Landscape Planning: Jane’s House

.Reading time 2 minutes.

It’s the middle of Winter and it’s around this time every year that I start to wish I was somewhere tropical and start the disappointingly long countdown to balmy Summer evenings. So what better day than today to decide to install a swimming pool in the back yard! This isn’t exactly a new idea, the original plans for the house included a pool, but it wasn’t a priority so we took it out thinking that we could put one in later if we still wanted to. Read More

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Ten Japanese Homes That Will Leave You Breathless

.Reading time 1 minute.

I’m planning a trip overseas with my family next year so I’ve had travel on my mind a bit. One of the places I would really like to explore is Japan. I love how their city architecture responds to limited space with sculptural vertical forms, almost like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Total design superstars. Read More

My Five Biggest Design Regrets

.Reading time 7 minutes.

When you build a new house or renovate and have hundreds of decisions to make, it can be really easy to overlook the details, especially when you get a set of plans in your hot little hands and are jittery with excitement to get started. But it is often the small things that can wind up bugging you every day, or worse, big oversights that can blow your budget.

I have plenty of regrets, and I’m pretty sure I spent eleventy hours more that the average person deciding on toilet cisterns. Fortunately, none of them are detrimental, but still a giant pain in the backside because they were avoidable. Here are my five biggest design regrets. Read More

Trending: Smart Benchtops

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Ok, it’s not trending yet, but it’s only a matter of time before planning your next kitchen renovation is going to include decisions about which brand of smart glass you want to integrate with your island bench.

As someone who is a terrible cook and amateur foodie, I relish the day when I can throw a bunch of fresh ingredients on my smart bench and have a list of recipes pop up to choose from. With little more than a ‘swipe right’, misted water will rain down from above to wash the veggies… or maybe that will happen as more of a drive-through car wash scenario as I load my groceries in through the front of the fridge. Heck, Coles online can do that part if I have a cool drawer on the front wall with a pincode access hatch. Read More

Our Favourite Local Design Shops

.Reading time 1 minute.

For a relatively small place, Canberra is pretty adept at keeping the good stuff to itself. I love that more and more boutique shops are popping up in our neighbourhood, partly because it’s a different experience to online shopping, being able to browse handcrafted and thoughtfully designed pieces up close and personal, but also because so many of the shop owners are so darn nice and I love an excuse to talk about design/homes/furnishings (and everything in between). They are also a godsend for last minute gifts!

Here’s a shortlist of my go-to’s. Read More

Main Bathroom Planning: Lycett Street

.Reading time 9 minutes.

Between our two current projects, Isi and I have six (6!) bathrooms to design. That’s a lot of grout. To make the decision-making easier, we are breaking them down room by room. First up is the main bathroom at Lycett Street and I need your help to narrow down some choices!

This bathroom will mainly be used by kids so I want it to be simple and durable, but still in keeping with the style of the rest of the house. The layout designed by the Architect is functional so I don’t want to make any changes to that but there are LOTS of other question marks. This is what I have to work with and my first go at a mood board for it. Read More

Nursery Planning: Jane’s Home

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Not long after finding out the news that we were having our first baby, my mind turned to thinking about how I would decorate the nursery. We were building a new house so I had a blank canvas. We knew we were having a boy, so I could make some deliberate choices about a theme and colours rather than play it safe with a gender-neutral design. Read More