From The Farm to the Beach

Yesterday at the crack of dawn I headed out to the newly renovated beach cottage trio to oversee the final stage, the fixing up of two more bedrooms.

I have to say, the drive from the farmhouse to the beach, which takes about half an hour or so, is quite lovely. Yesterday as I drove down my driveway the sun was coming up and the second day of winter put on a spectacular display of low-lying clouds which looked like glaciers dripping down the mountains.

The trip takes me across an old iron bridge over a wide blue river, though the edges of "fibrotown" and down winding country lanes that mark the borders of the emerald green paddocks of dairy farms. It occurred to me that early morning building inspections were really not all that bad as the dairy coast was looking particularly crisp in the early morning light after a week of torrential rain.

In the third stage of the drive the landscape turns into bush where you have to be on the look out for darting kangaroos and doddling echidnas and wombats before the bush thins out into salty coastal scrub and wetlands then finally sand dunes.

Anyway, I share this as it is all part of my daily experience and I must say it takes the stress out of the renovating day.

Back to the cottage. So here are some pics of the as yet slightly unfinished interiors of the biggest cottage where I found myself going instinctively with a taupe and white palette with a few injections of bright colour, without really thinking too much about it.

My favourite architectural detail is the cantered ceiling, quite a folly for such a humble, early 20th century beach cabin. To finish off the decorating, I have some old surfboards and some retro hawaiian fabric which will inject some much needed spot colour and add a bit of casual beach funk to the rooms which were starting to look a bit polite for their context.

The few pieces of vintage furniture like the grey dressing table and the aqua painted seagrass table also add a bit of quirky retro charm.

I'll post the new bedrooms in a week or so, if and when they finally come together!