The Bach 'Taking a Look at a Juicy Trend'

The pineapple, the Princess of fruits, the very symbol of hospitality.  With it's bold good looks, the pineapple is indeed an inspiration in decorating concepts and designs.  

Fruitalicious

Let the sun shine in!  Remember my kitchen inspiration post, I mentioned I wanted to stencil a wall or the dining table, what do you think of this?  

Ice cream a licious

Love this scrumptious cushion,  the white background and pom poms makes me think of a pineapple sundae. here

Hula ba lula

This is gold, found it on ebay

Spotted this beauty here

How very Key West indeed

Found here

Way too cool

from here

Happy hour!

The pineapple of my eye

Pineapple Rowan Romper  

I just could not resist making up a 'Beach Collection'  for Rowan to accompany me to the Bach.  He's the coolest little dude when we hang out at the cafe and in the park.  

Rowan is wearing the gadabout pant in sailboat print and a new shirt I naming the 'Clooney' shirt.

 Can you guess why?

The Beach Bach 'Exterior Colours'

It's been a particularly long day, I scraped off all the bad peeling paint and scrubbed the house down with concentrate chlorine to get rid of the mould, then I let loose with the water blaster, a super cool adult water blaster. Yeahhhh take that house, that was the cool part.  Being serious now, I can't decide on a colour and I will be honest there has been tears, teats today, tears on the way home.  The bach looks like Elmer the Elephant at the moment,  I have painted so many patches of colour, it's not funny.
I think I am over thinking the colour process.  I should run with my first colour, no that was orange.  I should run with my second choice, lime, yellow, and definitely not with the third choice, which I might add isn't mine,  turquoise.

How do these guys get it right, I love all of these images.  what do you think?

Happy Friday

Happy Friday

Loaded up my car with paint and tools.  Packed my favourite CD's. and I'll be off!  Isn't it such a gorgeous day.   I'll be giving the vocal cords a work out on the way and waving at people who look at me strangely!

The Bach 'Vibrant Dining Inspiration'

Good morning,  I hope you all enjoyed a relaxing weekend, soaked up some sunshine and shared some fun family times.  I had such fun in weekend in Auckland, doing a few touristy things,  I wore my new prescription sunnies and managed to find some treasures for the beach house and a wonderful op shop find for myself, which I'll show you later.  But it's back to the drawing board, this week I must drive  the beach house renovation along as time is ticking away,  Easter is just around the corner .   The bathroom is ready for tiling, the back deck is underway and the painting continues inside, I think it's time to start the interior styling and my favourite room, the dining room is where I will begin.

A beach house holiday is all about relaxation,  swimming, walking, reading, cruising around on push bikes and of course eating.  I have wonderful memories of big breakfast fry ups when the girls came back to the house wet, salty and starving.  Huge platters of ham and salad sandwiches, served with jugs of icy cold cordial for lunch whilst they played board games and sausage sizzles and steak burgers for dinner after a long walk along the beach in the afternoon to gather sea shells.  I see the kitchen as being a fresh and colourful, creative environment,  the existing kitchen has great appliances, loads of storage and is quite new so all I need to do is freshen up the area and add some Roberta quirkiness, the flow on into the dining room is where I can really shine and make this area a colourful and happy area for the family to enjoy board games and meal times.

Firstly the dining room will be bright, colourful, fresh and quirky

I particularly like the look and feel of a natural wood tables and let the chairs do the talking.  Oh my love of turquoise is huge but not for the dining room, I have other plans for you, beautiful colour.  The chalk board is a creative option for wall art.

You really can't go wrong with white chairs they look clean, fresh and simple but too SAFE for me.  The ming chairs are funky as is the country style chairs with painted seat and backs, no doubt the inspiration for the paint job came from the eames chair.

I love the look of the light industrial edge of the Tolix chair, what I don't like is sitting on metal seats especially if you are wearing a swim suit or shorts, your legs stick to the chair and that is very uncomfortable and let's face it when you're crawling back from bankruptcy in a marathon monopoly I love the look of the light industrial edge of the Tolix chair, what I don't like is sitting on metal seats especially if you are wearing a swim suit or shorts, your legs stick to the chair and that is very uncomfortable and let's face it when you're crawling back from bankruptcy in a marathon monopoly you could be sitting here for a while.

What ever table I choose I am definitely doing a stencil!!

Now this is groovy, the surfboard table and matching flower painted chairs, fantastic beach house decorating here..

 So with all this inspiration, I am hitting the shops today.  All the usual furniture stores to begin where I will be looking for the big pieces, then over the next few weeks Rowan and I will taking the auctions houses by storm!

I have been sewing up a storm over the past weeks.  'Rowan's beach collection'  I hope to have it photographed and up on my blog soon!

The Beach Bach Progress

Wow!  Look at this old girl she really is starting to shine!

This week we added a trellis foyer to the front entrance.  An initial tidying up of the front garden has refreshed the house and  opened her up to the lovely northen light.   I can't wait to get stuck into creating a new garden,  the choice of plants can really make a difference.  I'm thinking of hydranges in front of the trellis, agaves under the right front window, and big old stags on the trees.  Yeah! I'm excited so far!  If you have just popped across and thank you if you have, take a peek here of the before's.

 I love the space the trellised foyer has created, a with minimum cost I have added an outdoor room which will be perfect for a morning coffee, and a bit of a read, Nah!  a bottle of bubbles in the afternoon will do just fine!   Im thinking deck chairs, tall white pots with lush plants..........Any suggestions?

As you can see there are a few colours going on here?  I just can't decide?  I think I am leaning towards the lemony/limey colours.  What do you think?

The existing stairs have been removed and  today we put in the footings for the deck.  I am expecting the new sliding doors to arrive this week, then open sesseme, the lounge area will enjoy a beautiful vista of the lush back garden .

The Beach Bach 'The Work Begins'

 Over the past two weeks I have become one with the F3 commuters,  driving up to the bach almost daily to get stuck in and do the work that I can manage.  Rowan and I have a few favourite songs we sing along the way, last week we sang 'Morning Town Ride' by the 'Seekers', such an oldie, but a goodie, and I love to rock this song.   This week, I promise him a new tune.  The weather here in Sydney has been dismal, so 'Nina'  I think it's time to pack up your un Sydney like weather patterns and take them off somewhere else! I have seven weeks to go before the Easter holidays, seven weeks until I promised the makeover would be complete.  If you've just popped over to read this blog see the before pictures here.  

The bedroom windows have been replaced,  the frames will be painted white with wider facia boards around the windows.  So far, big improvement on the windows with little effort!

Gutted bathroom!  This is the biggest job of the project.  A good bathroom is essential.

 

Bedroom one.

 We spent many hours, prepping the walls, removing old power points and generally tidying up the surfaces, first coat of paint on bedrooms ceilings.  I'm really happy with the Lexicon white, it's a good base colour to start with who knows what will happen later, I' very fond of a splash of colour here and there and I love to use wallpaper.

 The kitchen ceilings were a mess, hence my sore neck tidying up the joins of the gyprock that ran across the ceiling.  Perfect now!

 Removed the nasty range hood,  and this week I will be removing the glass splash back,  and replacing it with with some vibrant tiles.

Getting ready to replace the existing sliding doors with bigger ones.

 My gate for the new picket fence.  I salvaged this old gate some years ago from a home demolishment site.  The sailor has often asks me what's the story with the gate and now he knows! 


Ooppps, and not going with the orange!

 Rowan's feathered friends, who stop by to have a laugh at my singing.

Romance On Wheels

The Sailor and I are going to get some vintage cool!  Today I am sneaking off to buy a pair of bicycles for Valentine's Day.  When he arrives home on Tuesday afternoon I will have the picnic baskets overflowing with delicious foods, a picnic rug and a bottle of bubbles, and together we'll cycle down to the beach for a romantic picnic, here. 

 

What are your plans for Valentine's Day? A picnic, romantic dinner?  When the girls were young, I'd make paper heart invitation cards to put in their lunch boxes, inviting them to a special dinner at home that evening.  I'd pretty up the house with garlands and flowers set the dining table with candles and we'd all sit down to a bit of a fancy dinner and for dessert, always a scrumptious chocolate cake!  


If you would like to pop over to Amy's blog here you'll find some very pretty Valentine's Day printables.  Perhaps you could use these to pop in the lunch boxes.

And if you haven't caught up on Rowans Room lately pop over here and visit Julia's wonderful blog, Boo and the Boy

More Colour Inspiration For The Bach

Over the last couple of days I have been reading beach house blogs and what I have found so far is really boring.  Lot's of the "the coastal look" beige on white, white on beige, more beige, more beige. Striped cushions, slim stripes, fat stripes all in beige of course.   One blog told me "don't be afraid to add  a touch of personality to your walls by adding pictures of boats, seagulls, and other nautical flavoured artworks.  Yeah right!  I'm going for bold, bold colour on the exterior, and placements of bold colour inside. 

 So how do you feel about any of these?

 South Coast Escapes

 South Coast Escapes

South Coast Escapes