Carriage House styling: little flourishes make big impacts as with this urn...
...and a simple, balanced mantle-scape on a corner marbled fireplace...
...as well as tucking-in a reading nook at one end of the living room...
...and seeing that a pretty bedroom just needs a little something-else like...
...creating a Parisian-influenced tableau in a tiny spot inbetween closets...
...and using the rest of the plaid french wired ribbon to top a tropical print!
There's definitely a different kind of lifestyle atmosphere going on when going from a rustic, remote island house tucked away by the water down amongst woods to...living in a busy, eclectic section of Savannah's historic Victorian District where tourists, SCAD students, long-time locals, passerbys on bicycles and Vespa scooters and such daily intermingle.
I LOVE this...! I also loved being out on a tiny SC Lowcountry island as well for so many years (and we plan to keep a portion of the acres we were on as a spot to build a second-home-cottage on one day) but full time living out there was a long commute for my husband and was getting a bit retiree-ish feeling for me when, still in my early 40's, I am desiring to be out n' about more.
And so when this past spring an opportunity came up for me to jump right back into my old management career with the necessity for a Savannah-relocation...well, it took me oh, about 1.5 seconds to say "yes"! After a few months of commuting back and forth, here we are now: full time residents of my old childhood n' onwards stomping-grounds. What fun!
Not finding right away what we're looking for as to purchasing a new house, James and I decided to rent in a fun n' funky part of the historic area for a year thus using our pied a' terre as a base of operations for exploration into yet more houses n' areas to look into in the coming year. I didn't want to have to be dealing with an entire house during this time even with renting and apartments seemed too small so it was quite fortunate that we found this darling carriage house!
It's tucked-away behind a big Victorian house set back on a quieter side street and yet we walk down sidewalks less than 500 yards from our place to enjoy restaurants and antique shops. SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) students are everywhere, old local guys congregate at the nearby classic ole' barbershop and the aging hippies in a dilapidated Victorian house on the corner no doubt go to the acupuncture place in a 60's-modern-retro look building on the next corner. I really like the vibrancy and diversity of this neighborhood within the city we're in...
It's been fun this week to move some of our household items into the carriage house and start getting all set-up in it.
Decorating, gardening, entertaining and just plain ole' relaxing will be a bit different within this new environment here but already I have sooo enjoyed having a house guest over, puttering around with potted plants in our courtyard and hanging curtains, embellishing paintings by topping off some of them with big bows of french wired ribbon and alla' that good stuff!
Here's to pied a' terre carriage house living...a petite vignette lifestyle to enjoy while it lasts ;)
That's so gorgeous! I always wanted to see what everyone does inside the carriage houses! We definitely are lucky to have all these amazing shops downtown! Home Goods is also amazing, I never know what I'll find in there!
ReplyDeleteThank you Mrs. WASP and me too... ;) I've always been enchanted with carriage houses, courtyard gardens and those little brick alleyways tucked into odd places here in Savannah and still can hardly believe that I now live within this kind of petite-jolie' set-up, fun! I'm also a big fan of Home Goods and a girlfriend and I are getting ready to do an antiques-afternoon-forray soon around my new neighborhood's shops.
ReplyDeleteHere's to a fellow Savannah-stylin' lady!
Best, Lachlan