5 on-trend bathroom elements

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This stunning bathroom by M.J Harris Group contains five bang-on-trend elements that we think you’ll absolutely adore.

Build M.J. Harris Group / Design Georgia Neale, M.J. Harris Group / Photography J-HAZ (@j.harri)

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1 CONCRETE BASIN

A coloured concrete basin is a great alternative to a standard ceramic white one and adds an opportunity to inject some colour into a space. In this bathroom the ‘Pill’ grey concrete basin from Nood Co was chosen. Rounded edges also help to soften all the vertical lines in this space.

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2 FLUTED GLASS

The hottest trend in bathrooms right now is fluted glass shower screens. Their slightly ribbed texture adds interest to a space, and provides semi-privacy for the person showering (although in our opinion that’s what locks on the door are for)!

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3 TERRAZZO TILES

There’s no slowing down the terrazzo tile train! Everyone’s on board with this bathroom trend. We predict terrazzo will become a staple in years to come, in particular done in more neutral ways like this ‘Stirling’ white terrazzo-look tile from Tile Cloud pictured above.

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4 TIMBER VANITY

In a white or grey bathroom, a timber vanity can be a welcome addition. Timber can really help to warm a space and for this reason, we think timber vanities are a must for any bathroom. Pick something with interest like a ribbed, or fluted texture for something a little different like this ISSY ‘Halo’ vanity from Reece.

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5 STACKED TILES

When it comes to laying your tiles, the layout of choice at the moment is vertically stacked. Mimicking the very popular Kit Kat tiles, this bathroom has stacked ‘Newport’ matt white subway tiles from Tile Cloud. The vertical lines help draw the eye up which gives the illusion of more height. A great idea for smaller bathrooms with standard ceiling height.

Coastal Barn Open Home Tour

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Lauren Eloise from popular instagram account @the_coastalbarndream is opening up her Gold Coast home for one day only for followers to check it out in person and it promises to be a fun day!

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Over the past year and a half Lauren’s most common question was “can I please have a tour of your home?”.

So, Lauren thought what better time than now! She and her husband have sold their forever home recently, and before they say their own goodbyes, they felt it was the best time to answer that common question, and share it with others.

They’ve decided to create a one time exclusive open home event, where you can grab your partner, or your girl gang and see The Coastal Barn Dream in person. This is a once only experience for you to tour the home, get up-close and see all of the beautiful finishes and furnishings in the home.
It’s the perfect opportunity for you to see any selections you have been considering for yourself.

You can also check how a primarily white home can withstand being lived in with a family of five kids, three dogs and a cat, whilst still feeling like a resort style retreat.

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“I didn’t just want this to be an open home where you pop your head in and run,” says Lauren. “I wanted to create an experience. An event where you can chill with your friends for a couple of hours, come have a chat with me about all things styling and design while you’re here and just relax and enjoy the little oasis we have created.”

“For that reason, there will be refreshment carts where you can chill, enjoy some sweet treats and listen to some laid back tunes,” says Lauren.

Plus each guest will receive a digital goodie bag, with suppliers from Lauren’s home offering exclusive discounts valued at over $5,000! So, if you have been hanging out to see the Coastal Barn Dream for yourself, lock it in your calendar.

The event is on Saturday, 9th October 2021
There are three time slots to choose from, and tickets cost $50 per person. But hurry! Tickets are only available until Friday October 1 or until sold out as there are only limited tickets available.

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Capri courtyard

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DIY team Roisin and Zac transformed a cramped and neglected outdoor space into a chic Capri-inspired courtyard.

Photography: Mark Zeidler, Coast Park Creative / Words Casey Hutton

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As they renovated their Brisbane home (dubbed @geebungalow on Instagram) Roisin and Zac initially overlooked their backyard – an awkward space accessed via a rickety ramp from the laundry door.

“It had patchy dead grass, an old clothesline and a rotting back deck that was honestly a safety hazard!” Rosin recalls. “But the longer we lived there, the more we realised that the backyard actually got some beautiful light throughout the year, which made us want to make use of the space.”

 
“It had patchy dead grass, an old clothesline and a rotting back deck that was honestly a safety hazard!”
— Roisin, @geebungalow
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Roisin and Zac are self-taught DIY enthusiasts, relying on YouTube (particularly Bunnings tutorials), Pinterest and blogs for guidance. They both work full time and renovate in between; the backyard makeover took up all their weekends for around four months.

The objective was to create a private space for year-round entertaining. Both Zac and Roisin have big families, and it was difficult to seat everyone inside the house. “We wanted to be able to host up to 16 people,” Roisin explains.

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They levelled the area by pouring a concrete slab – “by far the most expensive part of the backyard and something we under-budgeted for!” – and built a bench seat and raised garden beds out of rendered cinder blocks. “To ensure the render didn’t crack and bubble, we waterproofed the garden beds, added gravel to the bottom for drainage and a drainage pipe to get rid of any excess water,” Roisin says.

A Mediterranean planting scheme and terrazzo crazy paving completed the look, giving the courtyard a breezy European vibe.

“We have our coffee out there most mornings and eat dinner there all the time! An outdoor gas heater has made it such a nice space to entertain in the evenings.”

 

Crazy paving

Inspired by Sophie Bell (Instagram’s @peppahart), the couple smashed up outdoor tiles from TileCloud and designed a crazy-pave floor. They used Davco Ultraflex adhesive to glue the tiles down, then grouted with Ardex WJ50 wide joint grout in off-white. “It only took us 10 hours to do the whole space, split over two days to allow the glue and grout to dry.”

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Let's Hear it for Hardware!

A perfect example of great things coming in small packages, your cabinetry jewellery has the ability to completely transform a space. It’s worth investing some time into your final selections to ensure it not only looks good, but is practical too.

Words Kate Moss

It’s a constant game you’ll play when selecting pieces for your home – beauty vs. functionality. When you fall in love with an item, it’s hard to let the ‘function’ voice in your head win. Here is where it’s worth listening to that voice when it comes to hardware – drawers holding your pots and pans can get very heavy, so selecting a handle that is comfortable to pull will pay off in the long run. Same goes for large integrated appliances and tall floor to ceiling doors.

“It’s a constant game you’ll play when selecting pieces for your home, beauty vs. functionality and when you fall in love with an item, it’s hard to let the ‘function’ voice in your head win.”

A slightly more understated option, I love knobs for adding a touch of character and playfulness. Usually round in shape, they are also a great way to introduce curves to help soften a space and work well with most cabinetry profiles.

Another box to tick in your thought process is staying true to the style of your home. If your intention is to create a modern, minimalist space, selecting an ornate handle with refined detail will look out of place. Do some research on different styles (Mid Century, Art Deco etc.) and select accordingly. If the antique look isn’t for you, more often than not you can source a modern version to tie in with the era.

I am very much an advocate for these small details but of course there are those who prefer the ‘less is more’ approach, in which case you may decide to skip the whole hardware decision all together. Whatever you decide just beware, changing up your handle game can get addictive.

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Pre-order 'Boho At Home' edition

Our brand new Boho At Home edition is almost here and available for pre-order now. It will be hitting newsagent stands early September. Here’s a sneaky look inside.

Welcome to our Boho At Home edition featuring four home tours each with their own twist on bohemian style. Our front cover home belonging to the gorgeous Mich Woods is a personal favourite. We went down to the Mornington Peninsula this year to shoot it and it was such a pleasure to shoot such an impeccably styled house. You can tell a lot of love has gone into the making of this one.

If you’re looking to beautify your yard, take note of our amazing outdoor makeovers featured in this issue. I was lucky enough to meet home owner Roisin of @geebungalow along with my partner who photographed her courtyard. Her and her partner Zac did much of the landscaping themselves including building that epic bench seat and tile crazy paving (which I have to say, looked amazing in person). They’ve certainly inspired me for my own front of house landscaping!

We also take a look at designer bathroom touches you’ll need for your bathroom renovation to take it to insta-worthy status.

Styling Tips for Rental Homes

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Interior designer Agathe Touguet of AMA Studio Interiors shows us through her apartment, and shares her top tips for transforming a rental property into a place that feels more like home.

Photography Abbie Melle / Interior design + words AMA Studio Interiors

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1 LIGHTING

Lighting is so important to me, it’s the most important aspect when it comes to creating a warm atmosphere in your home in the evening. And just because you are renting – it doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about the existing lighting. Many rental properties have cold light globes, the first thing you can do is change these for warm globes instead. It will only cost you a few dollars but will completely change the atmosphere of your space and make it a lot more inviting.

You can also change the existing pendants or wall lights in a rental, just make sure you keep them somewhere safe so you can put them back when you leave. I’ve changed all the pendants in our apartment and it made a huge difference. Styling a rental property requires more creativity. In our living room, there was a hook in the ceiling on the right hand side of our sofa, I decided to use this to hang a lantern pendant. You can also hang plug in lights on your walls using adhesive hooks. Floor lamps and table lamps are also perfect to create ambient light and can make a beautiful statement, some lamps are real pieces of art!

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2 WINDOW TREATMENTS

Window treatments can make or break a space. This is likely to require your landlord approval but is definitely worth it! Our home had old grey blockout curtains that I absolutely hated. I could have easily replaced them but they were also hung way too low on a rusty rod. I asked our landlord if we could replace the rods and have them installed at an appropriate height and he was happy to let us do it as long as we took care of finding the new rods ourselves. I installed linen sheer curtains in every room and installed the rods as high as possible to give the illusion of larger windows. This has completely transformed our apartment. It does not only provide us with privacy without blocking the sun light, but also adds a lot of texture and softness to our home.

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3 FURNITURE

Furniture is very important when it comes to styling a rental property as it is what will give character and personality to your home. Make sure you select pieces that work with the style and size of your home, many people make the mistake of choosing furniture that are either too small or too big for their space, making it look unbalanced.

Rugs will be your best friends, especially if you don’t like the flooring of your property. I wasn’t a huge fan of the very dark floorboards in our apartment, they made the space appear really dark and didn’t suit my aesthetics. I’ve put large rugs in every room and they do not only hide the floors, but also make our apartment a lot more homey and significantly brighter. I often have clients who don’t particularly like their flooring but don’t want to replace it and rugs are always the solution. A beautiful large rug in a natural material will make you forget the carpet or tiles you didn’t like!

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4 ART

Together with furniture, art will give personality to your property and make it feel like home. Invest in pieces that you love and hang them with removable adhesive hooks or just put them on the floor or on your fireplace mantle. Just be very careful when you take them down so you don’t damage the paint on your walls! I selected a very large vintage wall art for our dining room and it gives so much character to our apartment.

Small Laundry Ideas

If you’re limited for space – try these five essential items for a functional compact laundry.

Words Kate Moss

What was once an afterthought and a room hidden out of sight from the rest of the home, the laundry is fast becoming a space to experiment with clever storage solutions and brave design decisions. I think we can all agree that we spend much more time in this room than we would like to admit so it makes sense to transform a dingy utility space into a zone that is both hardworking and beautiful. They say great things come in small packages and this is definitely the case with smart, compact laundry solutions.

Bi-fold doors

Beauty in the front and function out the back, bi-fold doors are a great way to maximise space and continue a cabinetry style from nearby rooms (e.g. kitchen cupboards) for a well thought out, cohesive home. Smart joinery solutions provide the opportunity for laundries to be tucked away in awkward nooks or integrated into hallways and concealed with doors that make it seem like any other part of the home. And when that washing pile seems just a little too big to deal with, you simply close the doors for another day. They say what you don’t know won’t hurt you and in this case it’s what you can’t see, doesn’t exist.


Pull out laundry baskets

You’d be lying to yourself if you said your laundry doesn’t become a dumping ground for clothes on a weekly (ok…daily) basis. Before you know it, piles are accumulating and the 1-2 loads have turned into 10. They key here is to stop it before it happens and pull out laundry baskets are a great way to reduce the clutter and subsequently, the overwhelm. Integrated into under bench cabinetry, we love the Hettich system used here by Oak and Orange… Out of sight, out of mind!

The right appliances

Good old laundry appliances have come a long way over the years and washer/dryer combos are a great way to save on space (and time). Eliminating one machine from your laundry design means you can increase the bench space and under bench storage. So if you’re looking for ways to get the most out of your compact laundry, this will be the greatest two for one choice you will ever make!

Or for those who prefer separate dryer and washer, the most economical use of space would be to stack them vertically. Take for example the laundry pictured above designed by Sarah Yarrow. This ultra tiny space manages to cram all the essentials and still look stylish.

Customising cabinetry to suit your needs

As a utility space it’s important your laundry works for you, rather than the other way round. Designing the perfect layout will require some thought in to how you actually use the space vs how you ‘think’ you might use it and will be key to the overall functionality. If you own a stick vacuum and use an ironing board frequently then tall storage will be key, however if you lack linen space and have lots of ‘bits’ then overhead cupboards might suit you more. Ultimately, it’s all about minimising clutter and being smart about your storage which is exactly what interior designer Alison Lewis did with her own European laundry pictured below.

“I went with the Euro option but it wasn’t an easy decision to make and I played with lots of floor plans to see which option suited the house best. I ditched the sink to allow for more storage space. We had to compromise on space vs optional functionality but it’s actually been a really great decision for the way we live,” says Alison.

“I went with the Euro option but it wasn’t an easy decision to make and I played with lots of floor plans to see which option suited the house best. I ditched the sink to allow for more storage space. We had to compromise on space vs optional functionality but it’s actually been a really great decision for the way we live.”
— Alison Lewis

Hanging space

The key to functionality in small rooms is being clever with your use of space and utilising unused areas. In a laundry situation this is usually the splashback, between the benchtop and overhead cupboards. Integrating as many practical features as possible such as a hanging rail or floating shelf will help maximise space and reduce clutter from consuming precious bench space. Also consider wall hooks on the opposite wall to hang items like dustpan and brushes and feather dusters.