Vanilla Palm Designs

20/10/2026

DIY Travertine Fireplace Hearth. So easy to install and looks great. Don’t forget to seal your tiles as I didn’t and wished I had of 🤪 Happy to answer any questions in the comments below 👇🏻

11/10/2026

Reality check..

06/10/2026

Are you using AI and if so how?? As much as AI is trying to replace me and my profession in photography - I do still love it and it freakin amazes me every day with the possibilities. It’s still far from perfect (right now) but being able to play with it to help bring my renovation vision to life has been so cool.
Take this AI render of our outdoor patio and kitchen. I’ve stood in this location so many times with a tape measure and brick off cuts to work out spacing of our massive 4m table in this space. How much room we have in between the kitchen bench and the table etc but creating it in Chat GPT gives me all that and so much more. One thing I love is that I can show our builders and tradies what they’re building, obviously they have the plans to go off but there’s definitely an added bonus showing them a finished image.

29/09/2026

My name is Bijour and I am addicted…

25/09/2026

Should I do a DIY arch with stone cladding??

13/09/2026

Crossing all the fingers and all the toes that I am allowed to have my stone cladding in my pool area. There is obviously a very good reason but it seems so crazy that not o my do you have to prevent children from being able to climb into a pool area but you also have to prevent them from being able to climb out 🤷🏼‍♀️🤯🤞🏻
Renders created using Chat GPT, so not perfect but pretty close to our design.

10/09/2026

02/09/2026

Part 2 CRAZY PAVE
Absolutely worth it! So happy with the result, amazing what you can do with some left over tiles!

30/08/2026

Before and after of one of our special spots here at LA LOMA HOUSE Privacy is such an important thing for me with our home. We have a public service road that doubles as the driveway to our property. People often walking their dogs or driving down it for an innocent sticky beak. Though we cut out some of the view, creating a beautiful and private space far out weighed it. We have 270° views from our home so we have loads of opportunity when walking around to see far and wide. Due to this being the southern side of the property, the fence also doubles as a wind break and stops a lot of the dust coming into our home. What do you see as more value? Privacy or views?

19/08/2026

2.5 YEARS. 😩

That’s how long we’ve been living like this.

It took 1.5 years just to get council approval, and we’ve now officially hit the 12-month mark waiting for our Construction Certificate.

And we STILL don’t have it. Although apparently… it’s close. 🤞🏻😂

To say this whole process has been soul crushing is an understatement.

We will NEVER, EVER renovate again… well, not anything that requires council approval anyway. 😂

Not that we have any plans to move. We absolutely love our block, our home and everything this space gives our boys growing up. Which I think is what has made the last 2.5 years even harder.

For two and a half years it’s been red dirt, dust, mess, constant weeding, half-finished spaces and request after request after REQUEST from council, engineers and everyone else involved.

All while forking out thousands and thousands of dollars with absolutely ZERO physical progress on the actual renovation.

I just want to eat dinner outside with my family under our patio.

I want the boys to come home from school on a stinking hot summer afternoon and jump straight into the pool.

I want to look outside and not see red dirt and weeds.

And I would LOVE to stop being asked by friends, family and clients:

“So… when will the reno be finished?”

FINISHED?!?!

WE HAVEN’T EVEN FREAKING STARTED!!! 😩😂

Anyway… it finally looks like we might actually be able to make a start very soon. 🤞🏻

And I’m sure the second I see something actually happening, I’ll find my little “reno spark” again and become completely obsessed with it.

But until then… surely I’m not the only person who has been emotionally destroyed by council approvals and renovating? 😂

Because there genuinely needs to be a support group for this bu****it. 🙋🏼‍♀️😂

I would also genuinely like to point out that, these are problems we are lucky to have. At least we have a home, we have our health,all our limbs blah blah blah but we work really freaking hard running our own businesses and so want to reap the rewards before we die of old age 🤦🏻‍♀️😂