This post is sponsored by Target.

So we haven’t painted the bedroom as discussed (yet) but I did do a mini update on the weekend.

It’s always nice to freshen up your linens with the change of season, don’t you think? Not only are you likely to be nesting down for the cooler months but the stocktake sales are on so it’s the perfect time to update those faded, threadbare sheets.

We still love our quilt cover,  but the mattress protector was literally falling to pieces so I picked up a nice thick Target mattress protector to replace it. The previous one had the elastic straps at the corners which never kept it in place so the new one is fitted so it doesn’t bunch up underneath the sheets.

The sheets, which had been purchased to go with a different quilt cover, were off-white so I also grabbed a crisp white Target Essentials sheet set. Such a simple update but I feel like I’m staying in a swanky hotel!

The nights have been getting very chilly (just ask The Man who has to deal with my freezing cold feet) so a colourful chenille throw rug was a much-needed addition to cosy up the bed. I love the bright aqua which ties into the colour of the existing quilt cover and cushion.

Finally, I had my eye on Betsy’s retro style but when I spotted this funky lamp (sorry, no link available) I changed my mind. The Man loves it too and he couldn’t believe it when I told him it wasn’t from some trendy designer boutique.

Next weekend I think I need to schedule some me time curling up in bed with a good book and a cup of tea.

I adore fresh, clean bedding as a little everyday feeling of indulgence. How about you?

What are your tips for small changes that seem much more luxurious than they cost? Share them in the comments!

When I was digging through my files to find our house floorplan the other day I came across the ‘before’ photos of our house. (These were saved directly from the real estate agent’s website so they are shown with the previous owner’s furniture.)

Living area:

Dining area:

Main bedroom:

Second bedroom (now my studio):

Bathroom:

Courtyard:

Communal garden:

Here are a few more angles that weren’t covered by the agent’s photos (excuse the terrible photography – this was pre-blog and were only intended for my own reference).

Landing:

Laundry:

Kitchen:

The only room that hasn’t changed at all is the bathroom, which we will be remedying soon.

I still can’t get my head around the fact that this was over five years ago. It’s fun to look back and see how far we’ve come!

Have you ever had a decorating epiphany?

Sure, I often get ideas for the house but they’re usually after the realisation that there is actually something wrong with the space, followed by careful consideration. It’s never before come as a bolt out of nowhere.

The other day I walked into our bedroom – which I had not even been considering redecorating – and it hit me: These walls should be navy.

It came totally out of nowhere and now every time I’m in there I think, yep, this would look so much better in blue. With gold accents please.

I still really like the actual wall colour we chose – and I adore how dark it is – but now I think it’s a bit too much brown with all the timber furniture and brown curtains. I’m not in love with our bedroom furniture (the bed in particular I would definitely not choose now) but I think the honey tones would look lovely against a dark blue wall.

I have zero time to repaint right now (The Man doesn’t even know I’m considering this – um, surprise!) but I can’t shake the idea. It wouldn’t take nearly as long as it took to paint the first time because the hard work (surface prep, ceilings, trim) is still all fine.

Apart from the effort involved, my other hesitation is that I’m worried it’s a bit much colour since most of the house is bright green. In the not-too-distant future we will be moving on from this house and I was conscious of trying to give the whole house a more neutral and cohesive colour palette – not less!

The photos above are from a little while ago (too dark to take photos right now) but apart from switching up a couple of accessories it looks the same now.

So what do you think? Am I crazy to be considering repainting a room that we only painted a couple of years ago or do you reckon I should go for it?

And if the latter: what do you think of my colour choice?

I went to a couple of my favourite antique shops recently – oh my, how I have missed it!

Granted, I was actually shopping for props for a photo shoot, but it was still lovely to browse the gorgeous vintage wares.

Naturally, I found all kinds of other things apart from the props I was supposed to be looking for. I was very restrained and only brought one of my finds home with me: this unusual bottle with a marble stopper. It is embossed with ‘J.D. Murphy Crystalworks Wellington’. Since my maiden name is Murphy I had to have it!

My friend brought over the amber jar with flowers when we had her over for dinner (so thoughtful!). I love how the flowers pick up the yellow and oranges of the print behind it.

Do you have any fun decor items with your name or initials on it?

I picked up these gorgeous branches from Poppies Flowers for my recent pie buffet photo shoot (more photos of that coming soon). One of the bonuses of doing shoots like these is keeping the flowers (and food!). With the leftover pie well and truly taken care of, I turned my attention to the florals (using that term loosely in this case of course).

I love how the rusty red berries set off against the very neutral (for me) setting. Then I realised it reminded me a bit of something…

My Marimekko cushion! What a funny coincidence.

I don’t normally do a lot of seasonal decorating (people who do: you must tell me where you store everything the rest of the year!) but I think this is the perfect low-key and no-clutter display for what is the final week of Autumn (Fall) here.

Do you switch up your decor according to seasons or a you more of a perennial decorator?

This post is sponsored by Target.

In yesterday’s post I showed you how we The Man installed some new picture ledges. Now onto the fun part – selecting and framing some happy faces!

I wanted to go for a monochrome palette, partly because some of the photos were black & white already but also for a more simple and sophisticated look. I’ve mentioned before how much I dig Target photo frames because the quality is so much higher than their price tag. Prices ranged from $2 to $15 originally, but I picked them up for even less than that at their winter Home Sale.

I used some with regular mats, some with large mats and some without, plus used a variety of sizes and cropping to vary up the look. I mixed three different styles from the Target Essentials range but kept them all simple and white to tie it all together.

I still need to add a couple more family members who are missing from the display – it’s looking rather narcissistic at the moment! But that’s the great thing about using picture ledges and a mix’n'match of frames: it’s easy to add to and rearrange the wall at any time.

It’s so nice enjoying a daily reminder of our favourite memories instead of having them hidden in albums (or worse, on a harddrive) . It’s making me want to print out and frame so many more of our happy snaps.

What’s your favourite way to display family photos?

How are you this fine Monday? I have to admit I’m struggling a little this morning after a very busy weekend. We picked up our new car and went for a couple of nice drives, enjoyed some family time and a concert, plus someone from the newspaper came to take photos of me for an article!

Somehow, we also managed to squeeze in a small project that I’d been wanting to do for some time.

I still like this framed lotus embroidery that I bought in Vietnam but I really wanted to put up some more photos and this spot (the landing at the top of the stairs) was the logical place for them.

I loved the idea of using picture ledges instead of a gallery wall so that I can switch it up. Ikea has some cheap ledges but the smaller size was discontinued in South Australia (grr!) but I ended up finding some on sale at Freedom. While they were more expensive (even on sale) I do love the fact that they’re all in one solid piece and they have a high-end glossy finish.

Anyway, so on to how to install them. (This is all The Man’s domain so I can’t take any credit for these instructions.)

The wall in question is only plasterboard (drywall) so we used a studfinder to locate the one and only stud and used that as the centre point for the bracket. For the screws at either end where there was no stud, we used anchor screws which expand and lock into the plasterboard so there’s a solid place to screw into.

Hey presto, one shelf…

…and two.

Meanwhile, I was selecting some photos to print. Tomorrow I will show the finished result with the framed photos.

Tea print by Handz

Brr! The temperature is dropping by the day as we head into winter next week. I’m on my third hot drink of the day just to try to warm up a bit.

With tea and coffee on the brain I’ve chosen to round up some of my favourite tea time essentials for you kitchen.

Click over to see all 20 picks over on Houzz.

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Tomorrow morning we are picking up a new car (!!) which is a tad exciting. We are planning to drive to the coast tomorrow and the hills on Sunday to take it for a spin.

Do you have any fun adventures planned for the weekend?

I have wanted a bar cart for the longest time. I was picturing a gorgeous rounded art deco or mid-century piece, but – even if the budget stretched to an antique – we simply would have nowhere to put it.

My brother-in-law’s partner is a keen painter and when we were admiring the latest piece in her studio recently I spotted the cute Ikea Råskog cart she used for her art supplies.

Not long after, I spotted it on the Ikea website for a steal ($49 down from $79) and immediately raced down to snap one up.

It makes a great bar cart for a small space. The middle shelf is adjustable so we could fit the tall bottles on the bottom shelf and glasses on the middle shelf.

We certainly don’t need hard liquor on hand on a daily basis (we’re mainly wine/beer drinkers) but it has freed up almost an entire cupboard in the kitchen. And you know how excited I get about additional storage space!

I’m also happy that the original mid-century anodised ice bucket that I inherited from my late great-auntie now has a suitable place to be displayed out in the open instead of shoved at the back of a cupboard.

I would still love an antique bar cart one day, but I didn’t hesitate about buying this for the same purpose as it’s such as versatile piece I know we’ll always find a use for it. We’ve already discussed an artists’ trolley and a bar cart, but how about a mobile craft station, bedside table, bathroom storage, cleaning supplies storage or perhaps its advertised use: extra kitchen storage?

Til then, I think I can feel a cocktail party coming on…

What do you think about bar carts? Do you have one?

Well it’s only month two of our book club and I’ve already slipped on the schedule – oops! I hope you can forgive me for being a day late since I was flat out working over the weekend (on my birthday no less).

Excuses aside, let’s get into it!

While I love being immersed in the whole blog/Pinterest world, I do find that too much time online makes me stressed and unfocused. Plus sometimes I do want to dig a little deeper than the online personas of my style icons and find out more about their philosophy.

This is why I’m so happy about this new column, so I can actually spend a solid amount of time delving into one author’s mind.

The author in this case is Australian stylist Megan Morton. Her name kept popping up everywhere at once for me so I resolved to check her out. I immediately loved her refreshing quirkiness and use of colour and was keen to see more.

Here’s my take on her book Things I Love.

Chapter 1: Houses I Love

Right from the opening page there started to appear a few snippets that I found myself saying ‘Amen!’ to. I 100% agree with her advice that before starting any project you need to be honest about your lifestyle and budget and that you should work with the home’s existing personality. She also has you ask yourself, ‘If your house were a person, who would it be?’ which sounds like a worthwhile exercise that I should try.

The homes themselves ran the decorating gamut from ramshackle cottage to grand designer home. To be honest none of the homes really resonated with me as they were all a bit extreme in their own way. I suppose Megan was trying to show the ultimate in each style, but I prefer more realistic and livable. Perhaps if there had been more of a description about why each space worked, I would have found it more useful.

What I did love was the (sometimes hilarious) personal anecdotes that introduced each homeowner.

Chapter 2: Things I Love

This was a really quirky and fun chapter that featured a set of themed items on four tear-out sheets per page. You could use them as postcards, on your pinboard or clip them all together for a kind of inspiration Roladex. I admit I won’t be doing this as I hate damaging books (even magazines I can’t bear to tear out pages!) but it’s certainly a cute idea. A bit like the grown-up version of tearing the song lyrics from your issue of Smash Hits, remember that?!

The cards feature vintage items and found objects to inspire you to mix these into your home decor for a look that’s truly unique. The chapter also includes quick lists such as ‘Rules to break’ and ‘Brave decorating moves’ which I’m sure I’ll be referring back to when I need a boost in decorating confidence.

Chapter 3: People I Love

What immediately struck me in this chapter was Megan’s humbleness. She begins by acknowledging that a stylist’s result is only as good as the sum of its parts, then introduces some of her most talented creative collaborators.

I always find it fascinating to peek inside the lives of creative people and find out how they think, work and live. It was an interesting mix of people – not just people like decorators and photographers as you might expect – but sculptors, button merchants and colour scientists. It did go on for a wee bit too long though – maybe try reading that section in more than one sitting.

Chapter 4: Things I Love to Do

Tucked in the back on the non-glossy pages is where I found the really juicy stuff! It included insider tricks from the mundane (‘How to fold a fitted sheet’) to the sublime (‘How to antique a mirror’). I always appreciate when stylists go beyond the visuals and discuss practicalities, such as Megan has done here with a traffic flow plan and seasonal cleaning chart.

I adored the Homelove Manifesto which was not (as it sounds) a wordy document, but rather a set of rules (some to follow and some to break) displayed in a fun, visual way in a fold-out spread. ‘When in doubt, go for bentwood chairs’ made me smile and ‘Something old, something new, something rough, something smooth’ is a worthwhile rule of thumb.

Summary

I adore that Megan’s philosophy is centred around loving your home and making it personal. You can incorporate trends but make sure you look elsewhere too, in the form of vintage, handmade or found objects too.

I loved her witty writing and personal stories, but I still wanted more of her advice throughout the book, not just sectioned off at the back. Especially since Megan is a styling teacher, I felt there could have been more specific lessons to be learnt.

Similarly, the tear-out objects were visually appealing, but what would have been more useful is how to style them into a vignette or examples of vintage/found objects in various settings.

It was great to find a book featuring some Australian homes and language, but with an international outlook. Her Homelove Manifesto is a charming concept and the book itself is presented beautifully.

The handy ‘Things I Love to Do’ chapter was my favourite because of all the practical advice I can actually apply to my own home. There are some tricks for colour schemes in particular that I need to consider!

Buy this book if you:

• Are looking for inspiration on beautiful, daring homes.
• Need some practical tips, how-tos and rules of thumb.
• Want a glimpse into the lives of rock star creatives.
• Want inspiration for incorporating vintage and found objects into your decor.

This book may not be for you if you:

• Prefer a traditional or minimalist decorating style.
• Are looking for a step-by-step guide on how to style your home.
• Are a beginner home decorator looking for basic ideas and sources.

Buy the book at your local bookseller (I bought mine from Presence) or online.

Note: Australian version of cover is featured in the image above.

Have you read Things I Love or do you have any questions? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.