Fresh decorno.

Again, I know it’s been a long time between drinks. But I’m the closest I have been to signing off on my kitchen. Which for me is big news, HUGE. The cabinetmakers are locked in, and we’re just deciding on the final height of drawers and that kind of thing. It’s very exciting, but nerve racking too because these are things that you can’t easily change and any mistakes I’ll just have to live with.

So seeing as there is still no kitchen I’m still not living back in my place. On my way home tonight I just got it in my head that there would be something good waiting for me in the letterbox at home. Even though I hadn’t seen any on the racks, I just had a feeling that my new Belle magazine would be waiting for me. I was right ... fresh decorno.
Decorno is decor porn. It’s not my term, but the name of a favourite blog of mine that is now semi-closed.
At this stage I can’t find a cover pic online, but it’s the holiday issue and I hope to find a few treats to add to my Christmas list!
I’ve only a had a quick flick because I’m also watching ‘Rush’ as I write this post and look at the pretty Belle pictures. Of course the cover by-line on David Hicks’ new Melbourne home had me flipping ahead. So far I’ve only looked at the pictures, but there’s more than one Platner and Saarinen table in there.

Good deal.

If you’re considering a purchase from Witchery may I suggest that you pick up a copy of the September marie claire magazine beforehand. Their 15th birthday ‘collector’s edition’ has a Witchery ‘boarding pass’ inserted that on redemption will save you between $20 to $1000 on a purchase of $40 or more.

Personally I don’t need a reason to buy a mag, but if you do feel the need to justify it, this magazine will actually save you money. The Witchery offer is valid until September 30.

I haven’t spent much time on this issue yet myself, but I can say that I generally do not feel dumber after reading marie claire, which is something I have felt after other guilty pleasures.

A good day.

A good day is when I go to my letterbox and there’s a shelter magazine in there and no bills. On the weekend I had just such a day – yay! The Oct/Nov issue of Belle was waiting for me and the cover looked great, and it’s the Australian Issue.

I’ve only had the one flick through so far and it looks pretty good, it feels like there’s some good stuff in there to spend more time on ... but one article that really stood out to me was ‘Smoke & Mirrors’. It was covering an apartment in Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, that I had seen back in March on realestate.com(.au). I was looking for inspiration for my own place at the time so was looking at listings of other one bedders in trendy inner city locations hoping to find some solutions that may work for me. I loved this apartment so much that I saved all the images into a slide show (sad I know!). So imagine my surprise to them find the exact same photos in a leading shelter mag!

You know I was starting to think, “what do I have to offer to anybody who stumbles across this blog?” I’m not the most knowledgeable design expert or the most entertaining writer – but I know what I like and am a visual person. I think that this post sums up my profile blurb perfectly. I’m delivering what I intended to.

The key to this apartment is a mirror box in the middle that houses the kitchen, wardrobe, storage and laundry. This is what divides the space, with only the bathroom treated as a closed space. The decorating is fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but what really made an impression on me was the total solution that the mirror box provided for the space. It was such a glamorous choice because let’s face it, so much of our homes are devoted to what we need to get done and sometimes that can overtake the asthetic, but not here. That’s what I love.

 

 

All the images to this point are ones that appeared in Belle, these are other images from realestate.com(.au) that didn’t appear in the mag. There was also a few other images in Belle that weren’t used to hawk the place.

The thing that intrigues me is the series of events. According to Belle the owner is an architect who has lived there for six years, but there wasn’t any renovating of the space of done – just decoration and some repairs to the mirrors of the box. So I don’t see the need for professional photography to add to his professional portfolio. So did Belle shoot the home and the owner then used the pics to sell? Or did he call in a photographer friend to capture his home in the best light to sell and then Belle happened upon the pics? Having sold the apartment, they wouldn’t have access to the place decorated as it was. I hope that it’s the latter, that Belle just wanted so much to share this place with its readers and not that their pics were used ahead of publishing for real estate sales.

One of the big drawcards to this apartment is the private courtyard which is huge. I’ve since seen another apartment in this block, which also has a mirror box but the decoration and no outdoor space leaves it lacking in comparison. But it is still for sale, and based on what can be done with the space I recommend checking it out – it’s really not hard to find!



All images by Sharrin Rees and via realestate.com.au

Magazine habit.

I know that my magazine habit may be considered by some (OK many) to be a problem. I once calculated the cover price value of my collection and I suddenly realised why I couldn’t afford the beautiful things that the magazines showed. I also face storage problems for my collection, but I treat magazines like books – other people don’t throw away their books do they?! So why would I chuck out my beautiful, glossy magazines. My subscriptions change quite a bit, I can’t resist a special offer I admit. Many titles have come and gone and come back into my subscription list, but at the moment the usual suspects are: - Belle - Vogue Living - Inside Out - Real Living - Marie Claire I don’t actually think that is very many subscriptions to have. I mean sure, I also buy other magazines ad hoc because I am so easily seduced by the cover credits – but that’s normal. And I’d like to point out that many titles I subscribe to only publish bi-monthly. I don’t generally keep weekly gossip mags, if it’s held together by staples then it’s not for me to collect – I need to draw the line somewhere. Although I must say that Grazia is the leader of the weekly mags because it doesn’t feel like I’m getting stupider just be reading it. Yes NW is fun but it’s like fast food, you enjoy it at the time and then it makes you regret it.

Anyway I opened and read the latest Inside Out (Sept/Oct) magazine on the weekend and I wasn’t blown away. It seems that Vogue Living has been getting that honour lately. While I enjoyed reading IO there wasn’t a real WOW story for me that I kept my finger in while I kept reading so that I could go back to it and pour myself over the images for a little longer. The cover image looks a little icy and I’m afraid that was my reception to the issue as well.