Small spaces are tricky to furnish and decorate, aren’t they. For example a combined lounge and dining area that isn’t entirely teeny-tiny but certainly isn’t spacious, like the one in our new house… how would you fill it and make it yours in a way that worked? For us, the big challenge is designing the rooms so they look great and function practically, but don’t feel overcrowded. Here are some ideas I’ve gleaned from the Internet so far.

↑↑ The dining area has to visually fit in with the lounge area, so the decor needs to work on a broader scale than just “eat here.” I love the pop of these yellow chairs, or this amazing cross-stitch chair (which unfortunately is a DIY, so let’s face it I’m stumped). I also thought putting open shelves above the dining table was a lovely idea that was both decorative and space-saving. Meanwhile, those pendant lights? I LOVE them and think they would be perfect above our dining table. Mr B disagrees. Cue sadface.

Clockwise from top left: open shelves in the dining via Design Sponge; cross-stitch chair via My Poppet; yellow dining chairs via Living Room TV; pendant lights via Marz Designs

↑↑ In a small space, furniture that shares wall-space or serves multiple functions is great, because you get maximum use and appeal while taking up minimal space. My favourite? This stylish fold-out wall-desk. I think it would be fantastic in our hall, to dump keys and mail and Mr B’s ties on as we walk in, before folding the mess up and away.

Clockwise from top-left: wall-desk via Swiss Miss; low bench and mini-gallery via Old Brand New; mid-century-modern style pet boxes (so stylish they can double as coffee tables!) via Modernist Cat on Etsy; wall-leaning side-tables via Kenyon Yeh

↑↑ We’ve decided to splash out on new lounge chairs to go with our new house. Our existing lounge chairs were around before Em started school (she’s 15 now). They have taken a LOT of family-related love and rough and tumble and wear and tear. They’re threadbare on the arms, and seem to have magical talents when it comes to collecting dirt and food and cat hair and goodness knows what else. It. Is. Time.

Clockwise from top-left: leather armchair via Design Sponge; granny-square covered mid-century couch (I love this so much!) via Zakka (originally seen on Meet Me at Mikes); the after in a ‘before & after’ upholstery project on a small sofa via Design Sponge; super comfy-looking antique-style sofa via Home Life

↑↑ For these small rooms, Mr B and I have somewhat reluctantly reined in our love of colour and opted for fairly neutral bones: white walls, pale floorboards (the original colour), simple sheer curtains. So we’re relying on all the finishing touches to add character and interest to the rooms. Walls are a great canvas to start doing that, and I’ve been searching around for creative ideas.

Clockwise from top-left: gallery wall via Poppytalk (I’ve been thinking of these a lot lately but I’m nervous about doing it right, I’d love your tips); a classic 1950s Eames Hang It All coat rack; eclectic mix of ornaments, recycled objects and plants on the wall via Old Brand New; gilt mirror (for above the fireplace) via English Muse

What are your top tips for decorating in a confined space? What do you dream about having in your lounge room, or dining room, or both?

Want more renovation inspiration? These are my kitchen ideas.

What’s in your dream kitchen? Mine* will have floorboards and white cupboards and wooden benchtops and a big, fireclay farmhouse sink. It will have a gas stove and a big oven that doesn’t leak, is easy to clean, and is up high so curious little hands can’t get into trouble. My new kitchen will have LOADS of storage and, even though I love the look of open shelves, everything will be closed off inside cupboards because there’s nothing worse than that sticky grime-dust that gathers in cooking places over time.

But all those cupboard doors will steal a lot of personality from my dream kitchen. How can I inject the character back in? Here are five ways I’ve been admiring from around the Internet of late.

↑↑ I think these utilitarian light fittings would be perfect for a kitchen that’s a bit rustic, like mine. There are some amazing vintage and handmade light shades in this style that Mr B and I have been admiring, but those can cost thousands of dollars, and you can get something pretty similar from Ikea for $29.99. So…

Clockwise from top left: white vintage shades via Manhattan Nest; black rustic shade via Design Sponge; modern (vintage-look) red shade via Design Sponge; handmade ‘tram light’ via Life Space Journey

↑↑ Plants add a sense of warmth to the kitchen (as well as adding oxygen), and bring a little of the garden inside, especially if you have the light to grow edible herbs inside. My new kitchen will only have a small window, so I’m not sure how well herbs will grow in it. Alternatively, I’m also rather smitten with these dried herb posies, in the cupboard or hanging from a piece of driftwood on the ceiling.

Clockwise from top left: driftwood herb and pot rack via Poppytalk; dried herb cupboard via Bright Bazaar; garden shelves in the window via Design Sponge; plants on the wall via Old Brand New

↑↑ Because I’ve opted for all white cupboards and no open shelves, I was thinking a bit of wall decor might be the way to brighten up my kitchen and give it some colour and personality. I thought these were pretty cute ideas, from chalk-board ‘windows’ to removable wallpaper (and how cool is that brown paper shopping-list scroll?).

Clockwise from top left: renters’ wallpaper via Oh Joy; chalkboard wall and ‘window’ via Poppytalk; neon pink cuckoo-clock via Design Sponge; shopping-list scroll via Ebb & Flow

↑↑ How fun is the pastel-and-neon phase that’s going on these days? I’m also loving all the geometric shapes and patterns. And when you combine them with handmade techniques and natural elements… winning!

Clockwise from top left: many-coloured ceramic canisters via bfiess; neon-painted wooden bowls via Nicole Porter Design; colourful, geometric coasters via brika; geometric mugs via Barbara Bestor

↑↑ For the past I don’t know how many years, I have been on the lookout for the perfect vintage kitchen canisters. They have to be enamel, but have good working seals still in place, no rust, and great colour. One day I will find them and they will sit happily on my kitchen bench. Meanwhile, here are some other great-looking (and brightly coloured) vintage finds I’ve been loving on Etsy of late.

Clockwise from top left: retro cowboy spice canisters via Tangerine Toes; vintage Dutch kitchen rack via Smeerling Antiques; polka-dot Soviet enamel milk can via Riga Vintage (more of my Soviet-era polka-dot finds here); vintage French tin canisters via Vintage French Linens

OK your turn. What would you have in your dream kitchen? What would make you happiest?

* If you’re new to this blog, we are renovating our house. This is what it looks like from the outside. This is what it looked like inside, a couple of weeks ago.

This little “Roshambo” mini-series from Free People reminds me of Mr B and me when we first met, and it has me feeling all nostalgic. Of course we were neither so good-looking nor glamorous nor well dressed as these two, but I know what it feels like to be living a Grand Adventure while your heart is elsewhere.

Mr B and I met in New York. I had just moved there, he was visiting on a conference. It was a beautiful, brief romance, and that scene at the end of the first Roshambo video where the guy hops into a taxi… oh so heartbreaking and familiar!

Two days after our own ‘taxi scene’, I had an email from Mr B saying he wasn’t going to let a little thing like thousands of kilometres get in the way of what could be something good. And so started a year-and-a-half of long-distance love.

I went to Peru, but I thought about him. He went to Dubai, but he thought about me. We met up for holidays together in Fiji, in London, in Australia, in New York.

And in between the travel and the longing we just had to get on with our own lives, his in Queensland and mine in New York. There comes a point, when you’re in a long distance relationship, when you just have to let go and let yourself be in the moment wherever you are. If you constantly pine for the other person, you never open your eyes to the world in front of you. That’s something in the second video that I really related to.

Anyway, this is a fun, romantic little mini-series if you’re in the mood for some light entertainment. Plus, I have to give props to Free People for such a creative way to showcase their latest collection. And it’s working, too. I want to wear ALL THE CLOTHES.

“He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.” – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

This photo shoot makes me feel like Anna Karenina has just stepped into our time. I am picturing snow, and Grand Tours, and lonely wealth, and art and love and lust and disgrace, and each unhappy family unique from all the others.

It’s been many years since I read Anna Karenina. It’s one of those sweeping books, I think. It swept me along, miserable in the inevitability of Anna’s decline, and yet compelled to keep on reading. It was also grand and vast and old and beautiful.

It might almost be time for me to read it again. Almost. I think I need a few good nights’ sleep before I tackle that particular emotional journey.

Meanwhile these dresses, aren’t they glorious in all their old-world rewritten charm? They are from here and I don’t even know what I’m looking at or what I’m (not) reading, but I couldn’t resist sharing because they are so beautiful. Bring back bustles!

“All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.” – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Ophelia: There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.

Laertes: A document in madness! Thoughts and remembrance fitted.

Ophelia: There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me. We may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays. O, you must wear your rue with a difference! There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they wither’d all when my father died. They say he made a good end. [sings] For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.

Words from Hamlet by Monsieur William Shakespeare. Beautiful flower girls by Irina Bordo for Fashion Gone Vogue (via Honestly WTF).

I like to pop over to New Yorker Joanna Goddard’s blog A Cup of Jo from time to time, for a bit of a style top-up. It is simultaneously inspiring and intimidating to peek into the life of such a gorgeous, successful mother.

Most often when I read Joanna’s blog it is while wearing my fluffy, pink dressing-gown with Madeleine’s milky spit-up down the front of it and, quite frankly, I don’t know how Joanna does it. But I do know how she does her hair, thanks to the fabulous collection of hair tutorials on her blog. Joanna makes glamour look so easy. Which do would you do?

Have you seen the Kate Spade city guides? They offer stylish advice on places to sleep, eat, drink, shop, explore, visit and even what to pack for five fabulous cities, and more to come. For anyone lucky enough to be heading Olympic-ward, this is the packing list for London. Isn’t it cute?

Daylight savings ended on the weekend and I couldn’t be happier. Not only do we get a bonus hour to sleep in of a morning, the end of daylight savings also heralds the imminent onset of winter, my favourite season.

Winter means reading books by the fireside (or the heater, now that we’ve moved). Hot chocolate and honey crumpets. Snuggling on the couch under a woollen blanket made of crocheted squares. Ugg boots. Candlelit dinners at which the candles are actually needed because the sun has set. Mandarins, beets and persimmons. Cuddling Mr B through the night. Morning walks wrapped in coat and hat and gloves, watching my breath form clouds.

The autumn weather hasn’t been entirely cooperative lately, climbing to the high 20s and even 30 during the day, but it’s slowly dipping overnight. This morning it was just 9 degrees when I woke up. I grinned as I shivered.

Winter also means cosying into soft, gorgeous woollen sweaters, and I am seriously crushing over these knits from Pugnat. True I’m not sure I could carry off a Princess Leia-esque knitted bonnet. But I love the unusual sculptured shapes of these pieces, the romantic-yet-futuristic drapery, the unexpected play of materials. They put me in mind of Brontes, and moors.

What do you love most about winter?

This weekend, my dad sent me these photos of my mum and me when I was a baby. Isn’t my mother absolutely stunning? I just love her easy 70s style.
All those mustard tones aside, my mum’s mod look is still gorgeous today. Take for example the new spring line from Emerson Fry New York. Have you seen it? There’s so much in this that I love. I hope my post-baby body can carry some outfits like these off in time for the next Australian spring.
1. Braid Trim Mod Dress 2. Emerson Navy Dots Blouse 3. Tie Waist Dress
4. Blazer Trench Little Navy Pinstripe 5. Yes Dress Long
6. Tuxedo Shirt 7. U Dress 8. 4 Button Jacket 9. Paper Bag Skirt

My favourite room in our new house is definitely my study.

It is my very own, a square room with soft seats under the window for reading (or dozing, if you are Ruby the cat), a lovely old fireplace, a clean desk in the middle of the room for writing, and another desk for my artsy, crafty, projects. I have a little pin-board on which I stick notes, letters, photographs, sketches, and all kinds of other found paraphernalia that may bring comfort or creative sparks (or both).

Behind the big desk is a wall of shelves filled with the reference books I use most for writing, and items that inspire me like my film cameras, snow globes, my grandmother’s typewriter, and a little barometer that belonged to my other grandmother (when the weather is dry, a lady comes out of the cottage; when the weather is wet, a man comes out and bares his chubby, white knees).

For years, I have worked from the kitchen table or the living room, so this room feels like the greatest possible luxury, and I love it.

What is your workspace like? What luxury do you dream of having?