Don't Be Afraid of Blackwood Manor

A few months ago, I watched the Guillermo del Toro movie Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.  The best part of the movie to me was the incredible house.  The film itself was not necessarily the best thing I've ever seen, but it is, at heart, a mythic story.  If you decide to watch the movie, I very highly recommend you precede it by reading the book Blackwood's Guide to Dangerous Faeries, which is a really enjoyable and creepy story, and gives the movie more depth, since the movie starts where the book ends.

But whether you watch the movie or not, you can stand in awe of the images below.

As always, please do click images to enlarge immensely.

Blackwood's estate:

Little Sally's room is beautiful, right down to the wallpaper.  Charming and simple, yes?  Or...

 ....not as simple as you might think.  Look closer.  There are repeating patterns of human figures among the flowers, in a very Walter Crane style.  I. Want. This. Wallpaper. 

Not to mention of course the spinning shadow-caster, which I have yet to be able to find a real one of online (I've wanted one since Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow)

 More shots of the amazing wallpaper and Sally's room:

 The beautiful grounds of the estate:

 Sally approaches a sculpture...a sphere made from animal bones and antlers:

 Emerson Blackwood's insignia on the stained glass of the house door.

 And on the stained glass window in the library:

 The stove in Blackwood's studio figures greatly into the story, and has runes etched above it into the stone:

 The front door is absolutely stunning, but there aren't many good still shots of it in the movie.  Stained glass and wood carving creates a tree.

 Speaking of trees, how would you like to have this one on your property?

 Even the local library is droolworthy.

 The amazing enormous entry to the manor.  Notice the tree-carved pillars.  The leaf-carved bannisters.  The forest murals.  The stained glass.  The wow factor.

 Blackwood's decrepit studio, with a beautiful skylight, and a very creepy mural.

 This is about the only shot I could find that shows the front door:

 Notice the bell jars on the counter:

 Just look at that door!  Wow.

 The manor house

Can I have one?  Can I? 

Dawn Treader Concept Art!

Do you ever have a piece of trivia that just gets under your skin and rubs and chafes? Something you really want to know or remember, but no matter how hard you try, your Google-fu fails you and the answer is elusive? Well, that was my predicament after I watched The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We always meant to go see that movie in the theater, but wound up watching it for the first time on BluRay at home (which I think was an even better idea, as the movie *really* translates well to BluRay). When the Pevensies first come aboard the Dawn Treader, and Caspian takes them into his State Room, I was dizzy with admiration. I even did a blog post about it. But what I wanted to know most of all was...who did those gorgeous wall murals in the room?

Finally, almost a year to the day (BluRay was released April 8, 2011) after I asked myself the question, I got an answer. This morning in the library, I was pulling the book request list, and one of the items requested was a picture book from the movie Prince Caspian. The art in the book was beautiful, and I thought "let me just google this artist's name, just on the off chance that he's the mural artist I'm looking for." Well, he wasn't. But he has a wonderful blog where he shares tidbits of his work, and he was a conceptual designer on the Narnia films. He *did* design much of the State Room, including furniture and hardware, etc. And on his post about his work in that room, he mentions the answer to my elusive question.

The wall murals are painted by Min Yum.

Further exploration of his blog yielded many more conceptual drawings of details from Dawn Treader that might have gone unnoticed while watching the film. Especially since they never did do any sort of behind the scenes or art-of book for Dawn Treader, unlike the first two films.

Don't be surprised if I someday return to this film in a blog post, as the interior design in the film (the Dawn Treader, the Magician's island home, etc) are just sublimely Domythic. But here at least is a small tidbit to inspire.

You really must look at all of Jeremy Love's Amazing posts.

Jeremy Love Dawn Treader concept art post 1
Jeremy Love Dawn Treader concept art post 2
Jeremy Love Dawn Treader concept art post 3
Jeremy Love Dawn Treader concept art post 4
Jeremy Love Dawn Treader concept art post 5
Jeremy Love Dawn Treader concept art post 6
Jeremy Love Dawn Treader concept art post 7
Jeremy Love Dawn Treader concept art post 8
Jeremy Love Dawn Treader concept art post 9
Jeremy Love Dawn Treader concept art post 10
(Post 7 is the most amazing of all to me)


Epic Domythic Bell Jar epicness.

Vincent and Catherine - A New York Fairy Tale

There's a little show I used to watch as a young girl, whenever I could catch it on tv. This show was an enormous influence on my formative years. It was called Beauty and the Beast, and in the show, the classic story had been moved to the kingdom of New York City. Catherine, the lovely beauty, worked for the district attorney, while Vincent, her beast, lived below the city in tunnels and caves carved out by the subway and by the ages before there were ever subways. The tunnels acted as a sanctuary for those the city left behind...the poor, the neglected.

This television show was my first exposure to the idea that fairy tales and magic might not just belong in story books, but might also belong in our modern world. I was utterly transfixed at the tender age of 10 or so by the world below. A few years ago, the series came out on DVD, and I found myself just as enchanted.


The world down below was one full of wonders and beauties:


My favorite room, however, was Vincent's own bedroom. Cozy and romantic, it perfectly encapsulated the idea of a mythically inspired space.


Catherine Chandler's New York City apartment is quite dated in style when you watch the show now. But Vincent's room, and the rest of the Down Below, are just as stunning today as they were when the show aired.


Filled with timeless treasures, it might be a matter of skepticism that these societal outcasts could afford such relics. But really, it's not that surprising to imagine that in a city like New York, with a network of helpers, these people could have amassed a collection so beautiful from the things others tossed away.


I especially love this old reliquary image in the library chambers:


Books, books, everywhere...piled up, stacked around, exploding off of the shelves. It's not hard to see where Vincent discovered his passion for the written word.


Mouse's chamber in the caverns is a lovely combination of tech inventions and medieval gothic.


Many thanks to the pages of the Classical Alliance of Beauty and the Beast for all of these images.

More Images from Penelope

Penelope is one of my favorite films...one that I feel walks the boundary between sweetness and sentimentality. And I just adore her room. If I had a room like this, I'd never want to leave.

She has a tree. In her room. It's red. I love it.


And did I mention the swing? And the arts and crafts corner filled with things to create with, all bottled in old bottles and jars to look apothecary-esque? And a canary on a gorgeous little gothic table?

And black silhouettes of butterflies or birds on the gorgeous green walls....


And cloches and bell jars. Lots and lots of huge ones, all on their own stands, with little miniature trees and scenes inside.

Now may be a time to mention that I'm all for the cloches and bell jars trend in decorating right now. They're just so artistic, and you can go in so many directions with them. Old medical bottles and wires inside a cloche can look steampunk, trees and moss and wings tucked inside can look faerie... This is definitely an example of the latter.


Lots and lots of cloches.


Who wouldn't want to create in this environment?


I think my favorite thing in the entire bedroom is her bedroom "window" blinds, which take her from day to night without showing her a real outside view by utilizing transparencies.


What is your favorite movie set for inspiration?