Tree Inspiration – living in the canopy

I have been dying to write a post about tree houses. One day, in my wildest dreams, I am going to build one of these for myself… but in the meantime, I can just just fuel my imagination….

Yellow Treehouse Restaurant – Auckland – a Fairytale restaurant 10m up a redwood tree.

 

Some great treehouse articles on the busyboo design blog include the Bubble Treehouse:

Enchanted structures by Japanese master treehouse builder Takashi Kobayashi – commissioned by Nestle for a commercial:

Or the African Treehouse lodge in South Africa with wonderful outdoor bathroom:

 

Free Spirit Spheres – built by Canadian Tom Chudleigh which are suspended from the trees. You can buy them and move them to your own location or stay the night in one for between $125 - $175pn and feel the gentle rocking in the wind for yourself:

Or the O2 Sustainable Treehouse inspired by a Japanese lantern and built from sustainable materials with no bolts or nuts so it doesn’t hurt the tree. They can be ordered as a self installing kit.

Check out one of the world leaders in treehouses – the Baumraun Cooperative have designed and built projects all over the world. Order your own made to order treehouse:

Some companies are set up to build treehouses for personal use, for studios or hideaways and will build them to your requirements like US firms Treehouse Workshop or the Living Treehouse, as well as retreats and tree homes:

Treehouses can form guestrooms or family rooms as an extended part of the main house like this one outside Salzberg as featured on Wallpaper.com.

 4Treeshouse created by Studiolukaszkos in Canada – suspended around 4 trees and designed to sway with them – built across 3 floors:

Swedish architects Tham & Vedegard Architects Tree Hotel

Do a search for treehouse and you will be surprised what amazing, inspirational homes and places you will find that captivates your imagination…. I know I was blown away.

Designers Guide to Sydney – Easter Weekend

What can one do if they are in Sydney this weekend over Easter? This is the first Easter I can remember in a very long time that I haven’t battled the Thursday afternoon traffic to snail my way along the highway to some relaxing holiday destination, usually to get rained out and return a few days later in even worse traffic.
Instead, I have chosen to hang in my city and explore. So my favourite design and style guide weekend picks for those lingering in Sydney…

CarriageARTworks – one of my favourite venues with great markets (growers and artisan) and performance space, but this weekend a free art exhibition celebrating art from the city’s fringe.

Potter through Surry Hills and meander through some of the great stores… including the Surry Hills Neighbourhood market on Saturday 3rd April with all sorts of antiques and collectibles, international foods, plants, vintage clothing…
 
I quick wander through I Ran the Wrong Way store for some interesting ethical, sustainable and local goods:

Must have a quick stop at the Bourke Street Bakery cnr Bourke and Devonshire streets for the yummiest cakes, breads and pastries in town:

Try not to miss the Eliasson exhibition at the MCA in the Rocks – it ends April 11th and is a must see – imagine a circular room ten metres in diameter illuminated by a soft purple light or a two-storey moss covered wall, or a sparkling white metropolis made from Lego.

China Town Night market – open every Friday night:

Fringe Bar Markets – squashed into the Fringe Bar on a Saturday full of vintage, retro and hand made goods.
 
Dr Sketchy’s at the Arthouse Hotel – Burlesque drawing classes on Tuesday night – have a glass of wine and a scribble:

Madhatter’s Tea Party on Easter Sunday in the Victoria Rooms – a stunning venue in an old garage on Victoria Street Darlinghurst.

There’s lots to do this weekend – wander the streets, lots of markets, Bondi to Bronte walk, buy local produce for dinner with friends…. why go away at all!

Small Balcony Ideas

I have a really small balcony (1m x 4m) which faces north and it’s lovely to sit with a cup of coffee, read the paper or munch on a piece of toast in the morning sunshine – if only I could fit! No matter how many different ways I have tried to organise that balcony, it has been a constant decorating challenge. Small tables and chairs always over-crowd the space making it impractical to move around and walk down to the yard - until I discovered the Hanging Balcony Table.

It looked pretty ridiculous online, but for $59.95 it was worth giving it a try.When it arrived, it was a little larger than I thought and solved the problem perfectly. Coupled with a bench seat from IKEA and these cute little pink and scarlet outdoor cushions, I have the perfect place to sit in the mornings to watch the birds and enjoy the sunshine.

Being a rented apartment I am sort of limited to what I can do, but I’m not 100% happy with it yet. While I have the furniture in position, the next step is to add some plants which I will also hang from the balcony and perhaps some wood deck tiles like these (about $15 - $25 per tile) – to make it a little more modern;

Here are a few other small balcony ideas I have uncovered while researching my own little project… Urban Balcony has some great furniture ideas including these ones for small spaces:

Burkes Backyard featured a small balcony makeover one episode including converting aluminium toolboxes into bench seats that also double as storage. I’m not too keen on the look personally, but I was originally thinking of having a piece of furniture custom made to fit in this space which could act as a kind of small daybed and storage box at the same time. They also featured another balcony makeover which looks much better including custom designs furniture and wooden deck tiles.

Check out the 10 Inspiring Small Space Balcony Gardens article on Apartment Therapy:

Doityourself website has a good article on how to dress up a small balcony and turn it into a lovely garden.

As does eHow with some nice ideas including lanterns – I hadn’t thought of that, but I think it would look good with a few candles on my balcony too.

Lots of small balcony ideas on this US website thefind.com.

And of course, IKEA has some good ides with stools and benches (where I purchased my Norden bench) but I didn’t want stackable furniture for myself as I think it clutters up a small space and also is a bit of a hassle.

And now for something just a little bit different – what about the Bloomframe shown here on the likecool website – a window which opens to a balcony – created in the Netherlands by architects Hofman Dujardin now no longer just a prototype…

My review of Lifeinstyle Sydney this weekend

I had a brilliant time at life instyle this weekend, seeing all the clever products, homewares, textiles, prints, fabrics, cushions, jewellery that artists & designers all over Australia and worldwide create. As usual there was a lot to see, but I thought I would focus on a few of my favourites – can’t wait to buy/resell/recommend them for future projects…

First up Bholu. Well I got to meet the bubbly Jodie Fried in person and she was so inspirational and spent at least 20 fabulous minutes chatting about her life, her creative ventures and her schools in India. (If your read this Jodie – thank you so much!) See my other articles on Bholu textiles and her new range of wallpapers from Porters Paints which were on display! Nice!

OK next up textile designers that caught my eye was Tinker from Melbourne. They had a lovely range of hand printed items in subdued lemons, taupe and blues, both floral and geometric prints. They seemed more than happy to please and will do customised and one off sales of items for designers with cushions, throws, pouffes, wallpapers and napery items in their range:

There was a lot of bed linen and importers, makers of lovely throws, covers and bedspreads, but those that really caught my eye are from Bianca Lorenne of New Zealand. She makes a range which is high quality, French inspired and the fabrics are so soft and tactile that you want to buy them all – but you better be quick as they are all limited editions. Nice creams, whites, pale blue-grey. Very feminine but not in a flowery way that a man would groan at.

Also from New Zealand architect Andrew Johnston of Thatch was a great range of flat packed light shades…

Very quaint but also convenient to send to friends overseas as presents! Lovely for kids rooms.

Now let’s not overlook the obvious style leaders; those Scandinavians who had a lot of beautiful products and designs everywhere – how can such a small country have so many great products and designers? Or is it just that those northern European designs, lots of white and black, bright colours, clean lines appeal to me most? Things that caught my eye:

There was a lovely range of practical, functional yet fashionable products on sale from Nordic Designs Home including their Monster Collection by the clever Karin Mannerstahl whose bright colours and bold prints brighten up home all over Europe:

Jacquard fabrics by the clever Swedish designer HildaHilda. I loved her prints because they are bold but not gaudy but can adapt to both children or adults rooms. The colours are happy but lots of tinted greens, reds, blues make them versatile in the home…

 

HildaHilda distributed by Coris who also sell the bright coloured weaves of Barefoot Linen by Sri Lankan designer Barabara Sansoni.

Last but not least, the sustainable, renewable range of wonderful kitchen and home use products from Bambu. made from you guessed it - bamboo by New York designers but crafted in China:

Read the bambu blog if you want more information.

So that’s my line up of favourites from life instyle. Download the life instyle ebook to see the full range of items on display.

If you went to life instyle sydney or plan to go to life instyle Melbourne, I would love to hear about your favourite designers and suppliers too.