Five little ducks went out one day...

...to choose an interior wall colour.  The ducks were sad, as they were in love with a Taubmans colour, but the builder will only paint in standard Dulux colours.

The ducks made many a trip to the hardware store, and bought lots of sample pots.  (The ducks really, really love Taubmans for taupe/grey tones).  The ducks were nearly about to organise a Dulux Colour Consultation.  But, today the ducks got lucky, they were lucky ducks.  They found the right colour.

Can you guess where this is going?

The colour we chose for our interior walls is White Duck by Dulux.  It ain't no Taubmans Taupe Stone, but it will do the job.

Not quite this grey in real life...



A scheme found here, which is pretty close to the look I'm going for.


Now to find the right white white for the architraves and skirting...

Thank you so much for the feedback on my shipping issue.  I think the general consensus was - Go for it!  I'll think it over...

Have a great weekend!

PS:  Given my crazy 'duck' post, perhaps I shouldn't blog on Friday nights?

Is it worth it?

I really love some of the trends in American decorating right now.  There seem to be so many fabrics and styles that just aren't available here.  So, I had a little bit of extra cash, and thought I would splash out and start organising a few things for the new house (yep, that's the one, the house that hasn't even commenced construction yet.  Whatever).

This is what I chose...

Gorgeous curtains for the Guest Room 

Bathmat

Veneer Spheres

The prices were all pretty reasonable, and the bathmat was even on sale.  Then, this happened...

The shipping fee...  I have to say, I was thinking maybe $50.  Now I realise that was wishful thinking, given the cost of postage even just within Australia. 

But, is it worth it?  To have items which I love and are not readily available in Australia?  Are the mailing services that you can use any cheaper than this?  Should I suck it up?  Is the solution to just stop reading all the gorgeous American blogs that I pore over?  Heeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllppppppppppppp!!!

All images from here

Finance approved!

Not that there was any doubt, but it is always nice to breathe a little sigh of relief and tick another task off the list.

Today, I have organised our tile selection and finishes appointments (on my birthday - yay!) and sent our design info off to the developer.

Action stations, people!!!

Have a great week

Thankful Thursday

Cripies, it's Thankful Thursday again already!  Where is the time going?

Today, it is all about the fact that I'll see my favourite person tomorrow.  I've missed him too much and am so tired, that all I need is an early night and a very late morning.  So, I am thankful in anticipation of a good night's sleep very, very soon.

I am also thankful that a lovely friend is organising a holiday for us next year, and is sending lovely photos like this to my inbox...

And, I am thankful that our contracts are signed.  Yay!

What about you?  Anything that you're particularly thankful for this week?

Happy nearly Friday, peeps!

Contracts signed

I have signed the building contracts!  Yay!  Let's just say signing on behalf of both of us left my signature looking a little different on the last document than it did on the first!

Picture here

Glad it's done, now to spend some quality time with 'the bank'.  Good times!




Accent Colour - Main Living Space

I like a pretty neutral base colour scheme.  So, in the new house, this will be a dark timber floor, taupe/grey walls, a mostly white kitchen and a wallpapered feature wall with a navy pattern.

I was tossing up either red or yellow the last hit of colour in the space, and had pretty much decided on red.  I must say, red as an interior colour often throws a little 'bogan', but with the navy and very select use, I was looking forward to it...

Until...  I watched the latest episode of 'Sarah 101' (have I mentioned my love for Sarah Richardson's work here yet?) and fell in love with this space.

This image doesn't show the true beauty of the room, but more images are available here.

Pros for yellow as our accent colour:
- It is Husband's favourite colour
- It gets along very well with grey
- There are lots of yellow homewares available at the minute

Con
- Telling people our colour scheme includes blue and yellow!  That is so late nineties/early 2000s.  Our first house was blue and yellow, with a beachy theme.

Well, it looks like the pros outweigh the cons, and everything old is new again!!

What accent colour are you using in your home?

Concept Board - Teen Girl's Bedroom

No, no, no, we don't have a teenage girl (yet!), but via our business we get to help other people create stylish solutions for real living in their own homes.

In order to reduce the stress of dealing with our contracts, this is a project I worked on today.  Working on a Saturday has never been so much fun!

We offer both in home (greater Brisbane area) and remote consultations, so please contact us - madonna@maddanhome.com.au - and we can get to work on creating a stylish solution for you, too.

Have a great weekend!

Overwhelmed!

So, I picked up the final Tender Letter yesterday, along with about 57 other pieces of paper.  After all my complaining about the builder's slowness, I wanted to get everything sorted with them today.  However, this week is the busiest in history and there are still a few issues that haven't been resolved, so I decided not to rush things.

Therefore, I will sort everything on the weekend.  And then... we wait for the bank and council!

Getting more excited by the day, though.

Outdoor Room Inspiration

I had a little realisation this morning.  We probably won't start on site until after Christmas.  Initially, this made me cranky and sad.  But then, I changed my mind, and I'm totally okay with it.  Cool!

So, I started thinking about our outdoor entertaining area and (potential) pool.

These images are from builders' websites like this one and this one.  They really capture the dark, moodiness that we are after for our exterior scheme.  Some of them even have our current furniture!

Probably the only difference is that we will have a charcoal stain on our decking and ceiling cladding.  We'll also have this fan, to add a little bit of a plantation/resort feel to our outdoors.

Source

Given that our outdoor area is to the front of the house, it really needs to 'wow!'  The image below is of a house not too far away from us, built by the guy who built our second house, that I found whilst realestalking.  I believe it has recently sold.

It is on a corner block, so this too is in the house's front yard.  How nice would it be to come home to that every afternoon!

Anyhoo, we're moving into dangerous territory.  Beautiful swimming pools deserve their own post!

Have a great weekend!

Thankful Thursday

Just a quick one from me today...

Today, I am thankful for a little bit of rain.  We have a whole lot of, very small, potted plants preparing themselves to be nice and full-sized for the new house, but they have been lacking water and will be very happy now.  But, after the non-stop rain we experienced late last year and early this, we prefer for it to only last a couple of days at a time these days.

And, secondly, I am thankful that our building contract is 'in the mail'.  This is what we call progress, people, progress!

Oh, and finally, I am thankful that my lovely bloggy friend 'B', has moved into her gorgeous house!

What are you thankful for today?

Dream Sofa Update #1

You might remember yesterday, I posted about this beautiful lounge that I'm absolutely in love with.

Unbeknownst to me then, the retailer had 30% off all fabric lounges.  Oh.my.dog.  Done deal, let's buy two!!  He with the money (Husband) rang up to enquire, and was told that the price I was taking the 30% off was the introductory price, and that the lounge would actually be about the same price as I originally thought it was, as the introductory offer had ended.  Oh well, too bad, so sad, not paying that price for something we don't need for another six months.  There'll be another sale.  Yadayadayada.

Enter the wonder of the internet.  The lounge was still advertised at said 'introductory price', less 30%.  Holy cow, game on.  Rang Husband 37 times to say, ring back, they need to match the internet price.  Blah, blah, blah.  Husband doesn't answer.  Ugh!  Re-check website.  In the twenty minutes between the initial phone call, checking the internet and getting Husband back on the phone, they'd updated the web price.  Evidently, they'd had A LOT of calls RE: this lounge.  They must have realised that the web site hadn't been updated, and gotten onto it toot sweet.

RANT OVER.  Thank you for reading, if you've gotten this far!!

So, whilst the today price is fantastic, it is not a 'buy today' price.  There will be another sale.  We'll buy it at Christmas time.  So, never fear, there will be a 'Dream Sofa Update #2' and more, when we get this baby in situ.

I really hope that the other people who rang up got the lounge at the internet price.  This really demonstrates the importance of ensuring details are updated, friendly retailers!

Now I'm off to 'not watch' the NRL GF.  Happy Sunday, peeps and a special "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" shout out to a lovely cousin.

When the budget doesn't meet the brief

Oh, woe is me, the sofa that I have fallen in love with really is not in our budget.  Like, we could afford to pay it off, but I don't know that I want to commit to the price.  Do others of you have the same issue?  It is lovely, though, and practically perfect in every way.  For your viewing pleasure, here is the offending piece...

It is so well proportioned, and even the fabric is the perfect colour, oh and behold the timber detailing.  And the coffee table in contrasting fabric.  Gorgeous!

We would really like a modular sofa for our Family Room, as opposed to two couches in an L-shape configuration, so that we can all fit on the same lounge.  So many of them seem to have really shallow seats, or aren't available in the right configuration or dimensions.  I just keep coming back to the 'Cruz' by Domayne.  (Note: It is still considerably cheaper than the Jasper by King Furniture!)

What to do?  What to do????????  Other suggestions are welcome!

Hope you're having a fantastic weekend!