London wasn’t part of our itinerary yet every time I think European Vacation, I envision this. And we did see a similar spectacle with the traffic swirling about the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. And all of that is relevant to home remodeling, how? Well, for one, two weeks in Europe seems a valid excuse to not have posted for a while. More importantly, it was incredibly inspirational in pretty much every way.

You might already know we’re struggling a bit to determine the style of our house. And while I didn’t expect to discover the origins of my 1915-built house, I will say in each of the places we visited, we had gorgeous ideas that would make perfect sense in Boulder.

Let’s start with Florence.

So am I a fool to be surprised the homes looked much as I had expected them to? I was not disappointed. Stone, stucco and tile. Enormous doors with hardware to scale. Earthy colors in unusual combinations. Iron balconies with lush potted greenery.

Not even counting the masterpieces tucked into every nook and cranny of the city, Florence was inspiring in many ways:

Bellisima! I left Florence feeling as though I could copy the Tuscan style down to the paint chip back here at the casa and be happy with the outcome. But then we went to Paris…