Atlantic Guest Houses Byron Bay

Just arrived back from a relaxing trip to beautiful Byron Bay, where we stayed at Atlantic Guest Houses. It is situated right in the middle of town and is made up of several buildings comprising various types of accommodation from shared to suite. I just loved the decor. These are two of the thoughtfully-planned buildings:

I'm not sure what they look like inside, but judging from the exterior, I'd say rather good. We stayed in one of the rooms in another building - the Coconut. It was tastefully decorated and very light and airy with its own en suite and outdoor area:


It opened off this hallway (I love the chairs):

And the mid-century buffet:

At the end of the hall at the back of the building was this gorgeous kitchen, complete with recipe books and everything you would need to cook up a storm:

Bifold doors opened out onto this great outdoor area:

I would certainly recommend staying there, and can't wait to go again. It was very reasonably priced, too.

My Changing Aesthetic

These images will no doubt surprise anyone who has looked at my blog over the last three years, due to the fact that the boatshed has a predominantly white colour scheme with a few pops of colour in pink and green. However, as has been evident in my recent posts, I've widened my horizons and started considering black timberwork and natural surfaces. I believe that these are compatible with white walls, and lend a bit of drama to a space that could otherwise be a bit bland. So, this week I've been a little adventurous in considering options I would perhaps not have previously considered. For instance, painting these once green-toned chairs black:

And getting excited about this old metal shelving:

The piece de resistance is this table that I found at the opshop yesterday. I thought that the best thing about it was that it only cost $5. Until I turned it over and saw that it was manufactured by Parker, an iconic Australian manufacturer whose furniture I love:

It does have a tiny gouge, but nothing that a bit of filler wouldn't fix:

It seemed sacrilegious to paint it white (or black), so purists will be happy. It stays as it is.

Thanks for the Mention

Thank you so much to Little Dream Girl for mentioning my blog x

Beautiful Byron

One of my favourite places in the world is Byron Bay. Pretty soon we'll be taking a little trip there, and will be staying at Atlantic Guesthouses. The rooms look like they'll be light and airy:

I love the black curtains and these cushions:

And the pink chair has a great retro feel:

Images from Atlantic Guesthouses website.

Her Dark Materials

Finally my book has arrived and it is just as good as I had hoped. "Dark Nostalgia"by Eva Hagberg is all about interiors which have been informed by a sense of a past that never existed, if that makes sense. But while I love the images, what does it for me is the language she uses to describe both the aesthetic itself and her feelings toward these rooms. Here's an example:

"The layering of history that we see in these spaces, the weight with which so many of them have been considered and designed, immediately reassures us that our today-even once we've left the cocooned surroundings of dark wood and detailed chandeliers and stuffed eagles and weighty whale bones- is going to be better than all right...The collection of knotty planks and rococo mirrors and reclaimed lights and ancient fan belts have all come together to paint a picture of a time that never was, but still a time that I can remember wanting". That's poetry to my ears.

One of the interiors featured is that of Freeman's Hotel in Manhattan:

And the Manhattan loft of Robyn Standefer and Stephen Alesch. As a former teacher I love the chalkboard. And I wouldn't mind the map drawer either:



Images from The Faster Times website

My favourite restaurant in the book is Public which was, as Hagberg so eloquently puts it, "one of the first New York restaurants to play with an aesthetic of reinterpreted nostalgia, and it became a touchstone for historically informed readaptive reuse-the pleasure of the reclaimed barn door, the brightly dropped filament bulb. . . .The designers looked to ideas of collective memory as articulated through a public library and the thrill of discovery inherent in its card catalogs . . . The detail expressed in Public, in the consistency of design from the typewriter typography of the menus to the obviously government-issue doors, the hanging mailbox keys with their rubber-stamp labels, and the books with their Dewey decimal-inspired classifications lining the coat check space, creates an unexpected but familiar sense of honesty."

Image from Peter Gordon website 

Image from Public website

As a former librarian, I'm in love with the whole card catalogue and Dewey decimal-labelled books aesthetic. Here's my own little card catalogue looking a little lost amidst the coloured cushions:



Spring Cleaning

Since I began this blog three years ago, there have been a few changes which I haven't kept up with in the blogging world. So, while I'm making a whole lot of changes in the boatshed and indeed my life, why not update the look of my blog? I'm still learning though,and have just wasted a whole Sunday afternoon on what would take most experienced bloggers an hour I'm sure.

Dark Nostalgia

Maybe it's because my mood of late has been somewhat darker, but as someone whose decorating style has to date been fairly bright and shiny, with the boatshed characterised by expanses of white interspersed with lots of prettiness:

And more of the same:

I've suddenly turned into someone who would await with anticipation the following recently-ordered volume:

This book by Eva Hasberg, according to The Faster Times, 'explores 25 contemporary spaces that have been designed with an eye to the past.Across the U.S., with forays to London and Paris, Hagberg looks at bars, restaurants, hotels, and homes, considering their emotional resonance along with their styling. “We are recreating our own history and embracing the darkness that comes with it,” she writes in the book’s introduction. Designers are restoring this imagined past through warm, tactile materials, creating interiors that immediately evoke a time and place that feels familiar, if a little mysterious. Ultimately, “we have become nostalgic for a time that never existed.”'

Below is an image from the book of the loft apartment of Stephen Alesh and Robin Standefer of Roman and Williams. I love the map drawer, botanical prints and see sponges, as well as the use of black painted timberwork:

And the Julian Schnabel-designed Gramercy Hotel in Mahattan:

This is the Apotheke Hotel, also in Manhattan. According to the Steampunk Home blog, this hotel is designed to look like a 19th century Austrian apothecary:

I'm not sure why I've taken to this aesthetic so strongly. It's not just because it's informed by a sense of history and craftmanship, but that it recreates a history that never really was, that is timeless. I'm not really one to want a room from the past to be replicated exactly, because I find this a bit too serious, but am much more open to the idea of pastiche and its associated playfulness. Consequently, a few changes are afoot here in the boatshed which may take a while to come to fruition.

Chatsworth

We were fortunate to be able to stay in our motor home on the grounds of Chatsworth, a massive country estate with almost 300 rooms, and once dubbed "The Palace of the Peak". This is the quaint gateway which allows people in wheelchairs to access the property:

The house iteself provided the inspiration for "Pemberley", Mr Darcy's home in Jane Austen's novel, "Pride and Prejudice". It was aslo the home of Georgiana the Fifth Duchess of Devonshire, whose story was told in the film "The Duchess" with Keira Knightley:

 One of the ceilings:

While there, we saw an exhibition to commemorate Deborah the present dowager Duchess. This is a photograph from a fashion shoot, with Deborah and her granddaughter, model Stella Tennant:

The beautiful dining room with rose-coloured glassware:

This sculpture hall was used in the recent film version of "Pride and Prejudice" starring Keira Knightley:

A Moveable Feast

I'm deliberately misusing Hemingway's quotation about Paris being a moveable feast, which wasn't about food at all. It merely meant that memories of one's early life in Paris could always be conjured up in later life. However, I'm referring specifically to food memories, not of Paris, but of Britain. In Wales I tried a greengage for the first time in my life:

And bought fresh blackberries at a farmer's market:

For the first time I tried Eton Mess, not in Eton, but in Cheltenham:


And discovered that mushy peas are an excellent accompaniment to cod and chips:


Windfalls found on a table in a country churchyard have a romantic timelessness that could be out of a George Eliot novel :


This Bakewell Pudding, tasted in Bakewell, was delicious:



As was a Welsh cake in, of course, Wales:

In Diana's Footsteps

This is where her life began, at Althorp, a life fit for a Princess-to-be. Not exactly in this building, which houses the stables, although they are very grand:

The main house is covered by scaffolding due to work on the cladding and roof. Diana's brother Charles vacates the estate during July and August, but the house is left much as it is when his family is in residence, with books, games, and other personal touches casually left in public view. This is part of its charm for visitors:

However, Diana growing up in such a beautiful environment could not keep her safe in later life. Here is the road above the Alma Tunnel in Paris, where she met her death thirteeen years ago. Because the public cannot access the tunnel itself, this replica of the flame of the Statue of Liberty above it serves as a de facto memorial:

The public in their grief have scrawled messages, one pointing out the irony that Diana, whose mythological name means the huntress, found herself hunted in her final moments:


Two years ago, I photographed another memorial at Harrod's in London, but it is no longer there as Dodi's father has since sold the store:


Now Diana is remembered through the memorial fountain in Hyde Park, near Kensington Palace, where she once lived:

Although the fountain's design was criticised when it first opened, it is utilised by many children, a fact which Diana would have loved:


The gates of Kensington Palace, the site of a sea of flowers and an outpouring of grief at her death:


The Diana memorial playground behind the palace:


There is a sense of symmetry in the fact that Diana is now buried on an island on the estate where she grew up:


This is truly a fitting temple to her memory:


Rest in peace.