I have always loved the tiny, original workers’ cottages in suburbs like Leederville, Subiaco and Fremantle. But although I look at them from the outside and admire their quaintness and charm, often I think that I could never live in one – I presume that they must almost always be way too small and cramped inside. Well this worker’s cottage is proving me wrong. Formerly a poky one bedroom worker’s
Can you be self-sufficient from the average-sized suburban garden? I don’t know, but the owner of this one is definitely trying – and she has such an awesome garden that I think half of you will be itching to plant sweet potatoes or peaches this weekend. I was introduced to home owner Kate Reading by my friend Heather Robbins, whose name you might recognise from lots of the photography you see on
I felt like I was going back in time a bit when I went to visit this house. In a quiet town about an hour’s drive out of Perth, this 1960s red brick cottage is home to interior designer Hayley Kessner, 31, (known as Hayley Gemma) and her husband Chadd, 38, a builder and construction manager. Hayley and Chadd live with their three children, Jaspa Reef, 10, Sascha Fynn, 9, and
I love all the houses I put on House Nerd. But with its unpretentious character details, classic weatherboard build and young owners who DIYed and decorated the whole house on a shoestring budget with lots of secondhand, op shop and side-of-the-road finds, this Palmyra cottage felt extra-special to me the moment I entered. I grew up in Palmyra – I lived my whole childhood in the same house, a 1950s
Some people like gardens that are perfectly neat, with not a weed in sight or leaf out of place. But I tend to prefer the messy, crazy, overgrown ones; big and rambling, or small courtyard gardens, I like ones that enshroud their houses in dark jungle-like thickets. To me a crazy overgrown garden is so much more exciting than a perfectly clipped neat garden, one where you never know what
Architect Ariane Prevost is not what I had been expecting. I’ve gone to chat with her at her famous home, Marimekko House. I’ve been there less than two minutes and already am realising that this is an architect very different to most I know. You can freely accuse me of stereotyping an entire profession here, but when I first meet most architects, most of the time I find they are
If you are looking for an inexpensive, easy way to update your kitchen or bathroom, tile paint could be the way to go. Today I’m going to share how we used it to give our dated, 1970s tile a mini-makeover for less than $100. Yesterday I showed you guys the before photos of our kitchen when we first bought it. Pretty dated huh? I told you about how the kitchen that we
Today’s post is about how we made this bedhead out of pressed tin panels for our main suite – a nice way of adding impact and charm into our rather small bedroom. When we gave our bedroom a makeover, one of the major things Mr Nerd and I knew we had to do was upgrade our old 80s chipboard bed. I had invested in a great new mattress, but the
Check out my new shelves in our toilet! Yes, you read that right. Today, while the house is filled with the noise of Mr Nerd drilling away on our bathroom renovation, I am going to blog about our toilet. I aim to thrill. But seriously, I love how we improved the toilet with the addition of these super-easy, reclaimed timber shelves, and now I think it looks cute! Plus, we
Don’t you just love an exciting email out the blue? When a design-savvy House Nerd reader dropped me an email a little while ago to tell me that it was verge collection time in East Fremantle, I was out the door and driving thataway before you could say let’s-drag-home-some-more-junk (thank you, Deb!) Hey, I can justify this. Verge picking, or hard rubbish, as it seems to be known over east,