Inside Out & the living with white issue

The August issue of Inside Out magazine hits the newsstands tomorrow and alright it's all white! (Oh bad pun.) Managing Editor Lee Tran Lam explains a little more in her latest email.

I know that white can seem a little intimidating – and too much white can conjure an image of those clinical science labs in the movies, you know the kinds where some horrible virus is unleashed? So we wanted to show how you can have white interiors that still have warmth and personality (and still are practical, because we all know how much of a stain-magnet white can be)!

This featured home belongs to textile and wallpaper designer Karina Pires, who runs House of Six. Even though the home is near Bondi Beach and she has two young kids, the strong use of white throughout has not been a nightmare to clean. And that's despite (boldly) painting the floors a good shade of white! "It doesn't chip, it's not shiny. It's been two years and we haven't repainted," she says. "The floors are also easy to maintain and, surprisingly, they don't ever look very dirty." She did spend a long time experimenting with the right paint to coat the floors with, so it seems like her constant juggling of many test pots paid off! She's also added vivid rainbow hints throughout, so it's not an overly bare home – these well-deployed bursts of brightness definitely add a mood-lift to each room. A small dose of colour goes a long way. Megan Morton styled the home beautifully and Françoise Baudet did a great job photographing it.

Wow! It's like dropping Skittles into a milk bottle. What fun! Can't wait to see more in the latest issue out tomorrow. Don't fret if you aren't in Australia though. You can read along on  Zinio, Google Play,  the Apple Newsstand and Nook.

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Inside Out

Every month an email arrives from Inside Out magazine's Managing Editor Lee Tran Lam and every month I get excited. The sneak peeks from inside the latest issue of the magazine are always amazing. Today's is no different. It's winter down under and it's just a little grey and chilly. Inside Out's antidote to the cold-weather blues is a cheery home. As Lee Tran explains ...

"I feel like the house belonging to The Family Love Tree's Katie Graham is a perfect example of this. It's so vibrant and instantly jumpstarts a good mood. It appears in our July issue and definitely brightens our pages! When her family moved into the home , the 1970s bungalow was "quite Liberace" and they needed to dial it down a bit. I think they've done a fantastic job – especially with the exuberant wallpapers. Katie is such a wallpaper fan that she managed to sneak one behind the kitchen splashback, too (despite people telling her it was impossible)! She also managed to pull off the renovation in seven weeks, too – which is pretty impressive."

Love the wallpaper, the Falcon chair, the West German and Bitossi pottery, the black wall and those dining chairs. Hang it I'm moving in. Styling for the story is by Rachel Vigor, photography by Derek Swalwell. Can't wait to see more in the July issue out Thursday. Don't fret if you aren't in Australia though. You can read along on  Zinio, Google Play,  the Apple Newsstand and Nook.

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The latest from Inside Out

Has half the year flown by already? Is June just a day or two away? It must be because I found an email in my inbox from Inside Out magazine's Managing Editor Lee Tran Lam with a sneak peek at the June issue. June! The blow of somehow having frittered away six months of the year was soothed by the pictures of the amazing home she shared.

So it's that time again and given the drop in temperature, I've got a home from the new June issue of Inside Out (out Thursday) that I think you might warm to. It belongs to photographer Harold David and it shows that the waiting game can really pay off. He first spotted this Blue Mountains home back in 2005 – it was not too far away from his weekender – and fell quite dramatically for it. He would look into the windows and say, "I want this house". Then – years later, in 2013 – he happened to be stumbling across real estate sites and saw that it was up for sale. And even though he had no plans at all to move at that point (in fact, he had settled into a Sydney home that he'd extensively renovated only two years prior), this Blue Mountains cabin just had such a hold on him that he couldn't resist. And now it's his. (Ceri David's story about this in the mag is great – she asks Harold David why he was looking at houses online if he had no intention to relocating, and he replies: "I just love property porn! I bawl my eyes out when I watch Grand Designs.")

Wow! What a house! The styling in the story is by Lara Hutton, photography by Harold David. Can't wait to see more when the June issue of Inside Out hits the stands tomorrow. Don't fret if you aren't in Australia though. You don't have to miss out. You can read along on  Zinio, Google Play, the Apple Newsstand and Nook.

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The latest from Inside Out

Don't you just love flipping through the pages of a magazine for inspiration? Oh and eye candy. Definitely eye candy! The latest issue of Inside Out is bursting at the seams with both. Managing Editor Lee Tran Lam sent me this sneak peek and I can't wait to see more when this issue is out on Thursday.

The home belongs to a family of five, and manages to still be both kid-friendly and a house that you'd totally place on your wish list. It's designed to withstand the lively impact of three boys, but being child-proof doesn't necessarily mean having to throw covers over everything and locking up all your favourite things. In fact, some family-friendly details happen to be clever design ones – such as the Bolon flooring tiles in the playroom, which make for a striking interlocking pattern on the ground, but also happens to keep stains and spills out (yes, you can accidentally knock over some food on this floor and there will be no "this house is ruined"-style repercussions or grief). Other eye-catching details include the recessed timber wall in the main bedroom that acts like the ultimate bedhead. That's just a few of the many things to love about this home (as you can see)! Styling by Emma O'Meara. Photography by Nikole Ramsay.

(The home is the latest in Inside Out's "Open For Inspection" series. Thanks to Bugaboo they opened up this Geelong house to a series of guests and filmed a tour of the space, for people who weren't able to trek out to this corner of Victoria ... like me. You can keep an eye out for a detailed visit soon at insideout.com.au.)

Don't worry if you aren't in Australia and can't get your hands on a copy of the magazine. You can read along on  Zinio, Google Play, the Apple Newsstand and Nook.

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Openhouse Magazine

There is a new magazine out there and this one should be added to your subscribe list. OPENHOUSE Magazine is a twice yearly publication, that looks to bright, creative people from around the world, that open their homes or their private spaces to the public, to make different activities about gastronomy, art and design. In the current issue we talk to Jermome Waag, head chef at Chez Panisse, about what he likes to cook at home for his friends in his time off. In a small village in the italian countryside, Attillio and Paola live in the old Cinema Flora, and regularly open their doors for film nights. We take a peek into the Freunde von Freunden Apartment in Berlin, that takes shape as an office, event space and a cosy apartment for occasional overnight guests. Amaryllis Jacobs has made her wonderful home in Brussels into a twice yearly gallery space, Maniera, for architect designed pieces.....among others. I especially love this first loft space - the plant filled TV hang out space is amazing!!! I can't wait to get my hands on a copy. Definitively one to leave out on the coffee table. (Photos: Carlos Chavarría, Lucrecia Althabe, Mari Luz Vidal, Maria Teresa Furnari)

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