Enchanted House: The Blank Slate

In my last post, I talked about the big project I had planned. Well, my husband and I bought a house and I now have all summer to decorate it and to blog about it!

I would love to say that we bought some charming old Victorian in need of some TLC, but the truth is we bought a house in subdivision that was built in the 1990's instead of the 1890's. It did meet all of all our requirements--nice layout with lots of space, two bathrooms, good sized kitchen, nice sized yard (almost 1/2 acre), city utilities, and no major work need (there is some minor stuff that we hope to take care of in the next week or so).

However, some of previous owners' choices are a little--well, not our style. Some may like the walls of mirrors and white carpets, but well if you've read this blog any you know my tastes run a little more "exotic". So I hope to take you along as I transform this "blank slate" of white and mirrors into something rich and luxurious. While there will be some changes that take place right away (paint) there are other project we have planned for later (such as kitchen and bathroom remodels).

So while we take care of some leaky pipes and few holes in the drywall, let me take you on tour of the future enchanted house.

Welcome! This is the living room as viewed from the entry. Its hard to see from here but this room has a wonderful cathedral ceiling. You can see the rooms other impressive feature--the fire place. The door in the picture leads out to the sun room where you can glimpse the decaying hot tub. The more we look at it, the less salvageable it seems.

From this view, you can get a better sense of the room's cathedral ceiling and the lovely two-story window and window seat. The window seat will most likely play home to one of my dollhouses. As for the decor in this room, I'm thinking a subtle forest fairy theme similar to one I attempted in my current living room. The colors will be in greens and browns with lots of organic elements. The art styles will be either Art Noveau or Pre-Raphelite. For the furnishings, I'm going to try to stick to rustic but I'm not sure if I'll lean more American or European.

The next room is the dining room. See those mirrors--they all over the downstairs hall as well. So far, only two people have liked them--my mother who thinks that they add more light and my daughter who likes to watch herself dance in them. And while I'll concede my mom has a point, they won't work in the more Gothic style I have planned for this room.

I have this room slightly less planned out than the living room, though I'm picturing a palate of reds and golds with dark, heavy wooden furniture. I have to admit, I really like the light fixture in this room and quick coat of black paint will make it perfect.

The kitchen is one of those rooms that will have to wait. While we're getting new appliances right now, I probably have to live with the beat up cabinets, white laminate counter, and white laminate wood floor for another year yet. However, I hope to take the woods a little darker with a stone counter top and tile floor--something in the vein of European country.

Upstairs, the master bedroom is nice and large. I'm playing around with a sort of Elven Celestial theme. I want to stick with a palate of blues, silvers, and greys. I keep going back forth between more substantial wooden pieces or more modern pieces in black and silver. I know I want to use lots of sheer fabrics on the windows and around the bed. I'd like to do something with the ceiling too, but the I'm not sure what I want do to will work on the textured ceiling the room.

Part 2 of The Blank Slate tomorrow.

The Henry Ford: Furniture and English Cottage Style

For those of you who don't know about it, The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI is an awesome place to go and experience history. Part of the Enchanted Life is looking toward the past for inspiration. Not only is it a place to learn about history, both the museum and the village provide opportunities to be inspired for your own house.

The museum has a huge collection of cars, trains, and planes. But it also has collections of jewelry, pewter ware, old stoves and my favorite, the furniture collection:

Greenfield Village is also an amazing experience, with a variety of living history exhibits, as well as several hands on crafts for the kids (and grown ups too). However, for inspiration, one doesn't have to look any farther than the collection of historic house that have been decorated as accurately as possible. A walk around the Porches and Parlors District is a cornucopia of examples of period style from the 1600's to 1930's. My favorite is Cotswold Cottage, an authentic English cottage. Of course, on my last visit, I took tons of pictures.

And if you like tea, the cottage is also a "tea house" and the tea is served in nice fat teapots covered floral tea cozies.

My other favorite spot at the village is the Herb Garden. It very much has the feel of a "secret" garden:

My Other Summer Project

Hi, my name is Danielle and I'm amateur writer, among other things. I work as a substitute teacher during most of the year, but that means I have my summers off. I always try to find something to occupy my time during the summer, a project if you will. Well, this blog is going to be my summer project.

I live in an enchanting little lakeside cottage. It's enchanted, in part by its location, but also by all the work I put in to decorating it and all the fun projects I try to come up with for my daughter and myself. I hoping to post these here as the summer goes on. I like to introduce the rest of the world to an enchanted lifestyle, full of fairies, magic, nature, and all sorts of other wonderful things!

Like I said, I'm an amateur writer and I do have another writing project going on. Its a novel called Dusk of Innocence and can be found here at Elfwood. It also has an associated blog here at LiveJournal, though if I like blogger enough I may move it here.