Drop into The Corner Store

It seems to have been a week of new discoveries.  Whilst driving all over town today measuring up windows at one house, installing gorgeous new furniture at an apartment in St. Lucia, dropping in to arrange some pictures in a beautiful nursery we have just finished and picking up bits and pieces along the way, we stumbled across The Corner Store Cafe in Toowong.  Where have I been?  Why didn't I know about this fabulous place?!  One word is all I could use to describe this cafe with it's own vegetable garden - BEAUTIFUL!  I just wish there was something like this over on my side of town.

If you are over that way on the weekend make sure you drop in for a coffee and a bite to eat.  You won't be disappointed.  The space is seriously divine!

See you next week.
xx
Anna

Chiswick

With a number of trips to Sydney scheduled this year for work purposes I was thrilled to find Matt Moran & Peter Sullivan's newly opened Woollahra restaurant, Chiswick on Sibella Court's instagram this morning. 

If these pictures are anything to go by I think we will definitely be in for a treat!!  Has anyone been there yet??  I would love to hear about it!!

You can visit their website HERE and read more about this divine restaurant with its surrounding vegetable garden HERE...

xx
Anna

Tony's House

I was so thrilled to see my friend Tony Jarratt's house over at the Design Files today!  Tony is an extremely creative man who I truly admire.  He is also one of the sweetest, kindest people you could ever wish to meet.  We were so excited to be mentioned in the article also.  CLICK HERE TO READ.

xx
Anna

Random Pretty Things



This was my week in pictures - a beautiful wedding in Noosa despite the rain, cushions, flowers, fabrics, lamps, bits and bobs.  It was a lovely week.

xx

Anna

Lucy Visits Sally Campbell

If you haven't already seen it then you must head over to The Design Files to see the beautiful tour of Sally Campbell's Sydney home.  Divine in every single way!!

Click HERE...

xx
Anna

And The Winner Is...

Hello!  Well, it was a very hard decision however, after much deliberation I have decided to name the trellis wallpaper - Rosey Posey Trellis which was submitted by Brooks Marshall. 

I feel that this name works perfectly with the names I have chosen for the other wallpapers in the collection.  Thank you so much for all of the amazing entries.  I never thought I would receive so many suggestions.  It was such a wonderful surprise receiving all of the emails and comments.

Just in case you are interested, below I have listed the names I narrowed it down to but Rosey Posey certainly won me over in the end!!

Ring-a-Ring-a-Rosie – Karen
Catch me if you can – Daryl Wark
Pocket full of posies – Kate
Summer House Trellis – Tenia
Garden Gate Trellis – Tenia
Trells Bells – Jordan Queen of LA
Trellis in Wonderland – Kath & others
Oh Grow my divine vines – Ana
A Tisket A Tasket – Stephanie
Bees Knees – Paddy
Sweet Pea Trellis – Jo & Sarah
Trellabella – Louise
Hide-n-Seek – Sim
Jiggley Wiggley Trellis – Anna

And in further wallpaper news we had all of our showroom display rolls of the papers delivered to the store today.  They will all be installed next week which I am very excited about.

Thank you again for all of your wonderful suggestions and for taking part in my very special wallpaper giveaway.


xx
Anna

Last Day to Enter

Today is the last day to enter the - Name My Trellis Wallpaper Competition.  If you want to make a last minute suggestion just enter it in the comments section HERE.  There certainly has been some great suggestions.

I will announce the winner here on the blog on Monday.

Have a great weekend.

x

Anna

image by sfgirlbybay.blogspot.com

Morton House

It's always so rewarding once you have finished a job and the clients are happy with what you have done for them.  I think being invited into a person's home to help them create a beautiful place to live is so special and I always feel very priveleged to work with my clients.  Afterall there is a choice when it comes to Decorators and Designers and for a client to narrow it down to me is certainly something I am always very thankful for.

Last year I finished a project which I had been working on for approximately 12-18 months with my clients Paul & Hayley Morton.  Their house has been featured in a wonderful 10 page spread in this month's Home Beautiful magazine.  I have posted a couple of the pages here.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Paul and Hayley.  They wanted a very classic look and we achieved this by selecting beautiful antique furniture, beautiful fabrics and lots of layers.  The other thing which I think was wonderful about this job is that they didn't stop when the sofas and chairs and cushions went in.  They continued and added all the finishing bits and pieces in a beautiful refined way which I feel certainly makes the overall look so appealing. 

Thank you Paul & Hayley for asking me to help you create a lovely home filled with all the things that you love and cherish. 

xx

Anna

Story - Catherine Sheilds, Photography - Simon Kenny

Black & Spiro Tidbits

I snapped these few pictures at the shop late last week of some of our new things.  Why didn't I notice that the seat cushion on the chair above was upside down before I took the photo?  Gosh that annoys me.  Even though I love to embrace and promote THE MISMATCH this certainly isn't cool!!  Patterns on chairs need to line up.

Needless to say the cushion has now be turned over to the correct side so that the stripes line up.  You probably think I am mad but as a decorator it's so important to concentrate on the small details because it's the small details which can make all the difference between a hodge podge job and a job well done.

Here's a larger picture than the one I posted the other day of one of our new window displays. 

And here's a picture of the other window display with the pretty orange botanical fabric I posted a couple of weeks ago now in place.

Oh and look at the fabulous vintage pond yacht we just got in.  So gorgeous.  You might also notice the pretty vases in this picture.  I think they are wonderful because you only need 1 stem.  Isn't that economical!!

And here is the beautiful armoire which also just came in last week  Look at the carved detail on the doors.  It's beauty really can't be appreciated in this picture.

Hope you are all having a fantastic week so far.
xx
Anna

Weekend Ramblings

What fabulous names you've all come up with for my Trellis wallpaper!  Gosh there are some great suggestions there. Please keep them coming over the next few days.  I will be closing off the entries this Friday.  By the way, it has been so lovely to receive some emails and comments from old readers who I haven't heard from in such a long time.  I can't believe you all still read my ramblings!! 

Anyway, how was your weekend?  I thoroughly enjoyed mine.  I feel like it was the first weekend this year where-by I actually achieved what I set out to achieve.

This morning, with my old friend Sophie in tow, I drove up to B&S and collected all of the beautiful new hand-made pottery animal pots which had just arrived in the store last week.  We then went to the nursery and collected a boot-full of succulents.  It was so great having Soph with me.  After dropping her home and chatting with her 2 gorgeous chooks, Mabel & Dulcie, I went home and planted up all the pots.  Gosh I enjoyed being out there in the garden again. 

Here is Mr Owl looking rather gorgeous with his new head of succulent hair!!

And here's Mabel & Dulcie doing their thing.

If you are around New Farm this week and have a few minutes to spare, make sure you pop into the shop as our new window displays {sneak peek above} are in and all of these fabulous pots which I planted up today will be in the store too.   

We'd love to see you.
xx
Anna

Help Me Name My Trellis Wallpaper

Here's a box full of my wallpaper designs for Porters Paints.  It's getting very close with all the designs now signed off and colourways chosen.  If you have dropped into our store of late you will know that our back 2 rooms are currently closed as we are redecorating them around my new wallpaper collection.   We will also be photographing these rooms in the coming weeks as they will be used in the advertising for the new collection.  There is exciting times ahead I promise!! 

Here's a little sneak peek below of some of the designs and colourways....

It's hard to see in this picture however, I wanted the collection to have a beautiful hand-drawn look.  I didn't want it to look like it had been generated by a computer.  My favourite design is going to be called - Round and Round the Garden and it isn't in the picture above.  You will have to wait until we launch in a couple of months time to see it.  The trellis is yet to be named and the stripe is going to be called Higgledy Piggledy Stripe. 

I was thinking it might be fun for you, my readers to name the trellis!!  What do you think?  I am opening this up to you and I hope that you will leave your ideas for the trellis name here in the comments section of this post.  The person who thinks of the name I select will be sent 3 free rolls of my wallpaper in any colour/design they choose and this is open to readers anywhere in the world. 

Please make sure you leave your email address when you leave your idea in the comments section below so that I can contact you!!

If you are unable to leave a comment here, then just email me - anna@blackandspiro.com.au and I will add your idea into the comment section below fo you.

The 3 free rolls will be sent out just after we launch the collection in a couple of months time.  However, I need to decide on a name in the next week so this is open until next Friday 16th March, 2012.

Hope you will join in the fun!!

Anna

xx

3 Random Things

Such a pretty house.  So simple.  So lovely.  {via est mag}

Pretty and no doubt delicious salad from my one of my favourite man bloggers, Mr Ben Pentreath. 

Fabulous yellow dining room belonging to Caroline Inge's father.  Soooooooo gorgeous!

Sunday Afternoon

Most Sunday afternoons you will find us lounging around our garden whilst our 2 boys play.  I couldn't think of a better or more comfortable chair to lounge in than in a couple of fabulous Stuart Membery cane verandah armchairs.  There's even a spot to put your glass on one arm and the newspaper or ipad on the other arm. 

xx
Anna

PS - We have a few of these great chairs in stock at Black & Spiro.

Change of Plans

Even the best laid plans fail.  Yesterday I confidently announced here on the blog that we would be installing our beautiful new window displays today.  Well, unfortunately it didn't happen due to one piece not arriving as it was planned to.  It missed the truck.  So, our new windows will have to wait for one more week whilst the lovely antique chest of drawers makes it's way up from Melbourne. 

In place of our new window display, here's a picture of our old window display.  The chest of drawers has sold but look at the lovely vintage lamp which I bought when I was in New York last month and our new collection of ginger jars which you may like to know are very reasonably priced.

Hope you have a great weekend.  Next week I might post some snippets of my new wallpaper collection which we will be launching with Porters Paints in the next couple of months.

xx
Anna

Botanical

Tomorrow this beautiful, vibrant botanical print fabric will be hung in our new front window display at Black & Spiro.  Look at those beautiful dahlias and all of the little bugs and animals.  There's so much to look at and take in.  I would love to see this fabric made into cushions on a hot pink sofa or even used to cover some occasional chairs in a lounge room.  It's certainly a new favourite and the colours are perfect for the start of Autumn here in Australia.  

xx
Anna