Name: Danielle & Lakshan, and Mortimer the Bulldog
Location: Glebe, Inner City, Sydney Australia
Size: a little over 800 square feet + deck and small roof terrace
Years lived in: 5 months
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You might be wondering why this house tour looks so familiar. It's because you've got a great memory and are recollecting the home of two folks who've recently entered our 2008 Smallest Coolest Apartment Contest, representing Sydney, Australia in our #7 International category. Danielle, Lakshan and Mortimer the Bulldog were so kind to allow us to revisit their welcoming modern abode in further detail. Come on in, Mortimer is a most courteous of hosts...
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AT Survey:
My/Our style: Comfortable modern, with a little bit of mid century and a little bit of vintage. We’re all about small, simple furniture to fit the quirky shapes of the space, with sleek lines and calming colours.
Inspiration: We are both really drawn to Rose Seidler house, which is a beautiful modern historical home in Australia designed by the renowned architect Harry Seidler for his parents. It has a fantastic sense of style and is a genuine modern classic but is still a functional and ‘homey’ home. The whole place could be an Apartment Therapy ‘Pick the Decade’ quiz - it was built in the late 1940s but it could easily be a contemporary house.
Favorite Element: The original floorboards and skirting boards are fantastic, as are the plantation shutters on all the windows. The neighbourhood is also awesome – we have a heritage listed cobblestone lane next to us, one of the original grand houses in Sydney on our street, and the neighbours are all so friendly it’s amazing. All within a short stroll to the centre of the city!
Biggest Challenge: Our furniture was too big from the last apartment we lived in, so we have needed to repurchase a lot of pieces since moving here. The other huge challenge is the bedroom upstairs – its only about 6 foot tall at the middle of the room and its all strange angles with 2 dormer windows and a small door to the terrace, so as you can imagine there have been many bruised foreheads up there! It’s been tricky to find low furniture that actually fits (theres not one flat wall) and make it feel roomier up there.
What Friends Say: Welcoming, homey, sunny and full of light, open and airy, stylish. The general consensus is that its like a little beach cottage near the city.
Biggest Embarrassment: Our rusty old fridge which is the last thing that needs to be replaced. It works fine but it’s ugly… and hence artfully cropped from the shots of the kitchen!
Proudest DIY: We’re quite proud of the small water feature outside – it was pretty simple to make but the bubbling water is the loveliest and most relaxing sound, perfect for kicking back out on the deck. I’m also particularly proud of the desk in the sunroom which I restored, it was originally my great grandmothers and it suits the space beautifully. The most useful DIY moment was frosting the lower half of the window in the bathroom as it looks straight out onto the deck!
Biggest Indulgence: The house itself was a big indulgence, but it makes us blissfully happy every day so it is worth every cent of every mortgage payment. Our second biggest indulgence was our bulldog puppy, but he is so damn cute he’s worth it.
Best advice: “Yep. Buy it now.” From my dad on only his first (and only our second) viewing of the house. Needless to say we took the advice!
Dream source: All the lovely home stores in America that we don’t have here! At the moment my Australian dream source is Designer Rugs as I really want one of the Akira Isogawa ‘Shoka’ rugs. If I was a millionaire I would also go wild in somewhere like Space Furniture or Great Dane.
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Resources:
This is where my budget really comes to light – now that I’m writing it down, its amazing to see so many of the pieces in our house are either Ikea (affordable), second hand (affordable) or found/hand me down (free). Hopefully it goes to show you don’t need deep pockets to have a stylish, comfortable home!
Appliances: (purchased with house)
Hardware: Glass knobs were a bargain from ‘That Vintage Shop’
Furniture: (listed by room below)
Loungeroom:: Arlid leather lounge from Ikea (was ex floor stock Bargain of the Day)
Barcelona chair from Milan Direct
TV unit from Oz Design Furniture
Small cupboard for crockery is vintage from my great grandmother
Red armchair from the side of the road
Green footstool from St Vincent de Paul (thrift store) $3
Expedit bookshelf from Ikea
Dining: Bjursta dining table and Roger chairs from Ikea
Bedroom: Malm bed & dressers from Ikea
Sunroom: Vintage desk from my great grandmother (via grandmother, then aunt, then mother!)
Eames chair from Matt Blatt
Side table from discount furniture store (bought years ago)
Vintage Fler lounge/fold down guest bed from Ebay
Outdoors: Outdoor table and chairs from Big W
BBQ is a Weber Q
Water feature is from decorative bowl, pebbles and small pump purchased from Flower Power nursery
Accessories: Lounge cushions were from Aldi of all places!
Throw rug on lounge from Freedom
Pillow on bed from Target
Lighting: Lamps on mirror tray and on blue desk are Salt & Pepper
Paint: (as purchased with house)
Rugs and Carpets: Shag rug and floor cushions from Freedom
Simple white rugs upstairs and under dining table from Ikea
Tiles and Stone: (original to house)
Window Treatments: Shutters from Luxaflex
Artwork: Canvas art made by Danielle or family members
Framed art is mainly postcards (which I collect) framed in simple frames from Target
(Thanks, Danielle & Lakshan!)
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Photos look nice but can't get the slide show to run.
view hrhprincessfiona's profile
I'm going to join in on the complaints I've seen on the other house tour posts with the new slideshow format. For one, the slide show function doesn't work. AND THE ADS ARE TOO BIG! Screen size doesn't seem to matter because the bigger the screen the bigger the ads are and you still have to scroll up after each photo to see it. I'm trying to view the slide show on a 17" monitor and still have to scroll up.
Ok, now that I've got that out of the way, where are my manners? Its a beautiful space although I didn't get through the slideshow. The owners have done a great job. It looks very inviting.
view dmstudio's profile
I've added a link to the thumbnails, which you can access directly here. Sorry, we're testing out a new slideshow and working out the kinks.
view gregory's profile
I love this house. Very comfy and unpretentious, but still beautiful.
view Hasina's profile
gorgeous and peaceful too
view tigerlily's profile
Mortimer is one of the cutest dogs I've ever seen! I'll have to look at the rest of the place later
view GHB's profile
Gregory, you'll lose the loyalty (and eyeballs, which is what the advertisers want in the first place) and interest of casual readers if you don't get this thing fixed. I don't even bother looking at either slideshows (because they don't work anymore) OR the photo albums (because the ads are so offensively intrusive). So both you and whichever advertisers were hoping to reach my eyeballs and paid you guys more to do so utterly failed in the mission, since I've now completely ignored them all. Thank God you didn't introduce this abomination before/during the Smart Cool contest.
*climbs off soapbox*
*sigh* I love this house every time it gets posted...
view thisissofrustrating's profile
excellent and just down the road. I'll look out for the building next time i go to harris farm !
view mattburga's profile
So I won't do a rant with the new slideshow cause it seems you're aware, but I think the main problem is that all of the navigation stuff and the ads are at the top. If the navigation was on the left sidebar and the ad was skinnier (surely the people you sell ad space to have a variety of layouts) and on the right sidebar, then you could see the photo without having to scroll down.
The house was lovely. I loved the way their furniture worked with all the architectural elements.
view lurker2209's profile
Just do a skyscraper ad (I was going to say like nytimes.com, but they've gotten ridiculously wide) along the right side and then you can make the header much, much smaller.
view charlenemcbride's profile
Love this beautiful home (and dog). Feels light-filled and airy and very calming.
view injun's profile
The house is beautiful. I am going to steal the postcard idea, mine are stored in boxes now.
I love the English Bulldog, I have two and they are the sweetest dogs.
view izzi's profile
I love this house. It's bright, well edited and just gorgeous. It feels like a happy place.
I'm also a big Morty fan!
view jowe's profile
I fell in love with your home during the smallest coolest contest, so I was happy to see it featured as a house tour!
Just love it!
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(And yeah, I agree with everybody else, the thumbnails/slide show layout just does not work. I don't have to deal with the ads as I use an ad blocker, but that header is way too big. Don't make us scroll just to see the hole photo! Also, the photos are horizontally centered on the page, while the header is left alligned, you might want to look at that too. I'm using Firefox by the way, if that's helpful info.)
view fineur's profile
I had a busy month of April and am just seeing this house for the first time...I love it. Your description of an urban cottage suits it well and it is just gorgeous. Pops of color, beautiful floors, and the cutest puppy I have seen in a long time.
view universal mod's profile
Good taste is a beautiful thing! Love your home, you did excellent without the box stores in the USA. You just knew where to stop and not over decorate. Nice, very nice, thank you.
view click212's profile
Everything is achingly beautiful and well-placed. The hanging ribbon-peg-postcard idea is brilliant. How do you load your Expedit with all that stuff without it looking a bit bendy in the middle of the shelves? Lastly, the coral armchair is perfection itself!
view Passerby's profile
Wow. Seeing the whole place I don't know why this entry received 7th place. The light makes it seems so much bigger than it is.
RE; viewing.. by 11:43 Eastern time there was a nice way to view it.. NO ads, or if there were I didn't notice. thanks for complaining everyone (about the previous display). my thoughts exactly.
view greenlight's profile
a great modern home. amazing floors. smart color choices. a nice mix of high/low furniture pieces. personal art, very well hung/grouped/placed. of the moment but not trendy.
but what i really love is the light (no unnecessary window frilliness) ...and the lack of rugs except where one adds impact. this house is clean.
view healthyhome's profile
Mortimer is beautiful, what a sweet face!
and your home is lovely, light, and very calming, inside and out.
also want to steal the postcard line for some pics in the kitchen.
great job!
view sassydo's profile
Please tell me that you'll be going back to the old format for the slideshows. I had to keep clicking "next", which would not have been so bad had it not been necessary to scroll down to see each photo. This becomes very cumbersome when you're using a laptop, and ultimately made me just stop after viewing just a few of the images. I absolutely love this site and the slideshows, but I can't see myself visiting as often if it's difficult to navigate.
view mattab's profile
i love that blue desk. the color is perfect.
view bluetoes's profile
"you did excellent without the box stores in the USA"
erm, you know they were just Australian box stores.. not being narky, and no disparaging comment toward the owners, but, you know, just FYI.
oh i suppose not on looking again, mixture of box and non-box.
anyway, beautiful outdoor bit. i agree about the light!! gorgeous.
view Rayna's profile
I just cannot stop looking at that blue desk. I want it!!!
view sarah nin's profile
The house looks amazing, but I had to stop after 4-5 pictures since the new slide show format makes it impossible to enjoy the viewing. :(
view Eve in Hochelaga's profile
cute house. cuter pup. awwww.
view venus_thames's profile
i love your house
everything about it is fantastic
where did you get that dalai lama print?
view dosergirl's profile
Love everything about this house... we are moving to a 900 sq ft condo soon, and I was worried it would be too small. But at 800 sq ft, this place is so lovely and inspiring! I savored every picture...
view mrsemerald's profile
Hey everyone, thanks for your input about the slideshow. It has been duly noted (and I agree 110% we need to fix it).
view gregory's profile
I'm with the others who abhor the new slideshow format. The slideshow won't work for me either. And looking at the individual slides is just too frustrating. Like thisissofrustrating, I don't even bother to attempt to view the slideshow or the individual slides because it is simply not worth the aggravation.
view Daily Nuance's profile
It's now 2009....wish they would post some updated pics of their dog. He is one of the cutest dogs I have ever seen.
Great place.
view baileyb's profile
Personally I like to just click through the photos myself...so whatever the problem is with the slideshow doesn't bother me. And I am getting all this content for free, so the ads also don't bother me, unless they started to be obnoxious pop up ads :P
I absolutely love this place, it's so friendly, homey but uncluttered, and unpretentious. I like the use of xmas ornaments in the bedroom, the white ribbon on which to hang paper products, and the "laundry powder" thing in the laundry room. Nice job. This must be a great place to come home to and de-stress.
view Rebecca_J's profile
It's clear that a woman designed that bathroom, what with the humungous mirror over the toilet. It's difficult to put this delicately: most men don't enjoy watching themselves pee. It'd freak the hell out of me.
Overall it's a lovely house, though. Clean, crisp and well-curated.
view Blandwagon's profile
I love this house. It's lovely bright happy place.
view Svarma's profile
A lovely home - I had no problem viewing the slideshow at all, maybe it works better in Ontario,Canada (a bit of humour there) Anyway it is just lovely and your furnishings are super. What a housekeeper you are. Mortimer is a real pet. Loved it all..............
view Betty14's profile
view mabaihua's profile
Hello again :) Thanks again for all the lovely comments!
baileyb - Mortimer is now A LOT bigger but still just as gorgeous. There are some pics here on my Flickr, and if you search for 'Mortimer' on Facebook you can see some more and become a fan of him (started out as a joke... now he has more friends than us! lol!!)
view Delaks's profile