My Space- Nicola Cerini

HODDLE Street is a stone's throw from Nicola Cerini's Richmond studio, but it could be half a world away. Inside a former chocolate factory, the home of Cerini's textile design business is reminiscent of a European farmhouse. Yellow and orange-washed walls are adorned with artworks and fabrics, richly coloured cushions lie on rustic furniture and a rear courtyard drips with vines. When she's not at her home on the Bellarine Peninsula, doing her "drawing and creative work away from the telephone", Cerini spends a few days here every week, overseeing the business and hand-printing fabric samples and limited-edition prints.

Splendid Isolation

From the rustic ferry to the wheelbarrow 'limo', Elicia Murray is charmed by a Hawkesbury River retreat.

All For A Good Pause

On an unplanned stopover, Hamish McDonald explores the quaint town of Dunedoo.

Mediterranean Meditation

Seaford has retained its rustic charms, writes Mary O'Brien.

Turning Over A New Leaf

Don't know how to start being green? Fran Molloy does the legwork for you.

Echo Fills A Niche

A new Sydney company is offering imaginative pared-back, multi-functional furniture for the '90s, writes HELEN GREENWOOD "THE market is awash with upholstered furniture," says Michaela Malone, sitting on Echo's curvy and straight film-star glam bench seat. "You've either got har

Furniture Shop With A Feel For The Rustic And Recycled

AVALON prides itself on being environmentally conscious, so it's no surprise that one of the newest shops to open sells handmade furniture and homewares from recycled timber. Beachwood was the conception of local graphic designer Simone Keogh, a young, dynamic woman who possesses the rare combin

Top Prices For Furniture

Lord McAlpine's collection of colonial and bush furniture found new homes in Melbourne last night, selling at auction for a total of $308,841. The McAlpine collection formed the core of a Sotheby's offering which grossed $386,834 and 94 per cent of the lots were sold. "It is the

Fortunes To Be Found In The Finest Furniture

EXECUTIVES and their families could be sitting on a fortune and not realise it. Unless they follow the market they may not know what prices really old, beautiful and well-conserved chairs and other items of furniture are commanding overseas. Christie's in London claims the first and second

Furniture Goes Back To Basics

THE uninitiated may think it quirky to pay out good money for old furniture constructed largely from packing crates. Surely, they say, you'd have to be eccentric to part with your hard-earned cash in return for mismatched chairs, roughly made from mulga roots and scrap building materials.