Mon chateau :)! I am an obssessive miniature collector, and this is my beautiful mini chateau to house my collection, my beautiful prize!!! It is my soul built out of particle board! I put so much of myself into it- all of my favorite things. I try to put special thought to everything in the house- it is my home. Where will I put this chair? Would I sleep in this room? Would I be happy in this room? Does this mantel compliment this room's wallpaper? Is this too over-the-top? Is this boring here, should I put it here to calm this room down a bit?
I always liked the idea of miniature people- mostly because they are soooo much fun to sew for- especially to make period clothes. However, I have lost taste for them in my house. Now don't get me wrong, I aaaaadore them, love them, am keeping them, am still sewing for the, am still appreciating them. I just don't want them in the house. Then it seems like they own the house. It seems like it is their house, that they own it, that all that's for them. I'm selfish, and I put so much of myself into that house that is my home now- not theirs. They may visit, but it's mine :)! I never intended for it to become quite so- personal to me, but now I guess it is because I can't abide the thought of it belonging to the dolls. It belongs to me if I was put to 1/12 scale, and I would be a little less than 6 inches tall (I'm a whole lotta woman you see :)).
This is the bedroom. I chose red toile wallpaper complimented by dark crown molding which I stained myself with a walnut stain pen. It compliments the dark finish on all the furniture in that room. I am madly in love with the bed in that room- it's called the Versailles bed- how appropriate! The white damask thing is apparently called a fainting couch, and I fell in love with it from the first time I saw it. I didn't know quite where to put it- it's a big piece of furniture and it didn't quite want to find it's place in the living room. I one more piece of furniture for the bedroom, and I need it to be able to be for sitting because this is the master bedroom and well- you can't sit just on the bed right? So voila- the fainting couch! It fits just right in that place too. I kept the walls decorations simple, just a mirror over the dresser and a painting over the fireplace so that the red toile would be visible, and if I was in the bed I could stare at all the lovely scenes.
The blue bedroom is also a crazy favorite. It's a little over-the-top, yes, but it is the over-the-top in me. I love love love cane, and so I of course fell in love with the bed!!! It has a matching vanity and also a wardrobe that is not visible in the picture. I will take a picture of it later and put it in another post I promise. Maybe I'll do a tribute to just the blue bedroom- my indulgence in extravagence. It is soooo beautiful, it is one of my favorite rooms in the whole house. The vanity's three mirrors catches the light beautiful. I have loved vanities like that ever since I saw one like on the show "Jeeves and Wooster" based on the amazing P. G. Wodehouse's books. The chaise longue beside the bed (very French eh?) is perfectly toned down by the blue color of the room, and compliments the gold fleur de lis designs in the wallpaper. It fits lovely in that space, and I really like the way it is curved around at one end so that someone can lean/sit in that area. It just looks so comfortable!!! I can imagine myself relaxing in that room, looking at the beautiful paintings, stretching out on the bed, maybe knitting or reading.
This room is the newest of them all. Please ignore the remnants of funtac on the back wall- construction is under way :). The room needs a little fine-tuning, but it is a very very special room. First of all every single piece of furniture in tha room is amazing and special and wonderful. The walnut sleigh bed!!! The cream striped wing chair!!! The INSANE French fireplace!!! The chandelier!!! The book case in the background is also very special. It has a mirrored back so that it catches the light and shines it on the books. The doors are painted with tiny flower designs, and there are beautiful medallions with baskets simply overflowing with flowers painted on the sides of the book case. There is resin wainscottign along the back wall with cherubs carved into it. The wallpaper is white stripe on the side walls (a beloved pattern of mine) and white swirly vines on the back wall (adds a little interest).
I love love love loooooooove a feast. Food is just soooo pretty, and this food can be left out forever and never spoil. I love food and the look of food in a house- it adds so much charm to the room, but I didn't really want a dining room for a number of reasons. 1. I would rather have another bedroom than just a room for eating which brings me to number 2. which is not second because it is any less significant than one, it's that I am not a "formal" enough of a person for a diningroom. They're just so... I don't know. If I was going to have a real house, unless it had hundreds of rooms I would not want to devote an entire room just to eating. Still, I needed a good place to put my big table and somewhere to put all the food I'm so obssessed with. Okay, so when in doubt steal an idea from Beatrix Potter. If you've ever seen the little animated Beatrix Potter stories, you will remember the introductions where an actress portraying Ms. Potter goes into her cottage and sits down in a beautiful English country setting at a big table where she has tea, pets her rabbit, and writes her stories. Well I have always loved that part, and I just flipped over it. I would put that in
my house! So I did! It worked so well too! This is the feast room, and not just for the taste buds. I have books and knitting in there. It is also set only for one. It is my getaway place. It is personal and beautiful to me. The wallpaper, if you really look at it, is toile but the medallions are guess what?- chickens!!! I love chickens!!!! So do the French too, they put them on everything I swear! I'm guessing that's where the love affair originated. The windsor chair is just beautiful and it is so English country so the room is a mix of styles with the English country windsor chair and table and fireplace with the French counry wallpaper. The lighting is very informal, with two tulip sconces and one tiny tulip ceiling light to compliment them. The room is very bright, but the light is warm and cozy, and hey- all the better to see the amazing furniture, and highlight the most important thing in the room- the shining, shimmering, FOOD! Aren't the lamp and the teaset pretty too?
On the food note- here's the kitchen!!!! The kitchen is the heart of the house right? Well the kitchen is the largest room in the center of the bottom floor in my house. I don't have a favorite room, but this one comes pretty darn close. The wallpaper! aaaaaaaaaaah!!!! I looooooooove it!!! I really wasn't expecting to find anything like it. I already had most of my kitchen furniture when I bought it, and I didn't know quite how I could get my walls to compliment it. This wallpaper redeemed me from such worries!!! I love it so so so much. It is soooo French and amazingand beautiful, and of course chicken-centered!!! The hutch was just plain and white and blank, but then I decided to jazz it up a bit. I cut out a couple chickens from spare wallpaper and decoupaged them on. I put the main part of the wallpaper in the carved out sides of the hutch too. I painted the vines on the drawers and back panel myself, and I also painted the green highlights in the carved out areas. Since my Oma is obssessed with drawer liners she cut out little drawer liners from the wallpaper from the main part of the wallpaper- the ultimate realistic homey touch.
The French love to beautify kitchens with dishes- and I am obssessed with dishes. You see, I
need to be independently wealthy so I can blow all my dough on dishes and a place to put them in. I definitely did this is my house. The hutch and plate rack are just overflowing with dishes, ones from various sets that fit in various places- it's free and mixed togehter and beautiful!!! I love the sink, love the stove, and love love love the little rolling basket full of stuff like the one Paddington Bear has! :)
I have more rooms to show you, and I will show them eventually I promise! :)
Here's some pictures of just the furniture in general:
Sigh... one of the French favorite things seem to be things that are literally overflowing with beauty. Take for example- a wheelbarrow with flowers in it. A wheelbarrow- great, a wheelbarrow with flowers- even better, but take a wheelbarrow overflowing with gorgeous fresh flowers, vines spilling out this way and that and you got something well- timelessly beautiful.
On that note I am trying to put more things that are spilling beauty. These things are so beautiful they're just- bursting at the seams!
:)
As I was feeling like blogging for some reason and was looking through my pictures while I waited for my internet to load, I happened upon (isn't that a lovely phrase- happened upon oooh) this particular painting. I took this picture myself a few years ago when I went to the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, one of my favorite places of all time. It reminded me of summertime... First of all I love impressionism and I of course adore this painting for that fact as well as my love for country scenes that include trees and paths of course of course. Oh! to walk that path! I actually don't even remember this painting or what it was like in person, so it's a funny thing that I find it years later in my pictures and get inspired by it. I guess it was just meant to be.
This [recovered] sofa once belonged to Marie Antoinette herself briefly before she gave it away as a gift for some inlaws of hers. I guess when you're rich out of your mind you gots sofas that pass around your family. :)
Oh la la petite blue silk covered chairs with an exquisite wood desk with guilding on the legs and feet and of course the insanely intricate inlays with all the flowers and vines!!! Could you imagine having that in your house?!!!
Uncommonly beautiful... what more can I say about this... any commentary would just... not do
Since they even brought some of the exquisite walls of the old French palaces I was able to actually experience them myself as if I was actually in them. I felt as though as I was haunting them as a futuristic ghost... enjoying the sight of their beautiful old furniture... yet not being able to touch or use it... only to observe everything as if it were a dream.
I adore clocks... my petite chateau is full of clocks because I love them so much.... it's important to know the time hey why not make it pretty- not only pretty outstandingly beautiful???
Figurines and snuff boxes!!! wow... what else can I say everything is just so exquisite and detailed and tiny and... cute :)
Again a timepiece wins my heart.
