uploaded to Flickr by Peter Kaminski
You’ve done it, admit it. You’re walking the dog, or just trudging home after a long day at work. There’s a light on in the renovated house down the street. You can’t help yourself. You’ve got to see if they’ve put in a tray ceiling or reclaimed tin tiles in the bay-front living room.
Rather than the kind of voyeurism Frisky Franny would own up to, I enjoy jaunts at night mostly because of what’s not so easy to see during the day — and often, it’s like a glimpse inside of Architecture Digest or Decor. Ok, sometimes it’s a little Not So Good Housekeeping or Hoarders: Buried Alive. If the curtains aren’t drawn, at night you have a chance to catch glimpses of the architectural elements, design stunners and artistic whimsy of fellow Hill residents’ homes. Truly, I really don’t want to see anyone who lives in these homes, or what they’re up to — I want to see what kind of art they have hanging over the fireplace. Is that really a Noguchi chair? Why did they put up that wallpaper?
Of course, I could sate my taste to see what others are doing with their galley kitchens or mantelpieces by hitting every house tour and open house in the neighborhood, but I’d probably never want to go home. Each year after the Capitol Hill Restoration Society’s Mother’s Day House Tour (this Saturday and Sunday), I am loathe to return to my own house because it’s just not “all that.”
Since I lost my dog walking partner last year, these days my own stolen night-time glimpses are fewer and far between. My stroller buddy tells me she really loves the front porches, stoops and doors we see during daytime walks. Deprived of my evening peeks, I might just need to pick up tickets for this weekend’s tour. And then, as in each year I’ve gone, it will be time to go home, rest my barking dogs, and imagine what we might do with an imaginary inheritance or even just an extra closet to store the jungle-themed activity center, i.e. the focal point of our living room. That’s what you’ll see if you look in my window.
I’m with you, Kate! Love looking in the windows, not to mention the hours spent at design websites online.
What a perv, Kate! Just kidding.
Sadly when I walk the dog at night all I seem to see are giant televisions, too big for the rooms they are in. I’m not really even peaking as much as the flashing TV light looks like an indoor thunderstorm.
When I first moved to DC and was living in some nondescript apartment bulding I would peer into the gorgeous historic houses and wonder who lived in them. Now I do!
In my neighborhood I’ve noticed that every home (including mine) has the obligatory wall of built-in shelving stuffed with books. 🙂
What I’ve enjoyed seeing the most are the gorgeous paint colors some people use in their front rooms over the years. I also appreciate some of the different “on display” pieces that are right in the bay windows. It’s kind of an awkward space, and one I’ve never been sure about what to put there. I like getting ideas on our narrow front rooms. Once many years ago, we went for a walk right at dusk with my husband’s brother’s family from Atlanta, and I said something like, “ooh it’s the perfect time to see what the inside of people’s houses look like from the street” and my genteel sister in law was totally appalled. But of course, then she started looking too, sly gal that she is. I think that unless you’ve blocked the view, you must expect that people walking by are going to look. We do live in a city right up next to each other after all.
My favorite place to peek in windows is Old Town. Their houses aren’t set back off the sidewalk as far, so you can get a really good look. People there definitely decorate with peeking in mind, I think.
(Don’t get me wrong, I do a lot of peeking here at home too!)