Kim's personal links
MY FAVOURITE DECOR SHOPS IN OTTAWA
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kitchen remodel in my last house
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my twin sister's mostly kid's rooms decor blog
A few steps from the spice market in the Marrakech's medina is the home of stylist, art director and designer Valérie Barkowski. Dar Kawa, a riad overflowing with style and a timelessness. Authentic with a twist. A modern take on the historic. A perfect escape in an exotic locale.
... if you will. I have always wanted to find an old cottage, some place that hasn't changed in all the years it has stood. A time capsule. The simple life. A few spartan rooms stained with history, heavy with memories. A place like Railway Farm just outside of Malmsbury in Victoria. I have been real estate stalking and found a rough gem. This 3 room hut, let's face it it's hardly a cottage, was built around 1865. Slab and tin, brick floor, walls paper in old newspapers, hot in summer, cold in winter and wonderfully beautiful in its own way. A pioneer hut unchanged except for ever thickening coats of paint on ceilings and walls. 56 acres of land, a well, stone walls and no electricity. Perfect for weekend getaways for those who crave the rough luxe ... minus the luxe. Perhaps I can bring that along each weekend. Dreaming of how I would furnish it. Thank for indulging my daydream. Back to normal programming soon. Link here while it lasts.
Sitting in a meadow of flowers, surrounded by fruit trees, not far from the Baltic Sea in Germany is Haus Otteni. This old farm workers' house has been lovingly restored by its photographer owner. It's a family home of interconnecting rooms, clay plaster walls, rustic beams and a dark cave like feel. Interesting sight lines and the play of light and shadow reveal the photographer's eye. A special place that is made even more lovely by its everyday practicality. Precious but not precocious. Even better it is available for holiday rent. Sunbathing in the meadows, relaxing in the shade of a fruit tree, soft breezes blowing in from the coast. Lazy, blowsy summer days with family or friends.
I'm having a design crisis. I'm finding myself drawn to brown. Not just brown but neutrals, no ... naturals, maybe wood ... and stone ... maybe brick. Grass and feathers and gnarly old branches next to turned bowls of eggs and seed pods. It's clutter and collections and brown .... brown ... natural ... oh and copper and brass and antiques and hemp and sisal and hand made furniture and back to brown. It's driving me crazy but I can't help it. I found this home in the countryside just outside Berrima in New South Wales on my regular real estate stalking and I should be running screaming shouting "no", "no", "no" but ... I'm kind of hooked. It bothers me but perhaps it shouldn't. Link here while it lasts.
Saturdays are normally about helping readers with their design dilemmas. Today, instead, it is all about a wonderful retreat in an exotic location, full of creativity and it's a reader's home. Maureen Booth is a painter and print maker who lives just outside Granada, Spain in paradise ....in a chicken coop. Well her guests actually live in the coop. This bijou building is an artist's and writer's retreat.
"Yes, it was a chicken coop. After that it was a dog kennel, then a painting studio, then it was a junk room for years before we got around to enlarging it, re-roofing it and renovating it. Artists love it, both for the peace, the atmosphere and the five-meter-long workspace."
Nothing grand, very honest, practical and wonderfully romantic. A reclaimed Spanish outbuilding with a view full of inspiration and a garden full of respite. El Gallinero.
Mon, 23 Jul 2012