Luxury pet friendly accommodation in Margaret River

I know I haven't posted for a while but life has been very hectic! I'm now back on track and this post is just to introduce our new venture, luxury pet friendly accommodation in Margaret River.
The house has everything you could want and more! Everything is finished to highest standard, a full kitchen with ice maker fridge, range cooker, Foxtel service in both lounges, free fast speed wi-fi and lots of covered decking so that you can enjoy the sunsets and eating outdoors. There's a huge gas bbq and we even have a trampoline and cubby house to keep the kids entertained.  Here are just a few photos to wet your appetite, for more information just go to our website, www.angarrackfarm.com

 

The farm house

the back garden 

looking down the driveway

 the deck outside lounge 1

looking into the lounge from the deck

the kitchen

master bedroom

lounge area of master bedroom

another bedroom

Angarrack farm is set on 176 acres of beautiful pasture and native bush, which is perfect for those long walks and if you do want to bring your dog they can run around to their hearts content. It's just behind Leeuwin Estate which is famous for it's wines and annual concert. At the end of the road lies Redgate beach, which has to be one of the most stunning beaches I've ever come across. It has something for everyone as there are are three beaches in the same area. There's a huge sandy beach where all the surfers and boogie boarders hang out, a smaller beach with a lagoon, perfect for small children and if you are in the know, there's a path at the end of the car park which takes you to another beach which I like to swim at. It's always quiet as you really have to know where the path is.

 Redgate beach

 the lagoon area

There's so much to see and do in Margaret River; there are approximately 100 wineries all producing world class wines, some amazing art & furniture galleries, gourmet food producers and some great little shops in town. If you're into good food, then many of the wineries have fantastic restaurants. The area is also renowned for it's surf breaks and a growing sport is kite surfing. If you enjoy walking, then you may want to do part or even all of the Cape to Cape track.  A fantastic walk which takes you along the coast between Cape Leeuwin to cape Naturaliste.

I hope you've enjoyed this taster of our accommodation and what there is to do in Margaret River, I will be covering more of what's happening in the region on our blog on our website. I hope that you'll come and stay and make use of our great winter specials, we are currently offering 3 nights stay for the price of 2 and 7 nights for the price of 5, just email or give us a call, all the details are on our booking page.

David Miles Hand Printed Wallpapers

In 2007 I was awarded an overseas fellowship by the ISS institute. This enabled me to research the techniques, both traditional and modern, of printing wallpaper. For my report I was lucky enough to get to talk to David Miles in length about the industry in Australia in the 70's 80's and 90's. David was very generous with his time and sent me some great photos, which I will share with you all and explained how Signature Prints came to have some of his designs!

In the 1970’s there was a very small group of individuals designing and producing wallpaper.
The two most prominent were Florence Broadhurst and David Miles. David was trained as an architectural draughtsperson and was a talented artist. He was working for a flamboyant, high society interior decorator, Merle de Boulay and designed murals for private clients and mosaic
tables. David met Florence Broadhurst in 1965 when he was only twenty years old. Merle
de Boulay had sent him to Florence’s studio to get some wallpaper commissioned.

Another person linked with Florence was David Miles. He was trained as an architectural
draughtsperson and was a talented artist. David was working for a flamboyant, high society
interior decorator, Merle de Boulay. He designed murals for private clients and mosaic
tables. David met Florence Broadhurst in 1965 when he was only twenty years old. Merle
de Boulay had sent him to Florence’s studio to get some wallpaper commissioned

David set up his own business in 1969 and continued to render architectural drawings,
mosaic tables and some design work for Florence Broadhurst. In the late 1960’s Florence
commissioned David to create a large mural for a restaurant in Kings Cross, Sydney. A price
was agreed upon, but on completion of the design David noted that she refused to pay him
the agreed price!

David Miles' print factory

Following a road trip around Australia, David returned to Sydney, and decided to set up in
opposition to Florence, and with his partner (whom he married in 1970) developed a range
of wallpapers. They entered the market with their range named ‘David Miles Handprints’.
Unfortunately the venture suffered a set back when their premises was ransacked.

It took some time to recover from this, but they did with encouragement from people such
as Lady Marion Hall Best and Tom Harding from Décor Associates. After some months they
were ready for business. Their company benefited from an investment by Arthur G Wilson of
Wilsons Fabric and Wallpapers. The Miles’ retained twenty five per cent of the business and
the couple were sent on a world trip to look at some of the world’s best design studios.

In 1976, after twenty six design awards and countless front covers on Australia’s interior
design magazines, Wilsons was bought out by James Hardie. James Hardie renamed the
business Signature Prints.
The Miles’ felt that the business would change and decided to go their own way. They started up ‘Cherie Miles Wallpapers Pty Ltd’ in August 1977. In May 1979, the business was re named ‘David K Miles Handprinted Wallcoverings Pty Ltd’.
They traded until 1986 when the business was sold to Baresque Pty Ltd. Baresque continued
to produce the Miles’ designs until they closed the screen printing side of the business.
Production ceased in August 1991.

Don't you just love this total co- ordination?

This is where it gets interesting - Richard Blaiklock, owner of Baresque, "gave a heap of stuff to David Lennie. It was tough times for him then too so some of the inks, screens and grounds may have been of some benefit". Without doubt, some of David Miles designs would have on those screens.

Not sure if I could live with this, but I love the metallic silver and coral

this would great in commercial applications

When Florence died in 1977, her son took over the running of the business. Production ceased until the company was bought by a syndicate in 1989. This syndicate included David Lennie, now CEO of Signature Prints. The main attraction of this purchase was the library of Florence Broadhurst designs. The library had been purchased by James Hardie in 1978, a year after her death. It was also through this transaction that David Miles' designs have ended up in the Signature prints collection.
Look at the photos and see if you recognise any!

I love all of these, but especially the birds, so now.

Florence Broadhurst has been the most documented person in the Australian wallpaper world. This is due to an aggressive marketing campaign by Signature Prints. To begin with, the campaign was launched to a European market. As the profile of Florence Broadhurst was raised overseas, the Australian market became interested in the product! This is fairly typical of what goes on here unfortunately.

The Power House museum in Sydney is going to hold a retrospective of David and Cheries' wallpapers which will be great to see. I'll keep you posted.

Lastest creation

I just picked this up from the upholsterer. I made the base at woodwork and then took it along with the Nguni skin, [Zulu cow], I bought in South Africa. This is the result!
I was going to put some legs on it, but the upholsterer just put gliders on and I think I'm going to leave it as it is for the moment. It's approximately 1 metre across and 36cm high, so a good size. I meant to take a photo of the base I made before I got it covered, but forgot! my wood work wasn't wonderful and I had great fun with a nail gun, but as it was all getting covered it didn't matter too much.
It's a real statement piece and I LOVE it!

Vintage Furniture

I found this great site the other day - it was mentioned in Home Beautiful, an Australian magazine. Like many others, I love the Bond & Bowery site which I discovered via Studio Annettas blog, [thanks Suzy!], but shipping to Australia is very expensive.
Although 506070 hasn't got as much selection and they start at the 1950's, it's still good to find something like that here.
I've found a couple of goodies I really fancy...........

mushroom chair by designer Pierre Paulin, manufactured by Artifort. It's sitting on a Verner Panton rug.


love the look of this Arne Jacobsen Swan sofa, upholstered in chocolate leather. Hasn't got a price on it though!

Bali

The reason I haven't done a posting for so long is because I have been in Bali - part holiday, part business.
This was the fourth time I have been to this beautiful Island - the majority of the population are Hindu and everywhere you go are "offerings"; every house has its own temple ranging from a very simple one to elaborate buildings. Each night the owner of the land our villa was built on came round with her children and put beautiful creations made up of banana leaves filled with frangipani, various other tropical flowers and incense sticks outside all of the rooms. We looked forward to her visit every evening, it was a very beautiful and peaceful time.
These are just a few of the many photos I took over the weeks - hope you enjoy them.

view from the villa

life still goes on as it always has done


took this in a garden at a villa I visited


entrance to a Balinese house

another entrance


loved this pink combo!

off to temple

end of the procession

silks at the market

shoppers paradise at the markets in Ubud

there are beautiful gates everywhere

stunning sunset

the garden is full of beautiful features

Helaconia - aren't they gorgeous?



flower petals for the offerings

evening offerings

making more elaborate offerings - these are all carved from coconut leaves

the work that goes into these is amazing

driving in Bali is like being part of the Wacky races! the good thing is that there is no road rage and plenty of calming statues to look at!!

I got very healthy in Bali - overdosed on mangoes though

another beauty outside an outdoor shower

Suggestions Please!

This sofa and two chairs belonged to my husbands Grandparents. They were New Zealanders and I believe they were made around the early 1900s. The cane work has been restored about 30 years ago and they were reupholstered. As you can see they are badly in need of a revamp!
I would love some suggestions or information on them-
I am thinking that I may just have one large seat cushion and two back cushions on the sofa???? Also favouring a velvet to reupholster them with.
If you've seen my website you'll know that I work with velvet a lot! unfortunately it's silk velvet and I don't think it will withstand a lot of wear and tear- shame as I would have loved to have used that it has such a vintage look.

so, suggestions please!

What a great idea!

Just a quick post - had to share these photos of the Comme des Garcons shop in Kobe, Japan. The feature was in an old issue of World of Interiors, [Sept 06] and I had bookmarked it as I think it was such an innovative idea. Typical of Rei Kawakubo. Photos of grand palaces from past issues of the magazine were blown up to life size images and papered onto the walls. The rooms are linked by irregular shaped openings through which one can see other images. Love it!

ballroom at the Palazzo Gangi in Palermo, Sicily.

Dolmabahce Palace, Istanbul with a views of the Palazzo Gangi in the background.



The entrance is papered with images of the Dolmabahce Palace Schloss Favorite, Germany.



Another view of the Dolmabahce Palace with a view of the hall of mirrors, Palazzo Gangi , Palermo in the background.