Luisa Olazábal

Occasionally I like to blog a designer/stylist/photographer whose style leaves me a bit out of my comfort zone. Luisa Olazábal is an interior designer from Madrid, and her portfolio filled with beautiful spaces does just that. They are classic with a contemporary flair, sophisticated and refined with soothing, muted colour palettes.

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