Fantasyland Friday: The Exterior

House by Hillary Taylor Interiors, Photo from

Okay, this is a totally self-indulgent post, but I think it will be fun none the less. I have always loved design, art, creativity, style, and expression. Basically all that right-brain artsy stuff. And one of my favorite forms of expression and creativity is interior decorating. I used to watch Christopher Lowell everyday when I was in maybe 6th grade, in the days before HGTV even existed... and I would get excited when my mom would get a shiny new Ethan Allen catalog in the mail, and daydream about the day when I would have a house of my own to decorate...

I still do.

Only now, it's scrolling through Pinterest, or Elle Decor, or House Beautiful, or Lonny or any of the hundreds of e-magazines and design blogs out there. And I thought it would be fun to collect my dream home ideas and save them in my blog, one piece at a time. Just in case Sarah Richardson calls to let me know that she has decided to make this season "Lindsey's House" and let me totally gut and re-do a house so that it's perfectly me. I'm just putting it out there Sarah...

*And as a general disclaimer, this is all pure fantasyland, in-my-wildest-dreams, self-indulgent, I-don't-expect/need-this-but-it's-fun-to-dream stuff, okay? Okay. And this is not my 'golden ticket', I already found that when I married Brody :)

So let's start with the exterior. Although I can appreciate all kinds of design--be it mid-century modern, art deco, tudor, spanish revival, etc.--my heart belongs to the timeless look of colonial and cape cod architecture. Maybe it's because I watched Father of the Bride and Home Alone too many times growing up (yes that is an embarrassing picture of me and my friends in front of the actual Father of the Bride house) but I love the combination of white trim and black shutters, against red brick, siding, or classic cedar shingles.


I love, love dormer windows, and I think most people would love a big, welcoming front porch for little kids to play on. And if it happens to wrap around the whole house, well that would just be the cherry on top.

More than anything I love lots of natural light, and therefore love lots and lots of windows. French doors would be a dream come true someday. So classic.

And I would just love a welcoming back yard where kids can play at family get-togethers, with plenty of lawn for back-yard soccer, tag, hide-and-go-seek, swing, etc. With a space for barbequing and eating outdoors on warm summer nights.


And Brody's one request for our dream house is a hot tub, so we would need to fit that in somewhere as well. As for a pool? I don't know, I go back and forth, but I tend to lean towards no...however, these pictures make a pretty good case.