Mid-century Pettit and Sevitt home tour

Our love of mid-century architecture drew us to our home - a Pettit + Sevitt house designed by Ken Woolley in Cheltenham, NSW in Sydney's north west - and with a few small tweaks, we made it our own and after six years, have now passed it on to its new owner. Read on for before and after photos, including a fairly dramatic kitchen makeover!

Flexible kid's study space with pegboard

My 7-year-old daughter has been begging for her very own study desk where she can work on her homework in peace (when the kitchen counter becomes too hectic), keep her stationery organised, and work on art and craft. I've been sanding, painting, and assembling up a storm to create a movable space for her that will work for many years to come. (remember my mood board here?)

Desk top: IKEA Linnmon

Trestle legs: IKEA Oddvald painted with Taubmans Sweet Pea

Pegboard: Bunnings. Harris backed the pegboard with a wooden frame for extra stability.

Chair: Ozzio Design Pocket folding chair from the Conran Shop (UK)

Rug: Armadillo & Co.

Loving: Greg Natale for Porter's Paints wallpaper

I get a lot of press releases in my inbox, but I couldn't resist this one from Porter's Paints who have teamed up with celebrated Australian interior designer Greg Natale to create cool-as-a-cucumber wallpaper as part of the Porter's Paints Stripes collection (handmade right here in Sydney). The real question is Which One? You will find Greg's designs in the Porter's Paints online store from early December 2012. Read more about Porter's Paints here on Bondville.

Image: Porter's Paints

Removable wallpaper from The Wall Sticker Company

If you are a commitment-phobe (like me), or a renter (like me), or both (like me), then you will love these amazing removable wallpaper designs from Bondville sponsor The Wall Sticker Company (like me!). The wallpaper is both removable and movable, so you can move it to other walls, and has a washable, fabric surface. Here are some of the great designs on offer:

My absolute favourite is the World Map removable wallpaper. You probably remember seeing this wallpaper on Rowan's bedroom here - it looks amazing. Add removable wall sticker dots to the wallpaper to show where you have been, or where family and friends live. Fun and educational too.

Fantastic randomly-placed Spot removable wallpaper designed by Australian actor, TV presenter and now interior designer and homewares creator, Jane Hall. All the colour options sound great - hot pink, aqua, yellow, grey, red or green on white.

Fun Zoo removable wallpaper by Melbourne artist Jane Reiseger that would work beautifully with her Albi the Elephant and other range of nursery products at Nest Homewares.

Designs for little ones that co-ordinate perfectly with the nursery bed linen by Bondville friend Carla from Habitat Baby. This Floral removable wallpaper in pink is sugar-sweet.

Gorgeous for kids of all ages and adults too, the Herringbone and Horses removable wallpaper by Clair Wyman from Curio & Curio (read more about Clair here on Bondville) comes in aqua, black, cocoa and purple colourways.

You can find these and other gorgeous wallpaper designs (including those by Paige Russell) in The Wall Sticker Company in the online store.

Images: The Wall Sticker Company

One Year Old Rowan's Worldly Bedroom

One-year-old Rowan is so lucky to have an amazing room at his Nan Roberta's house (of Rowantree Design). Roberta has injected her love of traveling into the room with the amazing world map wall mural and lots of colourful travel-related goodies. I'm particularly taken with the Goebel figurines and the map of Australia.

Room: Bedroom at Nan's house for grandson Rowan.

Age: 12 months old.
Designed by: Nan Roberta (Rowantree Design)
Location: Ashfield, NSW

the red thread House Tour on The Design Files

My friend Lisa (the red thread) has her gorgeous sun-filled home featured on The Design Files today. Lisa's home is truly one of the most warm, creative, happy places to be and I think Lucy did an amazing job capturing the light and the feeling of her home. There is so much to love; it's a style I aspire to. Head over to The Design Files to check out more images from Lisa's home, and then over to the red thread blog to let Lisa know you love it too.

Image: The Design Files

Kids Room Ideas: Miles' Nursery

Would you like to take a sneak peek into a real Australian kids room? Miles is the lucky young owner of this gorgeous room. His Mum Lyndall put much love and thought into the design, incorporating sweet bees with the blue and red colour palette. Thank you Lyndall for the generous information on the details of the room. I'm totally in love with it. These beautiful photos were taken by Jess from Joyess Images; enjoy!

Crafty: Scary Monster Mobile

The scary monster string lights from The Source in Melbourne make frequent magazine appearances in modern nurseries and are the perfect cool-but-not-too-cutesy addition for baby boys or girls.

Ours came to a sudden death from a visiting toddler who quite naturally felt the urge to tug on them, thereby breaking bulbs and short-circuiting the cable.

But fear not, the scary monsters were re-purposed into a cool mobile. Simply clip the felt puppet shades onto a mobile with clips (like this Kikkerland hanging photo mobile), and Bob's Your Uncle. Cool factor without looking the same as everyone else.

Images: Steph Bond

Welcome New Sponsor Fiona Kate storage

We've had some great new advertisers at Bondville recently, and the latest to join the fold is storage expert Fiona Kate. Have you seen the perfectly proportioned boxes for keeping kids tidy? Fiona is up there with Kikki K. in the quest to help us achieve more order in our lives, and still remain chic.

Fiona Kate is most famous for the versatile Box Seat (a table, a seat and storage all in one) in watermelon pink, classic white sky blue and a variety of sizes and shapes. All storage components are sturdy and have a classic look to stay with your child from baby through to teenage years. Fiona Kate storage looks super cool and is constructed to work hard for you - perfect for stacking, carrying, sitting on, climbing on, wiping down, and holding treasured goods.

Fiona Kate also has a fantastic range of vinyl lettering, removable chalk dots and chalk art panels for labeling those boxes, and for hip wall decoration (for adults and kids!).

You can find Fiona Kate at the online store as well as at stockists around Australia and Hong Kong.

Images: Fiona Kate

Cool Websites: Desire To Inspire

If you want a top writing job for a major magazine, you need to head to the bright lights - New York, London, Sydney, Paris. But the beauty of writing online is that some of the hottest talent could be living right next to you in your neck of the woods.

And lucky for us, a talented pair from Brisbane, Australia and Ottawa, Canada spend hours each day bringing us up-to-the-minute interior trends and inspiration in the form of the Desire To Inspire blog. This site is a boundless sea of hip homes and design to-die-for. If you are looking to renovate, update, or just dream, this is the site to bookmark.

The said talent behind Desire to Inspire are Jo and Kim - two online friends who met via Flickr. Their aim is to "inspire the world one room at a time". And inspire they do. So now you can save a lot of money on international interiors magazines, and spend it on something lovely for you. Thanks Kim and Jo!

Image: Desire To Inspire

Bholu Booty

Our booty from the Bholu sale just arrived and don't the cushions look fab! Just a reminder that there are a few hours left of the sale, so make sure you get to Surry Hills to pick up your majorly discounted swag. All the details of the Bholu sale below.