Mansion Musings

In the past year, I visited some Newport, RI mansions with my family, and now I’m in Portugal visiting palaces of the nobility. I’ve been noticing trends in the designs, largely because mansions like the Breakers were historically modeled after European palaces. 

For one thing, many seem to be divided up by rooms of different color schemes— the green room, the blue room, etc. As a person with an appreciation for fine design and attention to detail, I really enjoy when this is done. I would also totally do this to my house one day. I respect people who want consistent theme and style throughout the rooms of their houses, but I feel like there are too many styles and colors and aesthetics that I like, and I can’t commit to just one vibe. 

Also, I love all the different types of rooms in both the mansions and the palaces for hosting people— tea room, billiards room, banquet hall, smoking room (although I wouldn’t want that one in my home). I’m a pretty social, extroverted person and I love to plan events, so having all those event spaces (especially in those eras where hosting balls and parties and dinners was such a big part of the social scene) would be ideal for me. 

Obviously I do not currently live in a royalty-worthy mansion, nor do I know if I ever will. But it’s still fun to fantasize as I admire all of the intricacy and beauty of these historic places.

Thanks for reading. 

Holly