Chez FiFi

When Sadie and I go for our walks we pass this lovely cottage. I used to wonder who lived there and would often daydream that it was me, until one day I met FiFi. She is a tiny woman with a huge heart. She offered Sadie some water and invited me into her backyard. I was nearly knocked off my feet by the shabby chic heaven that greeted my eyes! This gorgeous little  iron daybed  laden with pillows  and lovely candle holders hanging from the  porch. It was just perfect.  This is my happy place I thought.  The garden is off to the right and after passing under a blooming arbor there are  exceptionally  beautiful Angel's Trumpets blooming everywhere. The roses too, and impatients and johnny jump ups. It's all too beautiful. When she asks me if I want to come in I immediately know that I have met someone who is  trusting and confident and shyly proud of her home.  The kitchen is off the back and it is like walking into my shabby chic dream house! With a beautiful built in cupboard  and bead board and British pottery that I have only seen in magazines! Bliss is spelled out in giant  letters  and yes, FiFi, it is blissful.  As I look around, my thirsty  eyes drinking it all in, I realize what a truly lovely woman she is, because a bad or evil person could not have created an environment such as this. It has that special Florida quality of light that comes inside with high ceilings and lots of windows. It feels huge and airy and light. This is some cottage. As we move into the living room I see that she is crafty as well, having painted and then stamped (with French script, of course) these little wood swinging doors. It's charming. It's unique. It's so FiFi! In front of the fireplace she starts to tell me about a dream she has to move, someday to Santa Fe, feeling drawn there after she did a magazine shoot. I too have always wanted to visit New Mexico and as I check out the mantel I see she has a collection of hearts, and Milagros and a beautifully serene Madonna icon. I am touched by this lovely grouping and now I know she is spiritual as well. So much of yourself is revealed in your home, isn't it? I am happy here and know already that when I leave I will feel sad. Her bedroom has chocolate walls that are rich, sexy, delicious and sophisticated all at once. Shelves and books, type letters, vintage this and that. A dress form, scarves, a bunch of belts artfully displayed. FiFi style. She could write her own book, she could have her own show! Her sense of style is amazing- she's wearing a white eyelet dress over a pair of long skinny jeans with cowgirl boots I think. Her hair is long, blonde with a little pouf teased up- sorta reminds me of Catherine Deneuve or Bridgette Bardot- other French women with exsquisite style. "The higher the hair the closer to God", I always say! Past the living room toward the front of the house is the dining room and then her office. There are many windows and as I look up I realize the ceiling is covered with fabric and how soft and sweet that is! She is a writer for Coastal Living and the magazine has just finished a shoot here that should be in the March 2007 issue. I mentally make a note to get on their subscriber's list immediately. The guest bedroom is like walking into the South of France- golden yellow and splashes of red, perhaps some provincial blue. It is indeed my dream home. As we walk out I ask about the building behind the cottage- a garage? No, she opens the door and it is another sort of lounging, oh, I'll just lie back on this daybed and sip my wine and smoke my impossibly long cigarettes while reading a wonderful book sort of room. I want to make it a quilt studio! A music room for Fred! Hell, an apartment for Fred- I'll live in the cottage! He would require some non shabby chic feminine decor. Someplace where he can display the Freddie Army, Platoon, War-time Museum. Certainly not in this cottage. It would ruin the whole effect. In fact this is so feminine that I don't think you'd need a man at all. Just your pink, velvet, sea-shell, candle glow wonderful shabby dabby do cottage. oh and Sadie.  Maybe someday... a girl can dream, can't she?

These pictures are from Romantic Homes and Sarasota Homes and Lifestyles featuring Chez FiFi