Tales From the Box

Not sure why, but I have a thing for armchairs.

(I can’t remember where I got this image from, so if it’s yours, or you know where it comes from, please let me know and I will happily credit the source).

(from Apartment Therapy)

(from Apartment Therapy)

I don’t quite understand this weird obsession myself, but there it is. I particularly like Mid-century/scandi armchairs. But then who doesn’t?

(from Apartment Therapy)

I don’t have a lot of random extra space at the Box to add more armchairs, but one day I hope to have a larger house with plenty of opportunity for gratuitous armchair placement.

(from Danbury Upholsterers)

(from St Leger & Viney)

(from Ikea)

I love this Ikea Stockholm one (above). It’s way too pricey for my budget (odd for Ikea, I know).

(from Orson & Blake)

I have this one (below) in the Widg’s room.

(from Ikea)

It’s been great for middle of the night feedings and story time.

Well, that’s all I have to blog about regarding armchairs. I just like ‘em.

There is a serious lack of photo’s displayed at the Box. We have plenty of artwork – framed prints (mostly Brett Whiteley‘s) and the like. But we actually don’t have any photographs displayed. I mean pics of loved ones, holiday snaps, that sort of thing. Not even a wedding photo. We have the wedding album displayed on a shelf, but not actually any individual pics.

(from Desire to Inspire)

I do have plans to change this, but it’s one of those things that never really makes it to the top of the to-do list. And although I haven’t actually gotten around to choosing, framing and hanging any photo’s, you know I have already come up with a bazillion ideas on how it will look when I finally do.

(from Apartment Therapy)

I love the idea of mismatched frames – different sizes but all the same colour, or same size but different materials. I like the not-too-neat-ness of it all, that the pictures or frames aren’t all samey, but there is a common element to the collection.

(from Apartment Therapy)

I also love the idea of hanging them in a non-symmetrical manner, so that they don’t line up. Having said that, there’s something quite calming about symmetry in your home.

(from Apartment Therapy)

The way these frames (below) are hung all the way to the ceiling is pretty awesome (especially since this house has no architraves, like ours).

(from Desire to Inspire)

I also like the idea of playing with colour in the actual frames. Of course this will depend on what room I hang the frames in. Some rooms of the house lend themselves to colour more than others.

(from Desire to Inspire)

And then I have also toyed with the idea of not actually hanging the frames directly on the walls at all, but of having really narrow shelves on the walls and then sitting the frames on the shelves.

(from Desire to Inspire)

Whichever way I decide to go, we have many many photo’s to choose from: pics of friends and family, of the Widg, of places and events. At the moment they are all living happily on our computers or online. Eventually I will have to get them blown up and printed. Where’s that to-do list?

So I have a problem with throw rugs. I like them. A lot. Some might say too much. I have something in the vicinity of 25 different throw rugs (essentially blankets that you “throw” over a chair/couch/bed/lap).

I actually do use most of them on a regular basis. Either to decorate our bed or one of our couches. This then makes it easy to grab one on a cold night and snuggle yourself up. I regularly change them around for different looks when I get bored with the way the house looks (another good way to redecorate without actually buying new stuff), and I store the not-in-use ones in the huge Ikea Nasum basket in our living room.

(from Ikea)

Really, I haven’t spent a lot on these rugs. Most of them are from Ikea or Target or places like that.

(from Ikea)

But there are few things more comforting than curling up on the couch on a cold night with a cuppa and a cosy throw.

I found this amazing little boys bedroom over on Ohdeedoh.

(from The Bumper Crop)

No, we have no plans to have 3 sons. But if we did, this would be the coolest shared bedroom ever!

(from The Bumper Crop)

It even gives me ideas about how the Widg’s room could evolve as he gets older. I love the colours (I have a thing for grey) – the yellow and black on the beds, the white bedding against the raw pale wood. There’s just the hint of a nautical theme (with the thick rope and the blue step stool) without being really obvious and naff.

(from The Bumper Crop)

And of course the whole suspended bed thing is just too cool. Can you imagine being a kid and playing in a room like this? Great for pirates! I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it!

Any fan of Ikea knows who Billy is. It’s their standard, inexpensive bookcase.

(from Ikea)

And we have many Billy’s at the Box. They are a great size for storage as they are quite shallow and don’t take up a lot of valuable floor space. They also have handy height extenders so that you can make the bookshelves go all the way up to the ceiling (depending on your ceiling height of course).

We have 2 Billy’s in the lounge room. They house books, odds and ends, vases and magazines.

We have a wall of Billy’s in the office/study/spare bedroom. They house books, stationery, art supplies, work equipment and random odds and ends. For example, all of those white Kassett boxes are full of things like extension cords and power boards, small tools and craft supplies.

The contents of our Billy’s are regularly rearranged depending on what we need to store, what we are using on a regular basis, and how bored I am. Rearranging bookshelves is actually a great way to scratch your “need to redecorate” itch without actually buying new stuff. Plus it means you go through your belongings every now and then and assess whether you need to get rid of or replace anything.

Making and dressing the bed has become one of those things that I am endlessly fascinated with, and constantly changing. Don’t get me wrong – making the bed is a chore, and I don’t love it every morning. But I love to look through magazines and blogs, getting ideas on how other people dress their beds.

(from Apartment Therapy)

I drool over the countless options and combinations of blankets, doona’s, sheets and bed spreads. Then there are the pillows (both standard and European) and cushions and throws (oh my).

(from House of Turquoise)

As a result of my fascination, I have purchased way too many bedding sets, sheet sets, pillow cases, throw cushions and throw rugs (most of them cheap from Ikea or Target, but still.) I rotate them and mix them up constantly, and I have to really refrain myself from buying more (especially when Ikea releases a new range).

(from Ikea)

(from Ikea)

At the Box, we are a fitted-sheet-and-doona-without-a-topsheet kinda folk. The husband likes a thin, soft pillow and I like a thick, hard one. When the bed is made, we usually have 4 standard pillows (2 each) and 2 European pillows (one each). Then there are often a few throw cushions, and sometimes a throw rug. It depends on the colours I am using at the time, and my mood.

There are times when I really just couldn’t be bothered “dressing” the bed, and I am lucky if I even throw the doona up and straighten the pillows. But then I go through stages when I really take joy in making the bed properly, choosing which sheets to put on, which cushions to use and all the rest. It’s wierd, I know. But it almost feels as good as buying a new pair of shoes. Almost.

Here at the Box, we are self-confessed magazine junkies. We subscribe to several, and buy many more on a random basis. Our choices tend toward the home reno/gardening/lifestyle/decorating genre, and we lap them up like starving dogs. Our current subscriptions are Real Living, Inside Out and Burke’s Backyard. We also regularly buy Australian Home Beautiful, House and Garden, Notebook (which is ceasing publication apparently). and the new Outdoor Room by Jamie Durie.

We get so excited when one of our subscriptions lands in the mailbox – we get all giddy and dance into the house with the crisp new mag, rip off the plastic wrap and sniff the fresh, glossy pages. It’s like getting a present from a secret admirer every month.

We get a lot of inspiration from these publications. We pour over the beautiful houses and gardens, obsess over the lovely furnishings and dream about what we could do with unlimited resources at hand. Of course, we would probably never implement most of what we come up with. But it’s just nice to dream and look at pretty things.

While browsing on the twitter for odd gardening bits and pieces, I stumbled (in the true web sense) on a new site launched by Sebastian Tesoriero and Jamie Durie (of Patio fame) called Plant This.

The site looks like it is setup to a be a bit of an allround australian-focused garden resource guide – in particular a solid database of plants, searchable by soil, position, climate and then refined by size, shape colour, context etc. At the moment the database is quote good – but obviously will be built up with further and varied images. Additionally it offers a bunch of little background items on how-to projects, design aspects and general suggested plant uses. It also offers a somewhat adequare contact list of local garden bursery suppliers – but has sort of missed the boat in my opinion lacking the essential useful nursery infomation from community input (i.e rating, comments etc) and photos. Perhaps that will come later.

Anyway it will be interesting to see how the site grows – I would love to see some more design based videos added – some of the great design segment features on Durie’s “Australia’s Best Backyards” and Brendan Moar’s “Dryspell Gardening” seemed forever lost to TV archives or sporadic Foxtel replays as thearen’t available online or on DVD. Worth a look and I will check checking back for new stuff.

www.plantthis.com.au