Lots of little details to appreciate in this mutey beauty by @mosh_home. The rest of the home embraces a mix of timber tones, so I like the nod to that here with the deeper Walnut handles on the American Oak cabinetry. That stone (Carpathian marble) has so much movement in it; restraining the rest of the design to simple clean lines really gives the island centre stage. Also love the choice of a thin stainless benchtop.

(You can see more of this home at The Design Files)

En-sweetie.

The kitchen and bathrooms speak the same design language - just a slightly different dialect.

Aussie designer Ryan McGregor (Fieldroom) and his stylist husband Jono Fleming make the ultimate interior tag team. Case in point: this reimagined 1970’s home in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. She’s giving playful and expressive with a garnish of refined restraint…

The tiling is a visual signature of this home. This bathroom floor is inspired!

Lovely pencil-capping! I think we’ll be seeing alot more pencil capping, as tile design gets braver and more decorative.

More gorgeous Mediterranean-meets-folk detail.

The bedroom is a perfect example of that restraint I was talking about - she’s artful and tactile, yet uncluttered and perfectly balanced; statement-making yet still.

Saved the best for last… how good is this plaid tile pattern on the floor? And a laundry is the perfect place to do it.

Are Ryan and Jono becoming vanguards of a Modern Folk design renaissance? They’re currently in the concepting phase for another residence, check out this moodboarding:

I am SAT for it! Go follow both on @fieldroom and @jono.fleming

(PS: Both of those storybook whimsical table lamps are by Huey Lightshop.)

You know I love a trough sink, and this travertine and chrome palette is 10/10
JCB Architects

Little burgundy splashback! Sucher Studios

Just really wanted to show you this incredible flooring that covers the huge exterior courtyard, and continues uninterrupted through the living room and kitchen. By YAMA Architects.

I could start a Substack purely devoted to sinks and taps. Shall I?
(Can we also appreciate the mirror with the integrated candlesticks? Such a romantic notion to imagine washing your face before bed with only the light of flickering candles…) via Concept by C

I reckon you’ll be hearing me say Iconic Minimalism/Post-Modern Minimalism a bit around here, and this living space by Polish designer (and AD100 honouree) Monika Rogusz-Witkoś @craft_of_interior is a lovely example of it.

Until next time!

VERMEER X ST AGNI
These beaded keychains by Vermeer Studio X St Agni are very cool - there’s a whole collection of styles, have a look here.

WATCHING:
If you need something new to binge, Season 2 of the Emmy-nommed Paradise is out this month. It’s a cinematic and character-driven post-apocalyptic thriller à la The Last Of Us, but with more politics and less zombies no zombies.

(Don’t watch this trailer if you haven’t seen Season 1 - Contains spoilers.)

WANT TO TRY:
A Mont Blanc. (I’m not going to pretend I’ve had one, see above: haven’t travelled anywhere lately due to cozzy liv, and I’m in a small beach town). Made famous by Melbourne spot Good Measure, (who make 800 a day in the weekends, so it must be good, right?) and inspired by South Korean coffee culture, a Mont Blanc is (some variation on) cold brew or espresso over ice, topped with a thick, velvety layer of cream or cold foam, and finished with grated fresh orange zest and nutmeg. Your fave metro-area cafe is probably offering these now (some of my Auckland faves are), or soon will be…

WHEN FURNITURE IS ARCHITECTURE

Could this be my favourite chair… EVER? Top 10 at least. By New York based Interior Designer Noa Santos (who happens to have his own line of furniture - Galerie Nainoa )

This glass table just widened my design aperture, if you get what I mean (not rude).

MERM STUDIO

Digging these block mugs from potter Merm Studio

SHORT READS

1. Reggie Yates on how your home should not be optimised for strangers:
   ”The online house tour has gone from a window into a life, to a screen shot festival of sauce stealing. The renovation account you follow has matured from the humble roots of self-expression, to an ad-funded echo of someone else’s taste.”
   Read Rage Against the Beige here.
   

2. I enjoyed reading this post by Emily Henson, who asks:
   Remember how you decorated your room when you were a teenager?
   “Free expression. This is who I am, this is what I like, this is who I want to be when I’m older. A full expression of self.”
   Got me thinking about how I could be more expressive with my bedroom design (what would 15-year old Alana do?)

HEAVEN, IS THAT YOU?
A new song I’m playing constantly at Sunday Homestore at the moment:

COAT ME IN BUTTER

Coming up to Czy szn I’m looking at coats and jackets again, and this oversized but structured butter yellow baby is living sans-rent in my head. (Video of a try on here.)

NONE OF MY BUSINESS

Things that are quite literally none of my business: my side profile.
(Mads’ account is a good one to follow for consistent lols, and I will no longer sign off on anything but the front view of my face)

‘CONSIDER THE LILLIES’

Save these handmade ceramic lilies for the next time you need a gift for your best GF - so beautiful! By Los Angeles potter Karina Black / Cosa Ceramica (whose work I always keep an eye on). Her Calla series includes individual stems (that can be hung on the wall), candleholders, and incense holder and a hair pin (would this not be the most amazing keepsake gift for a bride?)

First up, one of Olive and her husband’s previous homes - the sweetest renovation of an existing home on an acre block in Byron Bay.

My favourite aspect of this home is the fact it doesn’t box itself in to a set style or era; instead focusing on depth and warmth. Imagine you’re viewing this place in 2035 - you’re not going to be able to easily name the year it was designed. That’s something.

The perfect pistachio green, and two sets of weirdo handles

Olive’s interior architecture extends to furniture design, including this day bed.

Guest bathroom with always-chic black and white harlequin tiles. I like that they’re marble, rather than stark solid black and white, it softens the look and gives it depth. Also looove the Water Monopoly bath, the choice of butter yellow for the walls, and those beautiful shell sconces (via Petite Motif).

A peek at the master ensuite, with brown floor tiles, a pastel blue sink and a brutalist stone bath. There are no rules, ok? (But it does pay to have an innate instinct for what works.)

Maybe it’s genetic. Olive’s sister Effie is a landscape architect, and designed the outdoor palette - kitchen, pool zone and planting.

See more of this home over on Olive’s Substack, File For Later

Couldn’t resist a small share of Olive’s Byron Bay build - Field House - which features in The Local Project’s new coffee table book Designers At Home.
(There’s a video tour of this home over on The Local Project, and more yummy images at the Laminex website).

Join me in my Olive Cooke crush - follow her on Substack or over on Insta @olivecooke + @filesfrom45 (interior design) + @openplan.studio (Olive’s new tableware brand).

Little Lonnie’s (you know I love a house with a name) kitchen is proof there are literally no rules. A full stainless steel kitchen (with a mixed metal touch thanks to the organic brass handles), terracotta tiled rangehood, palm tree rattan pendant, and an island made from three totally different slabs of stone (blue onyx + green onyx for the upstands and jurrassic travertine for the worktop)

See the whole home here.

Designed by Edwina Glenn for Kate Heppell (the co-founder and creative director of Kip & Co). Photography Lillie Thompson.

This lazy girl can’t go past a shower bench. Also love having incense in the bathroom as a #littlelifeupgrade (make the incense holder a design moment too)

So much to adore here (*ahem* ceiling-mounted bath spout!) but what’s catching my eye are the subtle checker textures - on the floor, and did you spot the tiled wall in the mirror’s reflection up there?

More subtle checkerboard with tumbled marble tiles. This technique (using the naturally differing patterns/markings in stone to create a texture-based checkerboard) is 🤏🏽 Salt bae.

All of the above bathrooms were designed by Studio Carson Kelly.
Photography by Tasha Tylee

Good design stays good design forever. Timeless materiality in Lantern House by Bercy Chen Studio. Photography Casey Dunn.

Less is More or Less is Bore? I reckon Banda have it pretty much 🍯 Goldilocks 🍯 with this one (might just add some art…)

Am I sharing this space just for that incredible wall light? Peut-être!
Design by Lauren Tarrant. Photography by Timothy Kaye

A more perfect dressing room doesn’t exist. Via @spacesbyjill

Light Years Asian diner - Studio Plenty and Sarah Ellison (one of our favourite furniture designers is now also working in interior architecture).

Speaking of Sarah Ellison - love her home studio…

(more pics here)

This small but perfectly formed loft apartment is by Mariah Burton / Folk Studio.

The exposed brickwork and original off-form concrete showcase the building’s historic past as an industrial woolstore.

Photography Jacqui Turk.

• Loving Deadly Ponies newest collection, especially the Mr Vault in Java or Porcelain. Doubles as a handleless clutch 💅

• In my ongoing attempt to pretend I’m holidaying in Italy, I’ve been buying and trying obscure pasta shapes (Cavatappi is a fave so far, she holds a sauce well). Only $3.99 to sorta feel like I’m on the Puglian coast? Sì.

• Raaie Tranquillity Mist. Truly the best thing I’ve put on my face all summer - they’re not gaslighting with the 72-hour hydration claim. Gives me bouncy bouncy cheeks. (Come for the plumpy-plump hydration, stay for the biomemetic peptides, PHA exfoliant, marine algae, mānuka water and kawakawa)

• Cleaning up my Instagram Feed, because for me, witnessing had become numbing, and curation > consumption. (You can snooze suggested posts, switch the feed to Following, block posts with certain keywords, and more - Get Offline’s Alison Rice shared a really helpful little How To here.)

• Thicky-thick 90’s curves and buttery gloss - the Dora Gloss Mirror by Rachel Donath.

• Hand-painted Italian style ceramics - I love the work of Di Lunedi Ceramics (Insta / website) - or even old 90’s NZ Temuka pottery - Lisbon Lemon series, IYKYK.

• Duke Table Lamp by McMullin

• Sugar/Coffee Scrubs - slough off the sin and skin.

• Doechi X SZA - Girl, Get Up
(This song, but also: two women at the height of their power, working together)

• Olivia Dean’s entire album (don’t know about you, but I’m starting to play albums from front to back again - another small protest against algorithms and poor attention spans) - or better yet, one of her Live sets.

Speaking of Olivia Dean, it took her 50 songs and about 12 years - over a decade - to become an ‘overnight sensation’ and win her first Grammy. Inspiring, right? KEEP GOING ON YOUR THING, WHATEVER YOUR THING IS.

• Peony Veil candle from Not Frankie smells like you’ve just walked into the florist’s chiller (actual flower petals).

• Micro-basil (Mini basil leaves! - I love anything miniature, and teeny tiny basil is perfect on still-clinging-to-summer salads).

• Silver coasters - definitely thrift-able, but these ones from Country Road are an affordable option and the fat rim is cool (they also come in a yummy olive green)

• And this sentiment:

— Analogue everything
— Latticed timber elements in furniture and cabinetry
— Checkers (yes, still - but they’re evolving a bit - think plaids, grown-up grids, or tiny checkers as an edge detail…)
— Decorative flooring - interesting and bold tile patterns, parquet floorboards
— Wall Mirrors as Art (big n’ sculptural)
— Coloured/decorative frames and interesting photo mounts (definitely something you can thrift cheaply, too!)
— Chrome + Glass
— Vibe Trays
— Co-ord sets
— Rebuilding our attention spans (can you calmly watch these?)
— Making bread
— ‘Outdoor’ tiling done indoors (terracotta, crazy pave) and ‘indoor’ tiling done outdoors
— Fun handles (and fun/unexpected decorative elements in general)
— One unexpected colour in a space (unexpected red theory, expanded)
— Lymph and muscle care > skincare (our neck is pulling our beautiful faces DOWN, bb)
— 90’s handy-cams
— Trees (ok, obviously trees have never been *out* - but trees are getting their flowers this year. Did you know that trees are more rare in the known universe than diamonds? This year we’re hugging trees, laying underneath trees, making art inspired by trees…)
— Niche interests, niche collections. Follow your goddamn bliss, friend.
— Butter Yellow specifically in interior design. (And burgundy, still.)
— Lacquered, high-gloss furniture
— Murano Glass wall sconces
— Phone always on DND
— Brown mascara
— Drinking warm/hot water in the morning
— Iconic Minimalism
— Not staying in your lane (we can be multi-lane)
— Decorative dinnerware/serving platters

Out:

— Italian sayings and iconography all over clothing
(Aperol Hour! Ciao! Lobster illustration! Pasta illustration! PLEASE, BASTA.)
— See also: Margarita-themed clothing
— Influencers who contribute nothing but consumption and hauls.
— Pantone Colour of the Year (was never In)
— The Algorithm (curate your feed)
— AI slop
— ‘Optimisation’ of any kind
— Instagram captions that purport to be vulnerable and authentic but are obvi written by ChatGPT (clocking the negative parallelism and en dashes)
— Collagen Supplements
— Nicki Minaj. Eww.
— Deepak Chopra. Ewww.
— Using the big lights
— Billionaires
— Notifications
— Large half-round handles (sorry)
— Anko
— Boucle
— Dopamine addiction
— Self-betrayal
— Fake plants
— Plausible deniability
— Calling issues of morality “politics”

Knowing yourself is a superpower. Joel Uili’s substack and Instagram are wellsprings of self-exploration and inspiration.

Hang on - did you skip that block of text up there and just read this?
Go back and read it bestie.

(I’ve been devouring everything by Gen Z manifestation author Courtney Cho.
Most of her posts are locked, but there’s some great free ones - or if you’d rather a verbal pep talk, her long videos on TikTok are 10/10)

Saving almost everything Dani Kreeft says - but especially wanted to share these two quotes with you. (I stock her book - Waves Come In Sets - at Sunday Homestore, here.)

Anaïs Nin (born in 1903) was a French-American pioneer of erotic literature who explored themes of female desire and inner life. Can you imagine what a BADDIE she must have been (with all the rigid conservatism and patriarchy of that era) to devote herself to this sort of work, without even so much as a high school education? She’s most famous for what she wrote in her candid, multi-volume diaries - quotes on personal development, love and self love. If you have a spare half an hour, look up some of her words, maybe print a fave or two to put on your fridge and remind yourself 👏🏼 YOU. 👏🏼 CONTAIN. 👏🏼 MULTITUDES.