when it comes to australian design, there are a two sites that immediately come to mind: anna spiro’s interiors blog, absolutely beautiful things, and lucy feagins’s the design files, with tons of great interviews and features on “down under” designers. there are still so many sources for inspiration we’ll be sharing over the next couple of weeks, but these ladies deserve and extra shout out for getting the ball rolling this regional roundup. part two is up, so click here to check out the latest set of melbourne designers - gemma jones, catherine campbell {my folk lover}, nicholas jones (and keep your eye out for the link to lucy’s interview), sarah o’sullivan {fable design} and paul fuog {co-op}. click here if you missed part one, and you can find all of the roundups here. -anne

click here for the full roundup or click “read more” below.

{brighton beach, melbourne courtesy of beau wade on flickr}

i know the holidays are a long way away but amenity home just released their holiday collection and it was too cute not to share. they have stockings and ornaments and a new tabletop collection but i’m most psyched about the collection of treeskirts- it’s always so hard to find something that looks modern for that part of the holiday. click here to view their full holiday collection online…

ac and i have been contemplating a west coast move for a while now and this home from los angeles-based architect rachel allen is right up my alley. homes in southern california always seem to be so clean, open and filled with light. this particular home (the pesenti-williams house in echo park) is a new project of rachel’s and is around 1700 square feet with a 400 sq. ft detached carport. i love some of the detailing she used around the house (like the moroccan-inspired tiles outside) but if you’re in the LA area you can check this out in person at the open house (sept 6th from 1-5)- click here for more information and to view more work from rachel allen architecture. [more images of the home right here]

alena posted a beautiful selection of tree-based art on the d*s guest blog this morning…click here to check it out.

ac and i registered at heath this weekend and i’ve been trying to think of other things we might need around the house. bedding is a pretty traditional choice so i’ve been trying to think of great independent companies to support rather than going the traditional macys or target route. these new linens are from LA-based designer jill sanford burrows and are made from 100% egyptian cotton percale. all four styles showcase a very modern, minimal embroidered design that’s just enough to add some interest but not too much to distract from other patterns in the room. you can browse (and buy) sanford burrows bedding right here or click here to find a retailer. [thanks, molly!]

our special tuesday sneak peek comes to us by way of jacqueline and george schmidt of screech owl design. they’ll be back this fall sharing their brooklyn home, but as summer slowing is making it’s way to a close, we thought it would be fun to show off their summer cottage in Michigan (which George’s great grandparents purchased in 1915- smart people!), as the perfect getaway from the hustle and bustle of city life. it’s pretty clear how this place influences their work (and it’s the screech owls behind this cottage that inspired the name of their company). check out the full set of images here. {thanks george and jacqueline!} -anne

[Above: This is a really old buffet in the dining room that is partly made of these cool old birch logs. The color is sort of a contentious point among various family members, and in the absence of any consensus on what color to repaint it it just stays the same. I like the color. The little chalkboard lets everyone know where everyone else is, and the photographs are of my grandmother and her friends, probably taken in the early 1940’s at the drugstore photo booth in town.

And yes, we are into classic cars and love our 1963 Ford Fairlane. We leave it in Michigan throughout the year and have a ritual opening of the garage where we check to see if it is still running. It usually starts. Sometimes.

Here is our constant companion in the dining room. An ancient teddy bear I found for Jacqueline at a rummage sale. He’s sitting on my baby chair, and was the inspiration for one of Jacqueline’s cards for Screech Owl. On the floor you can see a cool diamond patterned paint job that I did a few years ago. The blue and yellow have almost equal color values, so it’s nice and bright. . .Out on the porch we keep a bowl of things we find on walks. We’re both really into finding bones, and are constantly on the hunt for them. But any interesting bit of driftwood will do. I think all these kinds of things are about a search for history, and connection to a place. This place is full of objects that are embedded with this kind of significance for both of us.

It all really starts with Lake Michigan. A huge freshwater sea. The perfect place to comb the beach for drift wood, sea glass and interesting stones and to restore ourselves from the bustle of New York City. Pictured is the path off the bluff to the beach. It is a really special place for us, as it’s an old resort community, where luckily, my great grandparents bought a cottage around 1915.

This is the Studio where I work in the summer. It’s pretty much my ideal studio. I sometimes have to just slap myself, on account of how lucky I am. It’s really just a little barn down by the side of the lake. It’s got these skylights that I put in, and two big doors which face east, so I usually work in the mornings. Mornings are my best time for being creative.

in this day and age of the internet it’s easy take advantage of the fact that everything is right at our fingertips. in starting research for our latest regional roundup, it was clear we’ve seen a handful (but by no means all) of the great the work of many fantastic australian designers before, but just perhaps not in the context of australia. so the new regional roundup: australia seeks to take a deeper look of this growing and inspired design scene. it starts all this week with mebourne designers, asking the designers themselves the questions who we are, what we do and what inspires us. CLICK HERE to check out our first five designers belinda hellier {blink design}, kareem rizk, lara cameron, cindy-lee davies {lightly} and madeleine stamer {little circus design}. don’t forget to check back tomorrow for our next set of melbourne creatives (psst…we’ve done a city roundup {portland, maine} and a country roundup {iceland}, but this time we’re conquering an entire continent!). -anne

click here for today’s full roundup

it’s no secret that i’m a big fan of all things savannah, so i’m naturally a huge fan of scad. jessica at scad’s working class studio just sent over their latest round of product designs and i’m really loving their tableware selection. set to debut at this week’s gift fair, the collection includes coasters, bowls, plates and much, much more. click here to view working class’ full collection (and read their story) or be sure to check them out at the gift fair, booth #4141 (in accent on design).