30-years of working with wood sparked the inspiration for this book and aren’t we ever grateful for it.

If someone had told me 20 years ago there was no right or wrong with colour, it just came down to personal choice - I would have stopped the search. This book makes you want to unleash colour in your home, wardrobe, and even your lips (why do I reserve red for confident days?).

This one’s for you, my doggo lovin’ friends. Quite simply and best described as a book of incredible homes and the dogs that live within.

Despite being a dog lover since way back, we’ve never actually owned one (well not for any longer than three weeks, but that’s a different story altogether). My children actually claim to be mentally scarred from not having a pooch in their younger years. Instead, I opted for frogs and goldfish, enjoying the lazier approach to parenting pets.

Call it the rebel in me, but the title of book #9 in our Book Club really grabbed my attention. Individual is a celebration of 15 Australian interiors that don’t conform to latest fads, seasonal ‘must-haves’ or a cookie-cutter design approach.

Linen as a textile should have its own fan club – soft, breathable, eco-friendly, timeless… so when it’s partnered with a beautiful book, it goes straight in my shopping basket. On the spine of Country Style Homes is a decadent bolt of linen, holding together weighty pages and photography that echoes homely love. The author has pitched it perfectly with this one – think rural charm meets intelligent story-telling.

Tricia Guild is a spectacular human. Colour and Guild go hand in hand, she is one of the world’s most admired interior designers and a respected author too. In My View is an invitation for us to peer into her strong, expressive interiors, across two very unique addresses and approaches. The doors are generously swung open for us to experience her personal homes in Italy and London.

As I piece together this review, I scan the room. All around me are little good-health crusaders, swathes of green, wonky shapes, air filters and new growth. Potted together in a variety of colour and form, I’m talking about an urban jungle of indoor plants.

Diane Keaton - actor, director, producer, and a recipient of an Academy Award, BAFTA, and two Golden Globes. Feeling slightly inadequate yet? Sorry to prick your bubble further, but she’s also a photographer, real estate developer and singer too – and now she’s giving our Book Club something to write about.

Close your eyes and picture oversized glasses, red lipstick and intoxicating outfits. Did Iris appear? Most of us know her face, dwarfed by those punchy glasses, “all the bigger to see you with my dear”. Her red lipstick has a ‘sit up and listen’ powerful, glamourous quality, and she’s perhaps the world’s oldest living teenager (self-proclaimed).

A series of stories from people who see work more than a simple job. Some with a single vision, some in a working partnership and some creating communities. Followed by a lengthy chapter of TIPS (worldly advice from workers in the know).

This book had me at; “A home is one of our most important creations. Within its frame, we create lifelong memories and manage our lives…” and, “Homes must not start with the end in mind.

They need to begin with our story. To unearth a home, we have to dig deep, to understand ourselves as well as others who live there… home design should shift from the surface to the sensory.” If there is one thing I stay true to in my work, it is these very sentiments.

This is a coffee table treasure because it delivers on so many fronts, beautiful, informative, funny.

Ellen takes you on a journey of the homes she has lived in and loved, all the while introducing you to the artists and leaders in design who have inspired her.