I followed dreamdoctor here from another post. I didn't grow up with Christmas, so the variety of these lights and their evolution is a total mystery to me, although they have always held a fascination for me. I have a set of white Christmas lights woumd around my wrought iron rail at the top of my split entry stairs that I put there at least a decade ago. So long ago I forget they are there and that anyone would judge their aesthetic value. They have become an essential to light my stairs at night as well as serve to give a bit of flavor to that part of the house in the night. I'll have to check out "modern versions!" BTW dream doctor I have been a vegetarian for a few years and still love the smell of bacon, as long as I don't think about it. Kind of like my recycled leather floors. My own hypocracy is a work in progress. ;-)

Hi suancol, both domes have operable skylights. They look circular from directly below. (See photo) but have an angled square skylight sitting on an angled plinth above. These skylights provide shifting daylight and moonlight, acting like evocative internal sundials. They are part of the cooling system too. On stinking hot days, the windscoop funnels any prevailing wind from the outside, down into the main dome, through a small interior window. (To the right of the door in the photo below) This cools the dome as the same air is then drawn up and out through the skylight. We also have three double glazed windows in both domes - as many as we could have before the structural integrity and strength of the lancet arches would have been lessened. The geometries are why the 40 domes in one Nepalese orphanage withstood the quake this week. These windows provide plenty of daylight. Sometimes these domes can be very cave like. We wanted to push the limit. Today, we hung the windows! A big day. We're working with a local young designer to commission the door and work bench. I wouldn't mind the door having a cut away hatch opening, to further enhance light and ventilation. A bit of a quirky gothic touch. Bristow Architecture, we are toying with the sconce-type you suggest for an outside light in the entrance vault. My love of earthen architectures came from solo backpacking in Morrocco. My favourite place in all the world is Imlil, in the High Atlas Mountains. So we're also toying with a lamps from chained pulleys for the main dome - Moroccan? or would that be too much and detract from the cathedral lift of the space. We have one extra light outlet above the door. We'll reserve that one for one upwards directional light to highlight the lift. Jdublya, I like your suggestion. It might suit for the smaller, second half-dome. The whole sweep will have a work bench. Morning light through those windows is petalled and sweet. But we do different lighting again. Something like this could work. Thanks all. This is such fun. So much to play with.

Thank you @Creative Style Interior Design and @bigreader @Creativelychallenged - Thank you for your nice words. We are indeed very happy with the result. We also went through all these stages you describe, so don't feel depressed... there might be light at the end of the tunnel. Our research stage was so long and quite discouraging at times. We've always wanted to live in a queenslander, but our house is not one. This didn't stop us on going ahead adding some character to our bathrooms design (and kitchen). We started with the idea of making these bathrooms with a colonial touch but we found that it was not easy to find the elements we wanted (tiles, furniture, tapware) at a cost that would fit our budget. We learned that the type of tiles we liked (encaustic) were VERY expensive ($200+), traditional looking furniture was also very expensive... So we shifted to a more modern design...(not very happily though), and after a while of collecting ideas for modern tiles, furniture etc.. we felt quite depressed because we were compromising... updating our bathrooms with something fresher, but far, far away from what we really liked. In our view modern furniture looked very plain, streamlined and... boring, but we were doing 2 bathrooms (on a budget) so we were not prepared to spend a fortune, and we settled with modern. We ordered marble type tiles for the floor 900x600, and wood like tiles for the walls, and booked the builder to start demolition. Luckily for us National tiles called us saying that there was an error and the tiles they promised were not going to be available for 3 more months!!! Depressed again.... It took us so long to find something we liked (kinda) and now we were back to square one. Then my lovely wife said... Why don't we give it another go and try to make a more traditional design as we originally wanted.... So to make it short... we went back online with 'refreshed' energy and pressure (demolition already started) and found many things I coudn't find before: Floor tiles @ $25/m2 Subway tiles for walls @$16 the box on sale... Ensuite furniture and basin from Ikea Main bathroom furniture was an antique dresser we found in an op shop for $150 repainted and repurposed.... etc... In the end we spent approx $12,5K for both bathrooms in total :-) So, to summarise... don't dispair... just look in this website, on pinterest, magazines, google, etc... Play around with ideas and copy!... (you'll see that our ensuite is quite similar to the first photo in this discussion)... Good luck! :-)

Hi new to all this but thought I'd pass on some fan tips; Be very selective of the shape of the fan blades. They all look stylish but in my experience the flatter the blade the less air they move. We have now gone back to the original metal fans with the blades that bend at the edge, http://regencyfan.com/industrial, our fans are more stylish than the one shown (the blade shape is nice and clear in this example). Our weather in no where near as warm as yours I'd hate for you to make the same mistake we made, twice, before we learnt. Look at the fans motor size, some of the expensive and lots of the cheap ones have small motors that don't last long, unfortunately price does not dictate quality in this case so don't get caught out. My husband is a mechanic and this is one of his "things" when every we shop for electrical items (drills, fans, pumps etc.) always make sure the motor is quality and large enough to do the job and last. How may speeds. We have 8 fans in our home, one is in our extension and was purchased at a different time; It's low speed is realllllllly slow the next one is so fast it's like a cyclone and I'm not game to try the third one in case it dismounts from the ceiling. Be careful not to mount fans too close to down lights or you get a flickering effect caused by the blade passing over the light. Try not to mount the fan directly over the dining table as it will cause food to go cold. I'm with mydesignobsession when it comes to style/look I prefer visitors see my wonderful eclectic decoration then my ceiling fans! Good luck