Claire Stening {Artist}

I love the work of Brisbane based artist Claire Stening. A few years ago I saved up and purchased one of her paintings which I have hanging at our Straddie house. Claire emailed me today to let me know about her upcoming exhibition at Rushcutters Bay Gallery in Sydney. Click HERE to see the exhibition.

Her work is so beautiful, precise & so, so realistic. Today when I was looking through her latest pieces I had to take a double check as some pieces looked like they were photographs. This orchid painting above is one of my all time Claire Stening favourites.

Thank you!

Image via Nibs Blog

Today was one of the very few Mondays I woke up and just wanted to go back to sleep. I usually love getting up on a Monday morning and getting into work as I am so passionate about what I do. But today I could have just rested and slept all day. However, despite my lack of motivation I did get up and it was a wonderful day full of lots of great work. I felt like I achieved so much today....thank goodness I didn't stay in bed!!

To begin this week I would like to thank you all {my lovely readers} for your lovely comments you have been sending me when I post pictures of my work. It's very intimidating posting pictures of your work and sometimes I brace myself ready to accept some bad comments as I know my work isn't everyone's cup of tea and sometimes I think you must all get tired of seeing these pictures!! But you are all very kind and encouraging so I would just like to thank you so much for your kindness and support.

I would also like to thank Liberty Post Editor for the extremely kind post she did on me today. Wow, I was so honored to be included in her Australia Week posts!!

Here's to another Happy Week for us all!

More Gumdale House

This is the family/casual dining area {above & below}. We used white painted Chippendale dining chairs which we upholstered in a navy & white ticking.




This is a little area at the base of the staircase which we had panelled.


These are the drapes in the Main Bedroom. We purchased the Antique French timber chandelier from a dealer in Melbourne.


A pretty little section of the kitchen {above & below}.




This is an area in the Master Bathroom. We sourced the antique mirror for the client and had it painted white. I love how the mirror itself is yellowing with age. I told the client she needs to get some pretty little vases with fresh flowers and some little tea light candles and put them on the little shelves on the mirror!!

Well it seems another week has gotten the better of me!! I can't believe it's the weekend already!!

To end this week I thought I would share some more pictures of the Gumdale House with you as it progresses. We are still working on the finishing touches so once they are all done I'll be sure to post lots of images of the entire house.

I would like to note that I worked on this job with the client from frame stage. We performed our full interior design and decorating service on this home. Throughout the project I worked very closely with the client as she had many ideas of her own and provided an excellent brief. Specifically I provided specifications for tile selection and layout, cabinetry design, cabinetry handle selection, paint colours, architrave & cornice selection, internal door design, tapware selection, decorative lighting selection and other general finishes. The client has taken only a few pieces of her old furniture into the home with the rest either sourced or custom made and designed by myself with the client.

I spent an hour with the client this afternoon and I finally got to sit down in one of the beautiful armchairs and look at everything we had achieved. It's just such a lovely feeling looking at your work, being proud of it and having a very happy client. That's the most important thing of all....having a happy client!!

Happy Weekend!!

Paddington House

Here are some pictures of a house I have been working on lately in Paddington in Brisbane. We painted the entire house {an old timber Queenslander} white and added colour in the furnishings we selected. We did a complete mismatch of scatter cushions on new slip covered sofas and armchairs and included some vintage pieces of furniture. Overall the client is extremely happy with her {new} 'lived in' family friendly look!!

New @ Black & Spiro

Large Male & Female Busts - $180.00 each

Hand Painted Fish Pond Stool - $275.00

Lrg Rabbit - $88.00, Sml Rabbit - $66.00 {Also available in red & white}

Pegasus Head - $140.00

We have some beautiful new things in store at Black & Spiro. I thought I'd share some of my favourite new pieces with you. Please note, all prices listed are in Australian Dollars. We can post any of these items worldwide and delivery to Brisbane metro customers is complimentary. Please email me anna@blackandspiro.com.au for further details.

Sam's Custom Bed

My friend just got a GORGEOUS new little puppy which she has named Sam! We decided Sam needed an extra special little bed so we ordered him in a cane bed and had a cushion made in blue and white Chiang Mai linen. Look at this super cute image of him in his beautiful new bed which my friend just emailed me. What a lucky little puppy he is to be sleeping on Chiang Mai!!

A Pretty White Cottage

Over the weekend I was having a little look on realestate.com and spotted this very cute house for sale in Clayfield in Brisbane. It has all the right attributes in my opinion - it's white, it's a cottage, it has a pretty garden and a pretty white picket fence...