Tropical Escape

Non gardeners have my permission to switch off now! For those of you who don't mind looking at beautiful plants and gardens, this ones for you.

Gardening is one of my passions which is probably becoming pretty obvious. Yesterday I dragged my eldest along to an open garden at Sunnybank which has been often billed as the best tropical garden in Australia and also the world.

It's the creation of Dennis Hundscheidt. The street front offers a glimpse of what's to come.

Dennis opens his garden once a year.

The original part of the garden is about 20 yrs old. This was the canopy he created first to then be able to grow the shade loving plants under.

The garden is on approx 3000 sq meters. Over the years Dennis bought neighbouring properties and removed fences in order to create his ambling trail through glorious tropical garden rooms.

Check out that queue! It took about an hour to get around. Everyone just followed in single file with plenty of time to admire and take photos. Some people joined the line again once they finished for another trip around.

People came from all over Australia and even from overseas to experience this beautiful paradise. It is such a source of inspiration and even my 8 yr old asked if he could live here. Ha, my love of gardening is slowly becoming ingrained, just like my mum and grandma did to me!

www.dennishundscheidt.com.au

East Village

South siders who regularly travel thru Cannon Hill will be familiar with the East Village development gradually taking shape on the corner of Wynnum and Creek Rd's. It on the site of the old CSIRO science lab and also includes area that was used by the army and for years had the old aero style hangers- the large half pipe sheds.

The development will have residential and retail and in between a mix of fun things including a cinema.

I called into the sales office last week and was instantly attracted to the gorgeous cocoon chair (from Equator Homewares) lazily swinging from the large gum tree and over looking the fields to the city.

Tracey Frappell, the project marketing manager showed me around. Perhaps it's that mix of designer and a bit of voyeurism in me, but I love looking at show houses/ units etc. I like looking at the finishes, the layout and in general just seeing how other people live and imagining the target market.

I absolutely love this vertical feature wall on the back deck. It's equally popular with the possums who are happily dining on selected plants each night.

http://www.east-village.com.au/

Happy Valentine's

Today I hope you are feeling rosy red and are being spoilt by those you love.

 You don't need to go OTT!

You don't need to paint the town red.

Or do anything as permanent as ink. And lets face it now a days it's safer to not write someone's name on your body.

Just remember it's the little things that count.

A little note via snail mail.

Girls, put on your pretty frocks,

Boys, take your ladies out for dinner, a movie or whatever takes your fancy.

Have a lovely day and night and I hope you get some of these in whatever colour or type you like.

And in defence of retailers everywhere- it's not just a commercialised day invented to make people spend too much money! Enjoy.

brick by brick

Everywhere I look lately I've been noticing these decorative bricks.

They show up on Post War houses thru to about the 70's and I love the way they are used to create some really cool screen walls.

When you really start to look there were many different patterns made over the years. Some patterns feature more than others.

I think they are a product which has big potential for resurgence as architects are constantly looking for ways to create privacy as our house block sizes shrink. They also offer breeze control and are a long lasting product with out issues such as fading paint and weathering that timber screens show after 12mths.

If you are interested in sourcing them for a future job, good luck dealing with the crap service from the big 3 brick manufacturers who half the time the reps have never seen these bricks. I'm sure someone is still manufacturing or importing them, but based on my preliminary enquiries they appear to be like the proverbial hen's teeth!

FJ's Myer Centre

FJ's (Fresh Juice) is located in the main entry of the Myer Centre off Queen St. It's well known to most city workers and shoppers.

Last year the owners Phil and Ross approached me to help with the design for their refurb. They have had their kiosk since 2002 and it was time for a refurb as the whole food court area in the Myer Centre is gradually being upgraded.

This is how FJ's looked last year.

Obviously being a juice bar we wanted to keep the dominant orange in somehow. This is the new look FJ's.

On one of the sign boards the owners had a very clever idea to show the statistics of how much fruit they've used to create their juices since they began in 2002.

They haven't used all their stats as they didn't fit, but here are a few

2.3 million customers.

1.5 million kg oranges or 54 semi trailers

470 000 kg watermelons

 32 tonnes mangoes

29 tonnes pineapples.

One of the things that I always found most appealing about the store, long before I became involved with their design- is the product with the colour coded caps displayed in bulk which give you an indication as to the types of juices.

 

It was great working with Phil and Ross. Happy Juicing guys!

Lick-Sip-Suck

Can you taste the citrus now? It's here and in a big way.

Lime and his citrus cousins are here to brighten up our interiors and bring back memories of the 80's with the fluro yellow shirts.

Baresque who make not only gorgeous wall papers also carry these fantastic resin panels that can be used on counters and other surfaces and back lit with spectacular results. The top lemon has silk fabric set into clear resin. The orange and lime are created with marbleised resin.

The Laminex rep was in over the break and updated the boards with heaps of new fresh citrus colours.

Is this bringing back memories of Grandma's brand new Formica kitchen?!!!

Or perhaps her bathroom?

And now we'll just totally go to town with this Vision wallpaper and make it Psychedelic Baby!

Now I know I'm getting old because it's all coming around for a 2nd time in my life time!

Slats

Clever facades on buildings always catch my eye. These are a couple around town with similar themes. This car sales room at Bowen Hills on Burrows St is finished off with powder coated aluminium profile slats.

The same effect in Knapp St, Fortitude Valley, done with timber slats.

To get to Knapp St you have to drive past the amazing and always eye catching office of Riddel Architects. This photo is prior to them converting the site to their office. The building was originally designed for West's Furniture by Karl Langer in 1953. West's held the licence to manufacture Knoll furniture and in 1954 the Queen even stopped in at West's as it caught her attention also. With Riddel Architects now operating out of this building the goldfish once again swim in the "moat".