House Tour: Troye Sivan’s Expressive Melbourne Home

May 5, 2021May 5, 2021 Rose McClementLeave a comment

by Rose McClement

I was trawling through a small pile of emails, the interiors-related kinda email newsletters, this morning. When I stumbled onto the video featured below. I always love a good house tour video.

The extraordinary thing about this video was that I had no cooking-clue who this fresh-faced young man was. He is clearly a celeb of some kind – why else would he be featured?! Still no cooking-clue. Yet, he had my attention right from the very first sentence he uttered! He entusuatically welcomed the public into his home and then the casual house tour kicked in. I wanted to stop the video to go and google this 25-year-old man (who looks like a 20-year-old), but I just didn’t want to miss a beat.

Somewhat different to your normal house tour video. This young man conducted the tour himself. Spoke to the ins and the outs, the décor elements, the whys and the history of his Victorian-Era home. He was seriously entertaining. Plus, he impressed me with his obvious love for beautiful interior spaces. His home is cleary filled with what makes his heart sing.

How was it possible that such a young man could afford the house of his dreams? Well, as soon as he said goodbye at the gate and the video ended, I popped over to Google. I discovered that this unknown factor (to me anyway) is a South African born, Australian singer/songwriter and actor called Troye Sivan! I am pretty damn sure there are millions who know him and his music – well now I do too. I nipped over to listen to one of his songs and really enjoyed his voice and lyrics.

Okay, enough said by moi – Watch the video and listen to his music. I hope it entertains you as much as it did me. I’m so inspired by this young man and his interior choices.

Read more about Troye’s beautiful home on Architectural Digest: here.

Ciao,

Simonsberg Silos: Unique Cottage Break-Away

September 19, 2019September 18, 2019 Design MonarchyLeave a comment

by Marica Fick

If you are looking for rather unusual and whimsical weekend getaway accommodation, we might just have found the place!

Positioned on the shadowy lower slopes of the beautiful and majestic Simonsberg Mountains just outside Stellenbosch you will find two unique self-catering cottages. Used as grain storage and then stables in a previous life, the dilapidated old silos were lovingly restored by farm owners Alex and Sumari Milner into something all-together different.

The Simonsberg Silos are located on the leafy and historic farm, Natte Valleij, in the Klapmuts winelands district. The farm and manor house overflows with rustic charm. Seeped in history, the Cape Dutch homestead, old wine cellars, brandy stills, magnificent mature gardens with ancient trees, pergolas and ponds are all surrounded by whitewashed walls.

A Charming and Beautifully Renovated Cottage in Cape Town

June 4, 2019June 4, 2019 Design MonarchyLeave a comment

Rose recently spotted this beautifully renovated Capetonian cottage on My Scandinavian Home. We were super chuffed to see a local home on such a celebrated international blog.

The remodel process of this small and, at the time, rather ordinary home was first shared by local blogger, Diana from Miss Moss.

The owners, wedding photographers Rebecca & Bruce, purchased the tiny property, located in Muizenberg – a coastal suburb of Cape Town, a few years ago. Seeing the potential, they immediately got cracking – transforming the space into something more suited to its name, Sunbird Cottage. Bruce and Rebecca, with the help of architect Donne Atkinson, did the majority of the renovation themselves – and that on a modest budget.

And what a transformation it is!Read More »

Chan Wela Beauty Spa | Interiors by Design Monarchy

Our Work: Chan Wela Beauty Spa

May 29, 2018August 23, 2019 Design Monarchy1 Comment

by Rose McClement

I’m sitting here wondering how to get this article off the ground? Where do I begin? I’m a bit of a storyteller. So I’m wondering, should I start with “Once upon a Time”? …Nah! Not this time around. I’ll leave that for when I write my book. All I ask right now is that you try to stay with me until “The End”.

Back in September 2017, Design Monarchy was commissioned to assist with the interior design and project management of Chan Wela, a nail bar and beauty salon. I’ve always maintained that whether you design for residential, hotel, retail, or any other interior space, the processes and the principles are always the same. That being said, the interior design of a nail and beauty salon was a first for us, yet we were very keen and excited to get on with it.

Before I go any further, I think that it would be appropriate to open up the meaning of the Salon’s name. “Chan Wela” is Thai for “me time”. To this day, I still find the name and its meaning very enchanting.

There were two major challenges that we faced with this project. First off – the timeframe was extremely tight. The Salon’s PR driven celebrity launch party was to be on the 28^th of November. From the time that the deal was agreed upon to the big evening’s launch party, we basically had two months! In that time, we had to tackle challenge number two: converting a typically bland office space, in a typical office block complex, into a compelling top-of-the-range, fully-equipped, upmarket beauty salon. NO pressure!

The construction and building process of a project and converting an interior space is always a time-sensitive issue. The processes are all time-consuming – stress trigger points deluxe! Always! If you are planning an interior upgrade, please, factor insufficient time.Read More »

Pinterest Picks: Lovely Living Rooms

February 20, 2018March 5, 2019 Design MonarchyLeave a comment

Rose and I were pretty excited to get stuck into our first Pinterest Picks blog post of 2018. For those keeping tally, this is our fifth post in the series, having previously selected our favourite bedrooms, nooks & niches, workspaces and bathrooms.

Now, I have the word “were” emphasised above for a reason. Turns out, this was our most challenging Pinterest Pick post yet! In fact, we reached a point of such frustration that Rose remarked that she was “getting very disillusioned with Pinterest” – gasp! Why was this so difficult? I don’t know. Maybe it is because we both have such a specific picture in mind for our ideal living room that the beautiful lounges on our board were just not cutting it this time. Nevertheless, we soldiered on!

Just to quick refresh on this series and its criteria: we are in essence playing a little game of “I wish“, as in “I wish I had that interior” – be it lounge, bedroom, kitchen or anything in between. After spending some time scouring our various Pinterest boards, we each select our favourite interior image – the space we most desire to have as our own. We then explain exactly why we coveted that particular space and if there is anything we would like to change.

Naturally, we ended up choosing two “runner-up” interiors… because deciding on just one room is just too difficult!

For this instalment, we decided to select our favourite images for our “Living Rooms” Pinterest board. The board is a collection of Design Monarchy‘s favourite and most beautiful lounge/living room finds.

After much, MUCH deliberation, here are our top 3 nominations for the loveliest, most desirable living rooms…
Read More »

My Scandinavian Home: Kitchen Tour

October 5, 2017August 6, 2018 Rose McClement14 Comments

by Rose McClement

Hello there again everyone – I have to wonder – did anyone miss us these past two weeks? Did you notice that we hadn’t published a blog post for near on two weeks now? Although we have only been publishing on a once a week basis, making that appearance every week has become so much a part of our lives. Not getting a post out for our readers for nearly two weeks, feels pretty much like not having brushed my hair for that length of time. I’m so aware of the gap.

If you are and have been a regular on our blog, you will know that when the projects we work on demand our time, the blog has to take a bit of a back seat. So, I thought just to bring it to mind again. This is a busy time in our trade and although we hope not to have gaps in our publications, it might happen.

The feature for today is a kitchen tour video released by Niki Brantmark of the blog “My Scandinavian Home”. She publishes a blog every day in which she features and reveals what Scandinavians do in their homes. Read More »