Dream Home: The Nero Chronicles

Today’s fabulous dream home comes courtesy of the stylish and savvy, Alcira of The Nero Chronicles, a fairly new blog based in Houston. If you don’t know about it yet, I can pretty much assure you that you’ll love it! It is super stylish with an irreverent twist, just like the woman who writes it.

Thank you, Paloma, for inviting me to join this dizzyingly inspiring Dream Home series. I found this exercise particularly challenging, as the idea of a dream house has always been fluid and nebulous for me. On the one hand, I like to think that the place where I live -- in the moment -- is exactly where I want to be. Our homes are like us, imperfect, but they are real and warm and alive, and that is something I think we all should embrace. When it comes to the places and spaces we fantasize about, I haven't enough fingers to enumerate my fictional British, French or Moroccan lives -- just to name a few. Over the years, I've cooked up mythical variations of glamorous but low-key living in a crumbling country piles, far-flung beachside villas or a citified pied-a-terres. But in each scenario comfort, beauty, a dash of exotica and a sense of gritty-around-the-edges eclecticism must reign supreme in order for me to truly feel at home. Here is the basic vision Nero's reveries keep leading back to.

There's something about a spare, understated facade with vaguely European lines

that gets me every time.

Banks of iron-framed French doors convey the feel of a modern courtyard

and low-maintenance vegetation invites cartwheels and relaxation.

Books crammed just about anywhere lend life and knowledge.

Within a framework of grace, comfort and hospitality,

Nero must have a dash of playful tension.

I adore an intimate master chamber…

 

with an adjoining boho-luxe seating area.

Natural curiosities would abound, as I find delight in the details.

A substantial steel soaker with a backyard view would grace the master bath.

I'd opt for light and airy in the kitchen and leave dining alfresco an ongoing option.

A home office-cum-library would corral books, bills and boxed animalia.

Perhaps an in-home specimen room would do the trick.

I'd keep the feel functional and spare in my son's lair…

but designate a louche boudoir for an as-yet fictional, brooding belle of a daughter.

Adjacent to the kids' wing, would be this laid-back hangout replete with media space and homework and snack nook.

 

A home along these lines feels dearest to my heart. Airy but unpretentious, practical but personal, wide-armed and welcoming.

Many thanks for inviting me to play along.