Got a problem? Need some help? Just standing there shaking your head? Don’t know what to do? You’re not alone. Send us a link to photos of your design quandary and let the Desire to Inspire design crew help you …. that’s you lot … the readers! This week’s problem comes from Mish, a woman of few words who feels the need for change.

Hi love your blog.  Can I send u some pics of my home? Am so bored with it. Hate try hard or suburban. Love modern. Can u and your readers help with an upgrade. It has good bones. Due for a change need some inspiration. Want to throw a bit of money at it.

I’ve bought a voucher for a glass picture and I don’t know what to put in it.  It’s 80x80cm and I don’t want to get it wrong. Don’t want any family pics.

(Jo says … It’s a customised glass display piece where the image is printed directly onto the glass like the one below.  Except remember no family pics.)

How about some gorgeous residential photography to end off the work week. Today’s talent is Nikolas Koenig, a German currently living in New York who happens to have photographed some of the most stunning and spectacular homes I’ve seen (for the likes of Architectural Digest, Conde Nast Traveler, GQ and Wallpaper). I’ll take one of each please! (P.S. I blogged a couple of funky apartments last night if you’d like to check them out over on kim’s page.)

The end of the working week at last. You’ve caught me packing a bag. I’m off to my little weekender. Nothing too spectacular. Just a “bijou” 1890 farm in the Mount Macedon area of Victoria. I hope the grass isn’t too long when I get there. It will take me all weekend to mow it!  In my dreams. The ready made fantasy old family farm. I’ll never be able to afford it. I’ll console myself with the idea of avoiding mowing the front yard. Link here while it lasts.

Every year at this time, my anticipation for summer (all 3 months of it – LOL) is immeasurable. After my last post I developed some serious backyard cravings, and since I won’t be doing any digging in the garden this year (hopefully some heavy machinery tearing my house down will be happening instead) I will have to live vicariously through the blog. So enjoy some photos of beautiful yards via Canadian House & Home with me and repeat after me – “BRING ON SUMMER!” 

Aldridge & Tanno Architects is a firm based in Norfolk, Connecticut and founded by Simon Aldridge and Lisa Tanno. First I have to say that the photo above has me completely mesmerized. I want to pack a bag, not tell anyone and sit on the porch for a week with no internet access. *sigh*. This firm’s classic designs are timeless with beautiful attention to detail. Each space is so serene and uncomplicated. *SIGH*

New from Irish interior designer Gail Wall Morris of Wall Morris Design. (See my previous post here.) A beautiful renovation and of course it’s all in the detail. I’ll let Gail explain.

It’s my own home, a 100 year-old, renovated workman’s cottage, in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

When I bought the house, it needed complete renovation and rebuild, in order to re-layout and optimize the space, raise ceiling heights up to the roof line. The new extension is clad in the original bricks, taken from the demolished interior walls. I allocated budget on designing an interior joinery package, so that all the detailing matched: ie – the kitchen , the external and interior doors, the trim work and architraves all tie in together. Most of the furniture I also designed. Everything is bespoke. The interior layout is built in a ‘U’ Shape and surrounds a courtyard, so that the sunlight comes into the house all day long. The colour scheme is tone-on tone caramel with accents in black glass, black granite and black-stained furniture.

Photography Derek Robinson.