Bachelor Style

Loving this friend's apartment - boy's paradise in the centre of CT. Finding himself after a separation and doing a fine job tapping into his inner naughty boy!

White with a touch of Zebra

Have fallen in love with this simple, classic but funky idea for a bathroom. And it's one that can easily translate for any room. Take one predominantly white room, add a pinch of wood & steel to texture and top off with a beautiful Zebra-print focal piece:

Find more inspiration for bathrooms here.

Love it!

Kitchen Tea - Alice-Style!

I suppose I'm officially at that age: people all around me seem to be getting married, having kids, etc etc etc. *yawn* (not really, I'm secretly very envious!)

A friend of mine is planning a bridal shower/kitchen tea for one of her school friends and I thought it might be a fun little project to help her with, given the amount of free time I currently have (and also fuelled by some bitchiness from a fellow bridesmaid towards her - I'm rather protective of my friends!) 

So I drew up some mood boards with images I found on Pinterest and thought these slides were just too cute not to share on my blog... Who knows, maybe one day I might become an event planner! Or better yet, find an excuse to throw elaborate, OTT parties at least once a month;) 

I just hope my friends will be putting this much effort in for my kitchen tea when the time rolls around... *hint hint M & J* :D

Xxx

Beautiful bedrooms

In the name of sleeping late on a Saturday morning, these indulgent bedrooms are sure to inspire and create envy...

I love this bright and beautiful summery bedrooms. Although colourful, they retain a grown-up elegance, a mark which is too often missed when it comes to using colour in the home correctly. Seeing bedrooms like these is a great reminder that not everything needs to be neutral!

Just adore this wall paper and the colourful accents in this room.

Reminds me of sunshine and eggy breakfasts!

The green walls lift this room from dreary to fresh.

I just love this gorgeous, feminine room! A girl's dream:)

But then again, how pretty is this white, metallic and pink bedroom?

So opulent and gorgeous! Could see myself lying in until very late in this bed...

Clever and very inexpensive idea for a gorgeous headboard. Great way to introduce some colour.

I do just love Saturday mornings! Off for a walk along the Sea Point promenade in a few minutes - happy weekend everybody!

Xxx
The Girl Belle

Something Pretty for this Grey Tuesday

It's a grey and gloomy day in Cape Town today and these pretty pics of little splashes of colour in otherwise neutral environments are perfect to brighten up this day!

Love the teal footstool - perfect splash of colour in this white room! Pic sourced here.

Love this idea of the wallpaper lining the back of this display cupboard.

So girly, so cute!

Classic, glam and gorgeous

The above pics found here.

Just adore this daybed - again note the books on the table!

Happy day-dreaming!

Glass Jars, Mondays and Motivation

As you may have noticed, I'm a massive fan of glass jars and bottles. We have quite the collection in our house and I'm often looking for new ideas, tips and tricks as to what to do with them.

The dresser in our open-plan kitchen area in the last house, with recipe books and jars containing all sorts of useful things, from rice and sea salt to pasta, dried chillies, almonds and chick peas

I certainly don't think that this is the first time I've mentioned glass jars on my blog - and it probably won't be the last. I hope these pics inspire you as much as they do me.

I found a wonderful post on Iuliana's site, Procraftination Station this morning and it's just totally re-inspired me to get my a into g and get creative with the hundreds of jars we have floating around our house just begging to be re-purposed...

Hanging baby food jars with ribbon and flowers

So organised and efficient! I think I might need to rethink my current jar-strategy! How tidy and cute is this?

Love this centre-piece! Classically elegant, recycled, gorgeous! And the name tags in the jars are a cute touch too.

Uh-dorable! I want goldfish!

Perfect decoration for an office desk. Going to need some on my desk when this season rolls around...

Home-made terrariums in Consol or Mason jars.

How to get your jars ready for hanging. Twisted wire (although I think I'd put it right at the base of the neck), some sand and candles. So easy.

Love this centre-piece for a coffee table! Martha Stewart, of course:) So cute, so fresh! The rest of one's house would have to be so very tidy to pull this off as a centre-piece, so I think I'll skip this idea, as much as I do like it...

Painted jars as vases

Fairy lights in large glass jars. So pretty! And love the antique books as part of the table display, along with the paint brushes.

This actually kind of reminds me of the table decoration for the birthday brunch that I threw for my family.

Centre-piece of mismatched jars used as vases. Made extra-cute by the mismatched flowers - gave the table a bohemian, casual feel.

Left just two on when the food came out - still cute and quite striking though.

And now that I've done my post for today, I've got no excuse to keep procrastinating... I need to sort this apartment out for once and for all! And this week is the week. There is so much still to be donated, put into storage, taken out of storage, sanded, painted, made. And I have a sneaky suspicion that commercials season is just around the corner and this will be the last of my time off... Fingers crossed!

Packing Pains...

I've discovered a really good way to start an argument with one's partner. I've also discovered a way to create instant dislike between each other, to really get under each other's skin and an excellent way to throw any preconceived ideas you may have of a future together out the window:

Pack up a house together.

Aaaaaargh!!!!! Love him as I do, I had no idea that the differences in our packing styles could irritate and frustrate me so drastically! They say that you only get to know a person when you move in to a home together. No way, it's only when you move out of that home together that you are able to really see who you've been living with! :)

Anyhow, I shouldn't moan - I'm very lucky and he is a wonderful man whom I adore. And perhaps I am a bit grumpy today, ok...

So on a lighter, prettier, pleasanter note, here's a sneak preview of the upcoming decor project that I'll be starting when we move into The Cute Apartment...

I had a moment of inspiration the other evening - we have such beautiful African collectibles and the new place just lends itself to having a bright, British Colonial style. And it's something we can really achieve without having to start from scratch - we've got the colour scheme already - cream couches, lots of dark wood. We'll just need a few more accents to move it in that direction and we're in business:) Anyhow, I did an image search for 'colonial chic' and this is just some of what came up that I liked...

A few shots from the beautiful Londolozi, as seen here.


The way I see the decor unfolding in the new place can only be described as "Colonial Chic" - very Old-World British meets Plantation meets Safari meets Ralph Lauren with a few collected treasures thrown in for good measure. A great-grandfather's pith helmet, an african mask or 2, a traditional wooden kist from Zanzibar...

from the Decor to Adore Blog

The above and below pics from BellyButton's Jet Set. I do just adore the yacht in the background and the lampshades on old-fashioned tripods.

What I'm really going to need to get my hands on is an antique globe...

 No idea where to start looking, but think I might be spending the next few months trawling antique antique and thrift store for the perfect one.

 Found this pic on Favim.com - source is listed as unknown. Love the feel of the room, but the dead animals are just a bit too much for my liking.

Also from the Decor to Adore Blog, just love the excessive use of candles on this plantation-style verandah.  Just sprinkle a few drops of citronella oil on the candles and you can dine without any disturbance from mosquitoes! Nasty little buggers! :)


And how can we forget the new wardrobe that will need to accompany the decor? ;) Found this beautiful selection of Safari-inspired wear on the Italian Style Notes site.

I love how colour has been used in the above palette instead of the usual neutrals and khakis, yet the safari element is pulled through quite effectively in the leopard-print cushion.

I have decided my primary palette will be Light Sandy Brown for the soft furnishings, Mahogony for the wooden furniture, a variety of browns & khakhis peppered through and accents of blue to enhance the whole look.

I've decided that I'm going to sand and stain my beautiful white-washed coffee table a deep mahogony; I'll be making all the cushions for our existing cream couches myself - I'm currently debating leather and faux-fur pillows, but I might tone this down considerably (it might be my excitement talking), I'm going to need to get my hands on some vintage leather cases to properly accent the look and finally, I think that our new bed will either need to be a four-poster or a mosquito net will definitely be in order!

I'll keep you posted:)

Belle