The Intersection of Design & Motherhood
I’m in love with this teeny tiny victorian cottage. It’s in the Catskills in New York and the only way to get to it is to cross a stream by hopping over a line of stones. Shouldn’t every mom have a little place like this to nap and read and generally hideout from the kids?
via Sharona Design
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My name is Gabrielle Blair. I'm a designer and mother of six. We currently live in a farmhouse in the French countryside. I post on where design and motherhood intersect.
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{ 51 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow – and I thought the places in DC were tiny! :)
whoah.. I want to build one of these in my back yard! How cute!
Even more interesting once you read the article and see the contrast between that and where her and her husband live. I love her cottage, and that she made her fairy tale a reality. Thanks for sharing.
Oh! This is so sweet and perfect! A tiny cottage stuffed with books accessible by hopping on stones!?! That is a dream!
Oh my, that is so pretty. And so WHITE — definitely not for the kids :)
Just like a dream . . . on so many levels. I would LOVE to snuggle in that bed.
Oh yes. Yes we should. Is that bedroom in the loft-space? This is my dream house. We can build another one for the hubs & kids.
I’ll be honest. I find that cottage terrifying. Like some kind of nightmare cabin you stumble across when you’re lost in the woods where as soon as you walk in the path that lead you there disappears.
LOL!!!! ROFL
You are too much. Lets run with this….
After the path disappears you feel a compulsion to enter. The lit windows seem to call you and you step unto the tiny porch and open the door. You look inside and there is a tiny sitting room. There is a steaming pot of tea and a single cup and saucer on the table and a small plate of crackers, cheese and scones. Just enough for one. But there is no one in sight. It’s eerily quiet. Not even the crickets are chirping anymore. There is just you and the meal on the tiny table. Suddenly you are so hungry, its unbearable and you gobble up the contents and gulp down the tea gratefully.
You are now full and an overwhelming desire to sleep comes over you. You think to yourself ,its only fair, you have been walking through a forest and you’ve had quite a full day. You deserve a good sleep. You look up drowsily and there is a door you hadn’t seen before. You look beyond and see a huge bed, comfortably made and the blankets turned back in an invitation. You stumble drunkenly into the room and collapse unto the bed. Pulling the blankets up to your chin your eyelids close of their own accord and your last thought before tumbling into sleep is that you had only been walking for ten minutes before coming to the little house and had been about midday when you came inside . In what seems like a half an hour it has become pitch black outside.
Its so good that reality is not like that huh?
Try to read and watch more cheerful movies and books.
I love the story…thanks….Love this little house!
It’s too perfect to be real!
OH MY WORD!!! Thank you for sharing!!! We are building a bridge across our creek. I thought it would be SO darling to have a kids fort on the other side. We have plenty of space-maybe a kids fort and an adult getaway. Probably not until next summer but if/when we do it I’ll let you know. Great inspiration!
Love love love!! I so wish this would be mine. Perhaps I can recreate a corner of it in my home. Thanks for the lovely idea and inspiration.
Oh my! What a dream. Thanks for sharing it.
This cottage looks like it’s been taken out of a fairy tale…so beautiful! Also, if you could ship that gloriously comfortable-looking bed to my house…that’d be great. :)
For years, I’ve had dreams of a little playhouse of my own in our backyard. To work, to relax, to have everything in the same place I left it. It’s actually one of the things on my 40×40 list.
that place is straight out of a dream! lovely.
*gasp!* I had no idea how much I would NEED such a thing!
Gabrielle, what a sweet retreat! I am totally enamored and, YES, every mother should have such a place to slip away to!
*sigh*
wow, this is so adorable!! joannaxo
Oh! Be still my heart.
It reminds me a bit of Alice in Wonderland, but if she would have stayed there for a while longer in a more relaxing atmosphere – maybe to hide from the White Rabbit!
Just saw that you were thinking of moving to France??? My husband and I spent three weeks in France five years ago. He was there on business and I had the summer off since I was teaching and spent the three weeks traveling the countryside!!! Loved it! I will always cherish that time. We stayed in Rennes for two weeks and in a little town outside of Rennes…I think called Montauck. I drove around everywhere! Dinan, Dinard, Mont. St. Micheal, and of course we spent the weekends in Paris! Ahhh!! Since he was working there we were able to meet and spend time with a couple who we still keep in touch with. Those three weeks are so memorable to me! To spend a year in France would be a dream! Enjoy!
I love it! though the trailer looks awful, I’d always hide in the cabin and would slowly become a part of it or disappear one night maybe swalloed by a book…
I agree. It’s very sweet.
ohhh my word– i think i’d live to be like 150 years old in that house- lack of stress.
Amazing. This is the perfect example of what a little imagination can do with a limited budget. I wish I had half her creativity.
that is absolutely incredible! that makes me want to make my own secret place for days like today…
I’m gonna have to side with @Kidlet’s Dad. :-) There is something quite fantastic about it, and I love the idea of having a place to “get away from it all,” and yet it does give me the creeps if I think too much about how disconnected it is.
It’s cute but I’m not sure why it needs so many dishes… ; )
so amazing
oh my goodness! that is the most perfect little getaway. now i feel the urge to watch or read the secret garden. did i say wow? because..wow.
adorable :)
I would love to visit!
Ah…as I sit here at midnight writing an article and know I still have lunches to make and the alarm is going to go off in 6 hours and 45 minutes, I’m thinking two days at a place like this would be heavenly.
hello designmom! :)
i’ve been visiting your blog just recently and in silence (‘coz i am too shy to comment) but i can’t resist this entry. this has got to be the cutest cottage ever. this is every girl’s (young or old) dream! this is pure heaven. can i share this? :)
does someone live there or is it just a heavenly playhouse?
This is just amazing. It’s tiny but it’s sooo romantic. I love Victorian style with these beautiful white furnitures. I want to go there:)
Yes, every mom needs a place like that. Your story and the tiny retreat reminds me of a charming little house in the same town where my husband grew up. When we began dating, his mom (now deceased) pointed out the little house and told me, “that’s where I always wanted to live when I’d run away from” my father-in-law and my future husband and his sister…not that she didn’t love them, but now I understand, when you’re feeling unappreciated as a mom, you dream of a little house. So, over the years, I’ve pointed that house out to my sister-in-law and my husband at different times and told them what their mom said. They had no idea! lol. But I think they liked the story — something new about their mom that showed her feistiness but commitment also, especially since she’s not around to show it herself. xoxo
Thanks for sharing. We’ve been working on a “play house” for the girls for 3 yrs now and pictures like this are an inspiration. Now if I could just get the hubby inspired to do the work!
Love this! So perfect.
That is some awesome retreat. And I can see why she has it! That trailer is scary. (And I have to ask, if you’re so good at reno, why not tackle the trailer? Use your resourcefulness and build a house on the cheap? I’m gonna guess they sank all their money into the 14 acres to start…)
Oh yes, a perfect little retreat. I could easily snuggle up there for an afternoon.
I just found another real getaway – really in the middle of nowhere.
http://hibiscusbloem.blogspot.com/2010/09/getting-away-from-it-all.html
it’s so sweet. why would you ever want to leave?
I love the bookshelf tucked away above the sitting area! But all-on-all, I would fear for my safety & grip on reality in a place so white and billowy…
I saw this somewhere a while ago and saved all the photos. Isn’t it stunning?! I want to wake up there.
Heaven! This little cottage caught my eye a while back but you added a few pictures I hadn’t seen yet…Love it!
That is awesome.
I’m totally in love with this little cottage! I would design one very similar, only with a small kitchen and bathroom. Perfect for a single person, or a small studio!
I wish i could live there!!! :)
Wow, that is amazing. I love it. I have been daydreaming for my kids to have a house from lapetitemaison.com—now I know I can just wait to make one for myself!