The true beauty of a 'styled' interior!

I am very much looking forward to 'The Block' room reveals on Sunday night. Last night's episode made me so much happier for the sisters, Katrina and Amie.
Presenting a polished final product on an immovable deadline made me think back to getting our last house ready for sale and 'styled' for open for inspections. We had a daughter studying for her School certificate, another smack bang in the middle of her Higher School Certificate exams and an energetic four year old son! My hubby and I were alternatively sick and carted off to hospital in this time too!
I tried to present every room as best as possible (Good Lord, I even 'pointed' the toilet tissue on the holders!) whist using and editing what we had.
I am really missing living in a 'finished' house at the moment. Our current build is S . L . O . W ! and to cheer myself up I thought I'd reminisce of what I can achieve with patience; and I found these pictures. The first is REALITY. The second is how we would liked others (particularly potential purchasers / visitors / mother-in-laws) to think we lived! Hilarious!!!

Lounge from Mezzanine. Gotta love a Matchbox car collection!

Kitchen from stairs to upper level. Should I cringe?

How it looked - ready to sell!

The reality of our Main Bedroom! Gotta love the ice-cream container 'sick' bowl!

The beauty of styling and a good photographer!

To conclude this post I must tell you how it all ended.
Our buyer, an absolutely beautiful young woman, inspected our home at 6:30 pm. It was not an Open -for-inspection day and (it was the ONLY day I told the agent we were NOT available) we had just 15 minutes notice. Our home looked more like the first pictures!
It was my eldest daughters Graduation night and I had a make-up artist, in-laws, her boy friend's parents, our friends, the girl's friends, Nanna & Grandad and neighbours all in -house. We had food and bodies everywhere. I was in trackies sewing a bra into her 'prom' styled fairytale dress. The  car to transport her to her special evening was 2 minutes away. My hubby and I were due to be there 10 minutes later!
And we had the potential buyer inspection! Aaaahhhhhhhh!!!! Talk about stress!!!!  In hindsight, it makes a good story! God knows what our buyer thought of our crazy family but she loved our home. After champagne together we all relaxed... so much for all that stress over perfect styling !
(But boy, do I empathise with The Block contestant's every reveal episode!!!)
x KL

The Block - a rant!

Are you watching The Block? We are here and and are generally enjoying it but last night's episode was a shocker!

Why I'm posting about this though is because of the unfairness of last night's episode. I really feel that Channel 9 and the shows producers failed miserably by delivering poorly edited footage that made all the contestants look like arguing, incompetent idiots. The Block is supposedly about renovating!. It is not Big Brother, a show which I choose not to watch!
The Block's site foreman Keith, surely has a duty to assist the contestants with compliance to building codes rather than flexing his ego and belittling them. Rod made two very simple errors and was painted as a person deliberately doing shoddy workmanship. I was appalled at his treatment! (Oh, and Keith doesn't know the Building Code too well himself; Rod could have simply added extra fixings to the Villaboard Sheeting to brace that wall in lieu of the cross bracing!!! I might send a copy of the BCA to him to brush up on!). Katrina and Amie's builder was so completely unprofessional that he totally disgraced himself, upsetting them so unnecessarily!  No wonder 'tradies' have bad reputations. But how did it get to that point? The uneven distribution of  decent trades persons skews the competition unfairly.
Ultimately the episode made for very uncomfortable and  unpleasant viewing!
If it continues in this vein, we will definitely switch it off and I doubt The Block will have a 2012 season. Who on earth would audition to be treated like the current competitors were last night?
To Polly / Waz, Rod / Tania, Katrina / Amie and Jenna  / Josh - your integrity and decency coping with these experiences shines through. You have my respect!
KL

Serendipity!

Do you have some days that start out a bit 'ho hum' but become rather serendipitous? I had one of those days yesterday! Following dinner with a gravely ill friend the evening before, I woke to have a sad chat to a very dear friend about the ill health of her parents. And then I discovered Peepmystyle.blogspot.com via a favourite blog called Tabletonic. (I love how following blogs can transport you from reality and distract you just when needed!!!)

 
Claudia is a girl after my own heart, I love her aesthetic and through her post 'Chez Moi ' on Monday July 11, I discovered ceramic artist Gregory Bonasera who is based in Melbourne.  I fell in love with his 'mili' (more often referred to as the 'antler') bowl that Claudia had displayed in her post and I was able to track down his details. I had a terrific conversation with him about his work and plans for expanding his range! All designed and made here in Australia!

Photo courtesy of Claudia via Peepmystyle

(And I bought the bowl too!) I can't wait for it to arrive!!! I hope that Claudia agrees with the age-old idiom - that  'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery'!AND, thank you Louise from Tabletonic for the heads-up!
KL

Black or White? Dark & dramatic or Light & bright?

I have loved white, minimalistic and streamlined kitchens for ... eons! I have more 'saved' pictures of this than any other yet, when it comes to my main kitchen in this house I'm yearning BLACK! (O.K - not really black but charcoal; dark dramatic and matte). Go figure! I need to be so very sure though as hubby needs some convincing! Luckily, I can have the white version in the kitchenette / laundry! Something like this with washer & dryer behind lower doors.

 My idea is that the downstairs area will function as a daytime / summer / outdoor living / teenage area around the pool and main T.V / Plasma room. The upstairs area will be our night / winter / fireplace / more formal adult area. (Hence the darker palette!)

I'd like the island to be Carrara or Calcutta Marble (I'm damned if I can decipher between the two) with stools only practical on the farthest end, leaving the front higher to screen mess from more formal dinner events! What do you think? Dark & dramatic or light and bright? We are on the coast and our views are beautiful!

KL

Bromley Butterflies!

In true, indecisive style, I've bought another David Bromley throw to use again as a wall hanging. I saw it advertised by Melbourne's Capocchi and liked the muted colour way far better than the first 'butterfly' design I have previously posted pictures of. They kindly swapped them over and the throw arrived yesterday! It's quite large and will look beautiful against either a dark charcoal or crisp white wall. It is very, very difficult to purchase things online, sight unseen; particularly art as you need to rely on the quality and honesty of the depicted image. So far, I've been lucky! What do you think? Did I make the right decision?