Heart is Home.

We spent a bit of time painting and re-decorating before the summer holidays, before all our stuff arrived back from Aus (I wrote about it here).  

I have blogged a bit about our move back to London and the emotional attachment to furniture and things, so the other day I whizzed about with my new iPhone and took some photos to show the progress and things in their new/old home. 

I used the Hipstamatic app to take the photos, mainly as I love the old school look of them, but this app can make even the shittiest photographer look OK, and I like to think I am pretty OK having picked up a few tips from the husband who is a pro.

Since we live in London and we are Australian I have wanted to bring a little of the sea and sun into our home here.  We are blessed with much light in our home, lots of windows, and with our various hues of white and soft grey to reflect and bounce the light around I have introduced some blue and green and yellow to bring some watery beachy elements into our environment and help us survive the coming darkness.

My absolute decorating hero is Terence Conran.  Somewhere I once read that he says always start with a neutral shell and only add touches colour in the decor.

Black and white entrance with the discontinued Urchin light from Habitat that I adore. 

My table is back in its original home.  I blogged about the table here.  It is a part of our family.  I replaced the black chandeliers with Kartell FLY lights in blue and sage oceany colours.

Kookaburra friends are here with us too. 

Our family of 5 as brass elephants from one of Brad's tours in Asia.  Beyond, a favourite photo of my very glamorous Grandmother Meg.

The Living room.....one day it will be larger when we convert the loft and then can knock through that wall into Jack's room.....but for now it works fine with the 5 of us, but as the kids get bigger and the house starts filling up with beefy teens and their mates we really will need more space.  In fact when we have friends over with extra kids it can get pretty squishy.  So the loft must happen soon or we move.

The wave art on the wall care of the lovely Fernanda, her work is gorgeous.

Another gifted painting of the trees in our local park sits above the first serious things I ever bought for my first apartment in Sydney.  I think they might be Parker chairs and I love them.  The gorgeous yellow handbag is a recent Etsy purchase from here.

Big S and small S, like the two ladies in the house.  Antique whiskey decanter from my Mum's collection.  Yellow candlestick from the flea markets in Berlin.

Here is the carpet I wept on and wrote about here.

Here I am weeping.....

I wrote about the Kookaburra painting here.  And the cupboard here.  And here they are.

My friend Marina painted this fun beach painting for me.  We used to have it up behind the dinner table and it was always such a talking point, especially with the kids.  Now it is here in the stairwell, a happy thing to see each day on this busy staircase, especially when it is grey and cold outside.

Top floor....where I am right now, is our office space.  A great light filled spot with a full view out the window down to the garden bellow where the seasons change with such intensity.

The view out the window right now looks a little like this painting my son did a year or so ago.

Love this photo of me and Suki as a newborn.  You forget how quickly they grow.  It sits above the computer and the scale of it never ceases to amaze....my nose is nearly as big as her face!  Her whole head fits perfectly in my hand. 

This guy is pinned up on the pin board.  It's an advertising tear out from an old French magazine celebrating the 150th anniversary of the 'discovery' of Australia! Interesting they chose this image.....

Ganesha...he is a favourite friend from Sri Lanka.

This is the sleeping corner of the younger kids room.  An Eames rocker for story time (actually the world's most uncomfortable chair, but it looks nice right?).

Some of Suki's trinkets from our travels.

I had this picture in my room as a girl. She's still with me. Lucien thinks she's creepy but I still find the girl in the beech tree forest listening to the red robin kind of magical.

Perhaps this Shepard Fairy is more his thing? Girl with the rose grenade.

Finally, and I know the Buddha is SO overdone in homes these days, but we do try to live by the Five Precepts and I write about that journey from time to time like here.  I am starting an 8 week course in Mindfulness this week at the London Buddhist Centre.  So here he is.

There are still a million jobs to be done, it is a work in progress.  But most importantly, I like to be here. My heart is home.