Open Sesame!

Just realized that I haven't posted a photograph of Merriman Park with the front opened up!  I honestly can't begin to tell you how completely marvelous it is being able to open the two, swinging, hinged doors and ne'er again have to worry about the windows plopping out and go crashing to the floor (usually snapping off a pediment or a keystone in the process).

The right side door used to stick a little, but I was able to correct that flaw, so everything now opens smooth as silk.  I really need to get those stairs glued in place.

 The double stair glimpsed behind the Palladian screen in the Entrance Hall (bottom center).

Here it is with the center component removed.  There will be doors in all the openings on the back wall;  the intent is to give the illusion of more rooms beyond.  I have been toying with the idea of adding a few inches off the back of the house so these doors would open onto a hall, but alas, I think space constraints in my real-life house prohibit this expansion as well.  But I plan on using working doors, just in case I someday change my mind.  And you, dear, regular readers of  this blog know how much I like to change my mind!

A new Follower of Merriman Park, Cassandra, recently read my entire blog --start to finish--  the whole thing!  And she was kind enough to comment on nearly every post!  This made me go back and re-examine my older posts and I realized just how much the plans for Merriman Park have changed over time. BTW, check out Cassandra's miniature village --it is simply fabulous --and as I've said before:  I don't use the f-word lightly.  You can click on her icon to the right to guide you to her most enchanted world.

More Changes Afoot...

Merriman Park has undergone a lot of changes since I first conceived it in its first, crude sketches as a Palladian mansion inspired by the architecture of Thomas Jefferson.  But that's OK.  After all --it's my house!  I can't imagine if it were a commissioned piece for some client and I wasn't free to make any last-minute alterations to the plan as I worked along.  I have decided to implement yet another change: this time to the Entrance Hall, which is the first room inside the house that I plan to decorate.

              Rough sketch for Merriman Park drawn on a napkin.


Thomas Jefferson was not fond of staircases.  He felt they were a waste of space.  When he traveled to France, classical, one-story houses were de rigueur at the time in Paris and staircases were tucked discreetly in out-of-the-way spaces.  Jefferson brought this idea back home with him when he designed Monticello and many of his other American works also feature a "suppressed" stair.  My Jefferson-designed, inspiration house also lacks a grand stair, and so I opted to leave a staircase out of Merriman Park.

But I want a stair!

I mean, do I really want to explain the the whole story above every single time someone sees the finished Merriman Park and inevitably asks, "Where's the staircase?"

So I am going to put a stair where a staircase ought to go in my Entrance Hall.  Jefferson may not approve, but again --it's my house.

So there!
                               
 Joan Crawford (Faye Dunway) on a "Hollywood Regency" staircase, showing how classical design is adapted to contemporary styles --in this case, the Art Deco.