When hinges creak in doorless chambers, and strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls; Whenever candlelights flicker where the air is deathly still – that is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish delight!
~ The Ghost Host
Alright, so I’m no Ghost Host, and this isn’t Disneyland (unfortunately), but the house I live in does bear a few eerie resemblances to Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. A fact I never noticed, even being a Haunted Mansion buff, until guests started commenting on it’s long hallways, it’s monstrous antique wallpaper and rugs, it’s old chandeliers, it’s myriad of rooms barred by pocket doors and how it manages to be dark and gloomy even on a sunny day – just the way I like it! Add to that my family and our addiction to antiques, sconces, candelabra and ancient furniture and, well. You get the picture.
That is one spooky router cable!
I thought I’d highlight a couple of things from the hall, specifically, before it gets it’s planned face lift. The wallpaper and full-length carpet are original to this Edwardian manor house, isn’t it lovely? Bit untidy (pardon our dust).
The antique and replica telephones are another addiction of ours. We have dozens of them, ranging in era from this beautiful wall-mounted 1919 Kellogg crank telephone, to a 1940s black executive bakelite-cased rotary in the study (not pictured).
The phone on the mail table (we’re so hoity toity, with our hall table just for mail) is a replica, Paramounnt Eiffle Tower 1892 reproduction. We don’t use it, but it was just so darling and old fashioned looking!
The staircase is one of my favorite features. On the other side (in that other hall you see in the background of this photo) is a connecting servants staircase that leads to the kitchen. Isn’t it lovely? All original wood, and so ornate it’s a nightmare to dust!
The rug is a bit spotty with light bleaching and curio needs a good spring cleaning! It houses my late mother’s antique German tea set and a beautiful delft replica set featuring Paul Revere and other colonial scenes. Reproduced in the 1970s, I believe, and it’s just lovely.
Well, I believe that’s everything to see, since I didn’t get a good picture of the Scottish Claymore or my stepfather’s beautiful antique grandfather clock (in need of repair, like everything else in this house) and the floating candelabra was too shy to come out and be photographed! Oh well, maybe next time. 😉
Hurry ba-ack… hurry ba-ack…
Melly
April 26, 2017That’s spooky girl! How do you live in the haunted mansion without being creeped out!
Nancy
May 1, 2017Hey you! I haven’t heard from you in ages, how are you my darling? It’s not actually spooky as it looks, I promise. 😛 Or maybe I’m spookier than I look and can handle it?
Britney P.
April 28, 2017your house is so pretty and I feel so dumb asking this but whats a curio if i might ask
Nancy
May 1, 2017Do you see that cabinet in the background with the curved glass walls? That’s a curio, babe! It’s sort of like a display case for knickknacks or ‘curiosities’. And, thank you!
Leah Rocks
April 28, 2017WOW those phones are beautiful! So one is real and one is a reproduction? I really envy all your antiques. 🙂
Nancy
May 1, 2017Thank you so much! Yes, one of them is an authentic 19 aughts phone. The one on the wall in fact. The one on the table with the mail organizer is a reproduction. Oh, this house is just filled to the brim with antique and reproduction phones. It’s become a bit of an obsession!