Projects Around the House

In between parenting classes and just simply finding the energy to help make dinner and get the laundry done, we've slowly been making some upgrades around the house so our visiting family and friends are not mortified when they come visit our babies for the first time. I have some lengthier posts up my sleeve (maybe for when the to-do list gets smaller? More likely just slowly over time!) but for now here are some sneak peeks at some of our projects.

Changes to our living room

And a little bit of the lovely new curtains that are cozying up and simultaneously making our bedroom seem taller and bigger.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Johannesburg Loft

I loved this penthouse in the Johannesburg CBD, in the September 2013 House & Leisure Magazine.

So open and airy, and relaxed. It definitely feels urban, African, and cool without trying too hard.

And, check out these views! (And the vertical garden!) Sigh.

Nursery Inspiration

So, as you can imagine, we are baby crazy over here! Everything is going well, the babies are now about 2 lbs (900g) each, and growing nicely. We have three months to go, and so we are focused on getting ready! I wish I could blog more, but it turns out that I've been tired quite a lot, and getting through the work week, and getting stuff done on weekends is leaving very little energy for blogging. But Wednesdays I'm now working from home, so hopefully it means I get through the week more easily, and maybe I can do more blogging! Yay!

One of the biggest things on my mind has been getting our babies' room ready for them. I'm envisioning a calm, cozy place - because heaven knows with one baby things would be slightly un-calm at some points, so I can only imagine what it will be like with two!

Here's my inspiration for the room.

1. This room inspired me for its colour. Soft browns and golds, white walls and lots of texture.

2. So I started with this rug, from West Elm. It was on sale, so I snapped it up! The dresser will double as the changing table and was a craigslist find. I've since spruced it up a bit because it was in bad shape. I decided to get it restored at a later point, once the babies are less likely to beat it up even more.

3. A wonderful friend gave us the crib her babies, and the rest of her family's babies, first slept in. We love that our babies will become a part of this long line of snuggles and happy bubs. We bought this second one from Ikea - the Gulliver - because its clean lines matched our inherited crib. We're still undecided on whether or not our twins should share a crib to start with. I think its something we need to discuss with our pediatrician, when we get to that point.

4. For window treatments (and some sound proofing!) I got sheers and curtains from Ikea. The sheers are not great quality (but they were the right length) but the curtains are just divine. For the life of me I can't remember the name of the curtains but I'm pretty sure they're the Ritva in beige - although there are no "natural" Ritvas on the Ikea website, and the backing in the online pics is not the backing on the curtains I have. Anyway, I love them. I was originally going to get the Aina (I was inspired by this blog post) but in person I liked that the Ritva were a softer colour.

I decided to add pom pom trim to the inside edge of the curtains, to add some fun and a splash of colour. Not exactly an original idea, you can see more here and here - but it looks great! The nursery is nowhere near done but I have put up the curtains and its just fabulous with the pom poms.

5. Another friend has gifted us a glider rocking chair, which we are so pleased to have! It's most likely that two of us could be in there for feedings, so we needed two chairs. We already had one rocking chair, one that we used to have in our living room, that we bought on our visit holiday on Cape Cod. Its a stereotypical New England rocking chair - and to make it more comfy for those long nights, I decided to make a cushion for the bottom and the back. I found the floral fabric on ebay, by searching "vintage fabric" (thank you Little Green Notebook for that idea!) and that will be for the bottom (I got the style of fabric idea from Marin's big girl room), and the blue ticking is for the back cushion. You can see the yellow pom pom I purchased in the pic I took in the car after my successful run to the fabric store.

To put up our feet, I got the yellow Moroccan pouf for a great price on fab.com. And I decided to get the West Elm Martini side table for a place for bibs, bottles and other little things. I hope that because its hard to push over we can use it in the babies' room for a while. It will sit between the glider and the New England rocking chair.

6. Once it got to decorating, I realized I headed into a bit of  a theme - animals. I decided on Sharon Montrose's baby animal prints for the wall - they're all over the blogosphere but no one I know has them, and I love them, so why not? I've chosen all African animals so my babies won't embarrass me when we go home to South Africa and they don't know their zebras from their elephants! The star picture of the bunch though? The twin lion cubs, of course!

We holidayed in Key West earlier this year (it was wonderful! check it out here) and bought this beautiful coastal bird mobile, while our baby (just one in our minds back then!) was just a twinkle in our eyes!

I also fell in love with these hunting dog pics in an image on pinterest. Since then I've found a matching pair in cross stitch (one for each baby!) on etsy. You'll see them when the nursery is done!

7. For some some soft light in the room, I got owl lamp from West Elm. Looking at it now, I hope it doesn't scare them when the babies get bigger! But we can always put some specs on him, or maybe add a mohawk!

8. Lastly, for a place to store their books and toys, I pretty much decided to copy this beautiful set up I found on pinterest - an Ikea Expedit bookcase. Books can go up top, and toys can go in the baskets.

For finishing touches, we have some childhood and family toys to add to the room, as well as a picture I grew up with as a child. Right now the room still has some of my husband's furniture in it (we live in an old house, with small closets, so he's been using the room as a dressing room of sorts) but we're almost there. I promise to show you everything in its place when its done. Until then, you can see more inspiring baby rooms and pics on my pinterest page.

Can't wait!

Your View on the World

I'm sure you'd agree with me, architectural details can make a home. My apartment has the most amazing glass door knobs, woodwork and radiators. I love them (check them out here and here, if you want to see).

Another South African blogger's home that is very different to mine in style but has interesting detail too, is Ashe's. She lives in Durban, a city on South Africa's warm and tropical East coast that kind of reminds me of Miami in some ways - the art nouveau buildings, and the beaches... there are a line of them on one side of the city (some great surfing!) and then a harbour with a marina and yacht club, accompanied by a pine-treed lined high way. I love and miss Durban.

Anyway, Ashe has bought a flat there, and polished that little jewel so you can actually see its beauty. Here's some befores and afters of her kitchen.

So, my question is - how do you live in a place with such unique and beautiful windows and not make them a feature? Well done, Ashe, for bringing out the beauty. 

You can see more of her place here. 

PS: Plus, she has great taste in chairs! Why do I think so? Hmmm.... click here.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hertex Fabrics

Hertex Fabrics. Love their ads.

And, have you seen their wallpaper? The City Limits collection is pretty sweet.

Beach Bungalow

Sometimes I see images on Pinterest, and I know they're from South African decor magazines - but I can't remember which or when. It drives me nuts because usually the image makes me want to go back and see the whole house. One such image was this one:

The always tasteful Court pinned it - and I had seen this image so many times I thought I knew the house... not so! (yay!) The rest of the house was new to me, and featured on Dust Jacket: a beautiful home on Bakoven beach.

I love, love, love the beadboard.... you can see the rest of the house in its original publication, here.

God's Window

The passed couple days have been heavy around here - and a little distraction is in order. Something beautiful, uplifting and inspiring. So let's fly to Swellendam, in South Africa, to a house and its setting that fills all those criteria.

From Gass Architecture's website,

This new residential dwelling is situated in Swellendam at the door-step of the breathtaking mountains and valleys of Langeberg Mountains – a view so magnificent that the locals have named it “God’s Window.” It was because of this exquisite setting that simple forms and materials were chosen for the architecture, in order to facilitate a subtle intervention – to “lie gently” on the landscape. The buildings were constructed using largely local textures and materials reminiscent of its distinctly Southern African origins. In addition to the architecture itself, efforts were made to make the house and the land itself more sustainable. For example, the land was cleared of non-native invading species, like the black wattle. Also, all the water used in the house is harvested from the site itself, and as a result there is no connection to the municipal water supply line, making the house self-sustaining from a water perspective.

Whistling Thorn Wallpaper

Did you guys see the sneak peek of Ali and Jonny Price's home on design*sponge? A lovely home! And I particularly loved the Whistling Thorn Wallpaper in their bedroom - absolutely reminded me of the grasslands in South Africa, and the aloes that are found everywhere.

The wallpaper is from Anthropologie, but no longer being stocked. Does anyone know who designed this wallpaper? It really reminds me of Maira Koutsoudakis' other wallpaper, I wonder if it's hers?

Pinning France in South Africa

I was kind of surprised the other day to see this image pinned on Pinterest.

I was only surprised because I recognized it from a House & Leisure magazine from three years ago! I suppose I have fallen in the rut of only expecting to see South African stuff from South Africans. Which is just silly! But anyway, this compelled me to go back and take another look at the house - its a French inspired home near the Drakensburg. It's not all my taste but it has some beautiful parts to it.

The garden (and the view!) 

This bathroom.... I can't stop looking at it!

The vignettes around the house

The feeling in the kitchen (maybe its just the plant?) and the gorgeous outside eating area... sigh.

 Well, I guess there are now five more images to pin!

Clean Kitchen

The new House & Leisure magazine is out, and I love, love, love the feel of this kitchen - the wood wrapping over the edge, and the subway tile on the wall...

If you like what you see, and don't live in South Africa, you can get House & Leisure digitally here.

Beach Simplicity

Thinking of friends in far off places, down under, today, so to celebrate - a bach (beach house) in New Zealand.

Pic from Dwell.

My Home: Living Room

So we started at the entrance to our home, and also checked out the loo. Now, onto the living room, or as we say in South Africa, the lounge, if you'd like to see.

If you read more blog regularly, you'll know my husband and I lived downstairs in the same house before moved up into this apartment. It looks exactly like the apartment we're in now except all the molding is painted white, so I was worried all the warm wood would feel busy. I still kind of feel that way but it look much better than I thought it would and we've settled in...

We also got an extra floor when we moved upstairs (woohoo!) so we could space things out (no more guest room - office - game room) so the arrangement in the pics above is pretty much the same as downstairs. But on the other side of the couch is a bit different - we could move our bookshelf into the adjoining dining room, and in its place we put a table. A gorgeous table that we found in the basement! And our landlord was kind enough to lend it to us (actually, I think the truth is that he had forgotten it was down there!)

There a few little spots around the room I'd like to share with you - my re-covered floor cushions that act as extra seating when we have children visiting, or I use them to sit next to my husband when we check things out on his laptop, and my little locust that I bought last time I was in South Africa (from Julian Decor in Parkhurst, Johannesburg, if I remember correctly)

When we buy our house one day, I have ideas about some curtains (maybe like this) with bamboo blinds underneath but I can't be bothered to spend the time and money on a rental. I like where everything is now, it feels comfortable and like home... of course I would always love a new couch and I would love to have it look a little like this, which I think is a pretty perfect living room.

But because its Christmas, things look a little different today! These pics are from November. Check out my next post for what it really looks like today.

Modern Traditionalist

A great way to bring together the beauty of African tradition and the comfort of modernity - by Francois Halard,  via the always inspiring Megan (on pinterest for the pin) and Mark (for his awesome tumblr).

South Africa Art & Design: Heating Up the Internet

Ah yes, two great blogs highlighted some awesome South African art and design this week.

First Habitually Chic, showing a feature from a recent Elle Decor. I loved this house when I saw it - I'm so not rock 'n roll and it would be so much fun to live here for a weekend to enjoy feeling like I was.

Its not immediately obvious (which I think makes it nice) but there are touches of South Africa here - the Pieter Hugo photo in the hallway, the porcupine lampshades in the kitchen, the traditional wooden furniture in the living room and I think that fabric on the chair in the last pic is a South African design, too. Love it. Everywhere but not obvious. Liveable.

Then, Erin Gates at Elements of Style, had me laughing at her excitement at discovering Londolozi. I guess it's a place I taken for granted as being awesome - although it nice to be reminded how great it is by a newby (although, no I haven't been, and I'd give my left arm to go). I could've sworn I'd shown more pics of it before, but I guess not! Enjoy: