New home inspiration!

I've been a busy bee lately! There has been a lot going on in my life, mostly good things (other than a broken foot, which has got me rockin' a "moon boot" for 8 weeks). The biggest thing happening is that my family just moved house.

My fiance and I spent countless hours looking at houses online, and we went to several open inspections. None of the houses we looked at seemed very promising. Then Glen spotted a hidden gem, a modern-looking new house tucked away in an unusual location in our suburb. He showed me the photos online, and I immediately knew that we had to look at this house. Since he had to work when the inspection was happening, I decided to go to it by myself. The house is only a 10-minute walk from where we were living, at the time. (I even walked down to see it with a broken foot!--but I didn't know my foot was broken, at the time.)

When I walked into the house, I fell in love with the timber-covered vaulted ceiling, the white kitchen, complete with dishwasher, sleek bathroom, and spacious bedrooms. The outside boasts a courtyard with a vine-covered 150 year-old stone wall, and--the crown jewel of this hidden gem, a deck with a lovely jacaranda tree, which will have beautiful purple blossoms in spring. Something told me this place was meant for us.

We've been living here for just over two weeks, and we really like it. Now we want to make the house feel more like home, so I've been looking for ideas. Here are some images which are inspiring me, for things I would like to do in the main open-plan room.

The Sweet Groove of the Melodies by Yolanda Sanchez

 West Elm

 Vases from The Design Farm

 IKEA Leksvik desk

I really want to add more colour and soft furnishings to the open-plan space, to make it more fun and family-friendly. The design elements which I'm most hoping to add to the room are: a dark blue patterned rug, to cozy up the sitting area, a big abstract painting, created by yours truly, a few colourful cushions for the sofas, something gold, such as a table lamp, a turquoise or kelly green Moroccan leather pouf, interesting contemporary accessories, to contrast with our more traditional furniture, and a bit of greenery, perhaps a fiddle leaf fig, to bring the outdoors in. I also would love to get a small desk for this space, since the desk we have is very large, and doesn't fit in the room. A mirror collage hanging above the desk would be lovely, I think. That might be something to do a bit later on.

Once the makeover is complete (or at least when the room is looking a little more fabulous), I'll have to show it to you, won't I? I'm also looking forward to decorating our son Levi's woodland-themed nursery (see my blog post about it here). He is, after all, the reason why we've moved, so he can have his own room. It will be so much fun!

{image sources: 1-3, 4-6 my own photos; 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17}