We thought we would end the week with a bang and keep with the theme we seemed to adapt this week about Rhode Island. We have an abundance of architecture to share with you today.
Most of the estates have stone walls like the one above lining the properties at the street. I fell in love with all of the architectural details and was mesmerized and felt completely in my element.
Do you know after this trip I purchased exterior lights in the hopes of being able to recreate something like this on my tiny budget? I can get pretty creative when I want something fancy pants while working within a small budget.
What do you think about this gate? We plan to have a driveway gate installed to keep peanut inside and trespassers outside the yard. We considered a wrought iron gate, but then we decided we will be making our own gate and want it to be solid. This will prevent our peanut from seeing passersby in the alley and give us a little more privacy.
Look at all of that detail a little closer... the gold really pops against the black.
These sorts of details can be found all over Newport. If this is your scene, you will not be disappointed, we can assure you of that.
Bronze lights such as this one above were in the salvage shop we talked about earlier this week. We sure knew what we were doing in those days when creating beauty.
Are you inspired looking at all of these finials atop the fence pillars or am I just the strange one? It does not matter to me whether the details are simple or riddled with intricate details, I still find each of them beautiful in their own way.
And there is our bridge I enjoyed photographing in color. I really like the Gothic arches. I can find beauty in the most mundane aspects of life. Do you find beauty everywhere you look?
Most of the estates have stone walls like the one above lining the properties at the street. I fell in love with all of the architectural details and was mesmerized and felt completely in my element.
Most folks were touring the mansions, me? I walked the streets taking photos like this.
Have you fallen in love with Newport, Rhode Island yet? If these photos do not do it for you, then I am not sure what to say, other than you may not enjoy the area as much as we do. We are old souls who enjoy many things from the past.
Sandstone urns atop stone pillars at the end of driveways are pretty common, and don't you know I was right there snapping pics of as many as I could!
You may be realizing now why we purchased the sandstone finials for our front yard. We were bringing a bit of Newport to us at a fraction of the price these beauties would cost.
I even found beauty in the moss growing on the urn. Then I fell in love with the style and shape of this decorative urn with it's little pineapple top.
Did you know pineapples express "welcome" and represent friendship, hospitality, and warmth? They also symbolize luxury, beauty, and royalty. Since these are not your run of the mill homes, I can imagine how the pineapple was meant to represent the habitants of this home from out at the street.
Do you see down the street where one fence leaves off, another picks up and how diverse they can be? There is brick, sandstone, wrought iron, finials and urns atop the fence lines with lights made from bronze, or sandstone bases.
I still have plans for several of our lights, I purchased bronze and black since I was unsure which ones we would be using. With the recent changes to the exterior of our home, we have decided black is the way to go for our home. I will be selling all of our bronze exterior light fixtures and there are a few I am having a hard time letting go of.
What do you think about this gate? We plan to have a driveway gate installed to keep peanut inside and trespassers outside the yard. We considered a wrought iron gate, but then we decided we will be making our own gate and want it to be solid. This will prevent our peanut from seeing passersby in the alley and give us a little more privacy.
Look at all of that detail a little closer... the gold really pops against the black.
These sorts of details can be found all over Newport. If this is your scene, you will not be disappointed, we can assure you of that.
I wonder how much time went into creating just the exterior gates and fences when these were constructed?
Bronze lights such as this one above were in the salvage shop we talked about earlier this week. We sure knew what we were doing in those days when creating beauty.
Finials atop the glass globes, scrolls, acanthus leaves, extra details galore all while being placed on top of decorative marble or sandstone pillars. Do you know we had our photos printed and then sprinkled them throughout our home since we love to be surrounded by all of this architectural beauty?
Are you inspired looking at all of these finials atop the fence pillars or am I just the strange one? It does not matter to me whether the details are simple or riddled with intricate details, I still find each of them beautiful in their own way.
Another bronze light. I cannot recall which mansion this is that you can take tours of, but you can see these beautiful details are found throughout Newport, Rhode Island.
I love the way the lights are hung on the pillars on either side of this wrought iron gate instead of on top of the pillars here.
This is where I found the inspiration to make pillars for either side of the future gate we will have. Since our gate will be sliding, I do not think I will be able to have lights like these as I had planned.
I wanted them to face inside our yard to provide light throughout. I actually purchased a black light very similar to these. We have been tossing around ideas of how to still use them around our cottage.
Now imagine me strolling along the streets of Newport taking all of these photos... I am sure people were like why is this crazy lady taking photos of finials, gates, and pillars? Why is she not taking photos of the mansions or the ocean? I guess you would just have to know me in order to know what makes me tick. 😉
Sometimes I find beauty in ivy growing in a diamond shape pattern on a garage. Sometimes I do not go for what most would consider mainstream beauty.
I march to the beat of my own drum and take pictures of what inspires me. If you have followed along with us for any length of time, then you know homes are what inspire me, every aspect of them in fact.
We did see several homes that had scaffolding up and were being repaired. I was happy to see that since that means the owner maintains the home. We often learn about these large homes that people are no longer able to maintain. I hate hearing that, but at the same time can understand the cost of maintenance for these beauties. I know how much we have spent on our cozy cottage, so I cannot imagine the bills for these homes.
Do you ever wonder the man hours that went into building these homes in their day? A lot of them took about four years to construct. Homes of today go up in about three to four months, from dig date to completion, talk about a huge difference.
I work with folks everyday building homes and the average square footage is about 3,000, sometimes up to 12,000. Did you know in this time period a home of 3,000 square feet was considered a mansion? The Breakers, a mansion you can also tour comes in at a whopping 140,000 square feet! Imagine cleaning and maintaining all of that loveliness!
We found it interesting many of these large mansions have been made into condos. At first I was disappointed to learn this, but then I decided if this is the way to keep the home as a dwelling, then it is actually a pretty wonderful idea.
Just think, you could own your piece of a Newport mansion. Mr. Vintage looked into this, and we found they are still very expensive as I imagined it would be. We are ever the dreamers here at the cottage... if you do not have dreams, what do you have?
And there is our bridge I enjoyed photographing in color. I really like the Gothic arches. I can find beauty in the most mundane aspects of life. Do you find beauty everywhere you look?
This concludes our Rhode Island visit. My sister mentioned to me that someone asked in an interview she sat in on, what state would you eliminate and why if given the choice. The person being interviewed mentioned Rhode Island since it is the smallest state.
I hope after this week I could change that person's mind. There is truly a lot of beauty in Rhode Island most everywhere you look, do you agree? Are you thinking about visiting this state? If so, you will have to share with us your experience. I would love to hear about it! Have a wonderful weekend!
