Today, we are going to Australia to visit Alice Barker and her husband Daniel's cottage, built around 1910 and located in Ballarat, Australia’s largest inland city.
Ceramics they bought in Morocco, Turkey and Thailand can be seen displayed in many of the rooms. Blue-and-white china jars and bowls are grouped on a hall table and on the kitchen mantel, while the dining room dresser displays floral patterned teacups and colourful Moroccan pottery. The fireplaces are original.
Alice and Daniel are both keen photographers. In the sitting room, vintage black-and-white photographs share the walls with images from their travels. One of Alice’s treasures, an old Kodak Brownie camera, is displayed on the mantel beside reproduction copies of 1920s postcards from Egypt on a wire stand.
Daniel and Alice with their daughter, Lucinda.
All images and information from here.
Country Home in Australia
Happy Mother's Day!
It's night time here, and for many of you I guess it must be Monday already, but anyway I wanted to wish you a very Happy Mother's Day to all you beautiful mothers! Hope you have all been duly pampered and had a wonderful day.
Now I leave you to enjoy today's tour that takes us to a story-like cottage in Norway. Hulda and Arnt Håvard live in this house called Ingerborgstua (apparently a woman named Inga used to live here) full of shabby chic details made by Hulda herself.
Meet the owners, Hulda and Arnt Håvard
A poem written by Hulda, which appeared in the newspaper, now hangs in her kitchen.
All images from here.
Cottage in Cape Ferret
A retired couple, wanting to escape the hectic life in Bordeaux, moved to this colonial style house in Cape Ferret, a headland located at the south end of the department of Gironde, in France. The interiors are a mixture of French and New England cottage styles. So relaxing and dreamy.
The painting above the above the console table is by artist Michel Brosseau.
All images from here.
Have a splendid Tuesday, my friends!
Cottage in Michigan
Chicago-based interior designer Tom Stringer was appointed to create this kid-friendly cottage
located in Harbor Springs, Michigan. Owner Sheila Keil says: "This house is really a place where we can all be kids again. It's like being at a year-round summer camp."
Seating area on the porch overlooking Lake Michigan.
Victoria Hagan fabric was used for the armchairs and pillows in the living room.
The same Victoria Hagan fabric is repeated on the Hickory Chair dining chairs. 
Mahogany topped island in the kitchen.
Drawers under the back stairway add storage.
In the family room, colourful framed travel posters hang above a "double-wide" sofa-custom made for family movie nights. 
Stair rails with quirky positive-negative, tulip-shaped cutouts are "a traditional cottage detail, reinterpreted," says Stringer.
White and blue tones in the master bedroom.
Pink reading nook in Sheila's daughter's bedroom.
Custom made cabinets in the master bathroom.
Periwinkle, white, and polka dots for the guest bedroom.
Photographs by Werner Straube
All images and information from here.
