Gold Chalk meets Josh and Charlotte from The Block

I recently attended Josh and Charlotte from The Block’s guest talk at Coco Republic Design School in Melbourne. Here is my take on their top tips for renovating success:

(see this article in Reno Addict and The Block....)

1. Location is paramount, buy the best you can afford.

2. Try to minimise any structural changes: knocking out walls costs a lot of money.

3. Try to maximise all living spaces and make sure they all connect. If you can and have the space, add stools to the kitchen bench. The kitchen is now another living space!

4. Invest in kitchens and bathrooms.

5. Save money on laundries — especially if, like theirs on The Block, it’s hidden out of the way.

6. Don’t forget the outside! Landscaping is a huge factor — their green wall was a pivotal space, it could be seen from all rooms and connected them together.

7. Use quality furniture, where possible custom build pieces to fit spaces. This then gives the illusion of space and really finishes off a room.

8. Josh was really big on calling in professionals to help with the planning; don’t be scared to enlist a professional for help, they are full of knowledge and will probably save you money in the end.

9. When it comes to following trends, they have a strict rule: trends are used only in easy to change pieces like cushions and linen.

10. Their last bit of advice was to give renovating a go yourself; it’s the only way you learn. Don’t be afraid to try it yourself!

What I loved best about the night was that these two were very down to earth, they mixed with the crowd and let us take lots of photos. They wanted to share all their knowledge with us. I will be keen to see what they work on next. It was easy to see that Charlotte was a big fan of Coco Republic, their style seemed to suit her: classic and timeless. She also mentioned she had just graduated from the design school having done the Decorating Essentials 101 course, all of which she hopes to put to use in Josh’s business, J T Design and Construct.

Fabulous Gallery Walls

all pics pinterest

Random Goodness

Don't you just love Pinterest, it's my go to place for inspiration and God dam good photography, I can waste away the hours on there.  I also stumbled across a blog called  www.dearseptember.com.au 

Check it out. Totally groovy cool stuff!! Happy Easter you all xxoo

All images from dearseptember

7 Vignettes by The 'Interiors Addict

Have you participated in 7 Vignettes from The Interiors Addict on Instagram?  I had been thinking about it for a while and trying to decide whether I could or should, to be honest, I was a little apprehensive about the standard and really not that sure what I had to do to participate. So I had some time over the holidays and I thought it may just be what I need to get my creative mojo back for 2015. I researched it here and had a look at some of the past winners here and here, and I decided to give it a go!

The 7 themes for January were:

1. Sparkle

2. Yellow

3. Blue

4. Green

5. Pink

6. Rainbow and

7. Black and White

playing around with the image and adding filters

I didn't really have a plan in place to start pulling the vignettes together, I more or less just started collecting some of my favourite things in the nominated themes and then started grouping them together. You need to submit a picture a day for the first 7 days of the month, I would strongly suggest to do a couple of pics at a time and have them ready to post each day, unless you have lots of time and are super organised! 

started here, and finished a little differently

It did get easier as the process went along and some of them are nothing like what I had intended or started out with, but I just kept playing around with each one and then photographed it with my iPhone a couple of times, cropping and varying the angles until it just felt right. Sometimes what you see and what the camera sees can be two different things - do you ever find that?.

The blue image is my favourite from this round, followed closely by the Black and White image and the Green one and then the Pink one!!!!

It was a really worthwhile experience, I would highly recommend it - the 7 Vignettes community on Instagram is HUGE and highly supportive .You get to interact with like minded creatives, some of the images are truly amazing. Geez some people are so talented. Here are a few of my favorites. 

me and my girl 

The Stylish Splash

Mint and Fizz 

Would you give it a go? you can sign up for the alert newsletter here! If I get time, I'm thinking of doing all months in 2015! so stay tuned!!

Diary of a styling assistant ........

Getting a styling assistants gig on one of this countries leading home magazines, Home Beautiful, was a tremendous highlight for me in 2014.  It really was a dream come true, I had put it on my wish list and I did everything to make it happen.  Home Beautiful is one of my favourite magazines, I buy it every month and stalk the pages from back to front and then back again. So to actually get in behind the scenes and see what really happens on a photo shoot was actually pretty amazing!!

The day starts really early (around 7am), the head stylist arrives (in this case the very lovely Julia Green), her  car is usually packed to the brim with props and flowers, Then the photographer (in this case - Armelle Habib - an absolutely amazing creative!) arrives, lots of gear and her assistant is usually not far behind! On this particular job, there were two styling assistants working under Julia's direction, myself and another girl - both of us big fat sponges and just watching every move she made. Next up the stylist and the photographer scope out the house -  this is where the fun begins - before you know it - things are being moved around, props moved in and mixed with the existing furniture - this can be as big as a new floor rug, a throws, cushions and/or artwork and as small as a pair of glasses resting on a book!!!!.  Everything is strategically positioned so that the space is best captured by the camera - every little detail counts. In actual fact magazine shoots are all about the details - can you imagine turning every room upside down and then moving it back again once the right shot is captured - it was a huge day - very long hours, lots of waiting for the right light to enter a room - some rooms easier than others. The experience was amazing, I feel very lucky. I left the house at 6pm - the shoot was not complete by then and if that was not long enough - they were all getting up the next day to get to a house Daylesford by 7am on a Saturday - their commitment to capturing beautiful homes is truly amazing.  I did learn a lot from that day, but one of the biggest learnings I came away with was that magazines love detail and colour, the house has to have the right bones, it has to be something special and it need to photograph, although in saying that Armelle is the BOMB, she has an amazing ability to make anything look fabulous - check out her website to see more of her amazing work.
I would love both her and Julia to come to my house one day!!!! ( another grand wish of mine) and make it look amazing and see it in the pages of Home Beautiful - imagine that - ohhh to dream!!!