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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Ivy houses

Ivy-covered houses to add a breath of fresh air to your morning. They look right out of storybooks.

(Photos by Chloe, Berkshire, Guen-K; via Abbey)

94 comments:

  1. Jenni Bailey11:14 AM

    I desperately want to move into one of those. Right. This. Minute.

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  2. I grew up in an ivy'd house and I miss it so much. Lovely!

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  3. How gorgeous. I wish Americans got on board with as often as the English!

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  4. beautiful to look out. horrifying to think of all the spiders who find home among the vines!

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  5. I love ivy, these houses look soo lovely

    http://chicgeekery.blogspot.com/

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  6. They truly look breathtaking. My mom lives in England and the back side of her house is all covered by ivy. Happy Wednesday, Joanna:)

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  7. Ooooh I would love to escape on a romantic getaway to one of thesw homes! So breathtaking!

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  8. I love that from far away some of the house could fade into the background.

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  9. haha, mary, i agree, not for those who are scared of bugs:)

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  10. I love the way ivy absolutely takes over, it's very enchanting.

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  11. Shelly11:29 AM

    how come i can't see your full posts in my google reader anymore? womp womp

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  12. Aw wow they look like something straight out of a fairytale! x

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  13. Aww, these are beautiful!

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  14. Anonymous11:32 AM

    They are so lovely but rats and mice often take resident in the vines, eek!

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  15. Oh if only my husband would let this happen with our old brick house:( The vines are trying but he's convinced they will weaken the structure!!

    Looks dreamy.

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  16. Anonymous11:38 AM

    That last one look straight out of a fairy tale!

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  17. Anonymous11:38 AM

    Vines DO weaken structures.

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  18. My mother and father are in an unending fight over the ivy that grows on their house. My dad loves it and my mom hates it, so they have come to an agreement that it is only grown on the back of the house. This means that whenever you walk up to the back door you have to apologize to the birds living in the Sparrow high rise the ivy has become!

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  19. They do look straight out of a fairytale book! So gorgeous.

    Shabby Apple Giveaway

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  20. When I lived in Brooklyn, there was a house like this on Powers St, off the Graham L stop. It was doubly magical in the middle of vinyl-sided row houses...

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  21. I so hope to see little stone cottages covered with ivy on my visit to England, next week!

    xoxo,
    Courtney

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  22. these little houses remind me so much of secret garden.. like a little fortress awaits you under all the growth. :)

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  23. Alejandra11:46 AM

    Me encantan esas casas, me recuerdan las viviendas de los hobbit en "The Lord of the rings", pero....no sé si me gustaría vivir en una, aparte de los bichos, deben dejar mucha humedad en las paredes.

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  24. In England, every other house has ivy. I love it

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  25. must be full ob bugs... LOL yet, must be a fresh solution in hot summers

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  26. I just love these pictures of Ivy Houses! I want to live in the last one, or at least stay the night, ha!

    - Grace @ Wrinkled Chiffon

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  27. oh how cool, gaia, i want to go scout it out:)

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  28. This reminds me of one of my fav childrens books.
    The Ivy Cottage.
    http://www.amazon.com/IVY-COTTAGE-Biscuit-Buttons-Pickles/dp/0394868315

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  29. They do! They look so inviting and fresh. Perfect for a garden party.

    - Sarah
    http://agirlintransit.blogspot.com/

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  30. Love these! We just moved into a place with lots of ivy around it. Ivy is really strong and even came through one of the walls. Beautiful to look at though.

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  31. i LOVE this post!

    -meesch
    http://www.aperfectkindofday.com

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  32. Oh man, now I want to spend the rest of my day unproductively day dreaming.

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  33. lovely houses, must feel like you're living in a fairytale. great post for a grey day:)

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  34. i used to live in a super cute house covered in ivy. one day i came home from work and our landlord had torn it all off. the look of the house completely changed. needless to say, my roommate and i were sad...

    we love ivy.

    ~dani

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  35. the pictures remind me of madeline. " in an old house in paris that was covered in vines..."

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  36. Wow, they look like a dream.
    They're so lush. They almost look like they're breathing.

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  37. Anonymous12:39 PM

    I live just a few miles away from that last one in north wales! I think it opens as a tea shop over summer, but it's worth a visit this time of year as well when the leaves start to turn bright red.

    Hafwen

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  38. These are gorgeous! That first and last one...wow!

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  39. beautiful ... except for the fact that i am battling it out with english ivy in my yard right now {ivy is winning}. maybe i will flag this post and look it a few months when i can fully appreciate it.

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  40. Beautiful! There are houses like these in the South, but they are covered in Kudzu. I doubt it would warrant the same response haha!

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  41. These are absolutely gorgeous. I would love to vacation at one of these.

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  42. I love ivy-covered houses now. BUT when I was a kid, I thought the houses were so old, they had molded-over. :)

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  43. ivy can weaken the mortar and cause leaks at the base of the house. i spent a very long weekend pulling the ivy off my building even though it's so gorgeous to look at when the leaves turn.

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  44. thank you for these! I'm positively obsessed with ivy houses. One day I shall have my own. =D

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  45. i adore these! i live in london for a time and would pass one everyone day on my morning run, loved watching the colors of the ivy change with the seasons

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  46. I always love the look of this. Maybe not 100% covered in ivy, but definitely some. And on brick is just the best! But someone once told me that mice & rats flourish in ivy so all I can imagine when I see houses like this now is that they are filled with vermin. Am I crazy?!?! :)

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  47. I'm with Mary! They are so romantic and refreshing. Although I would worry about rodents!

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  48. So beautiful, though I wish it wasn't so damaging to the house! My uncle used to have an old house near Reading, Berks like this.

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  49. That last one looks so gorgeous...

    windeater.blogspot.com

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  50. hannah3:04 PM

    my mom and I always argue about ivy covered houses. we both love them, so reminiscent of cornwall, where we are from. She thinks she can not grow ivy on the stucco house in so. cal, where she lives now. I saw just do it (stucco is hideous). anyone know if ivy will in fact ruin the stucco and pull it off? if not just to dissolve our dispute?!

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  51. my boyfriend calls them beardy houses. Isn't that sweet?!

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  52. I totally agree! I have some up the side of bricks surrounding my front door, love them!

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  53. wow! just like in a fairy tale!! If I had one, it wouldn't be totally covered up with ivy, but maybe a part of it... after all, I'm a fantasy girl :D

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  54. Ok...I've brave enough to be the voice of disagreement. These houses look like their out of the movies "The Ruins" with the flesh eating vines...they are really giving me the heeby jeebies. It looks like the houses are being consumed :o(
    In addition my father has always said to us that ivy grows/ digs into the cracks/ crevices and can create worse ones.
    I like the look of ivy, but I could never be comfortable with it overtaking my home like this.

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  55. Well,you would never have to paint again,lol.

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  56. growing up in the desert this is like a dream! big sigh...

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  57. I have always loved the way ivy looks on a wall but am so worried about the roots destroying brickwork, etc. How bad is it really? Also, funny thought - I remember touring schools as a child thinking, "meh, there's no ivy at the Ivy League; liars!"

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  58. these are all over my neighborhood in portland, maine!

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  59. As soon as I saw your post title I thought of Tu Hwnt I’r Bont and laughed when I saw it there on the screen (last picture). We had a lovely lunch there earlier this year, I highly recommend a visit :)

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  60. heemmaa5:48 PM

    my parents house, in France, which is also my childhood home, is covered with ivy. I love the fact birds are nesting under the leaves and bees are flying around all summer...

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  61. Aaah. Reminds me of the house my flat in Oxford looked out on. Thanks for the fond memories!

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  62. I love that look of ivy growing around a beautiful house. These photos are great.

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  63. These are beautiful! It makes take decades though to grow them.

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  64. Gorgeous- those are simply beautiful :)

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  65. I'm not sure which is greater: my desire for an ivy-covered house or my arachnophobia. Right now the two are at an impasse.

    http://theorderoftheday.blogspot.com/

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  66. They are also an invasive species that will trees around your house.

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  67. A history professor of mine once commented that these ivy covered homes were considered the height of fashion much the way beards once were in England. Basically, the shaggier the taste for facial hair was, the shaggier the house. Now that beards are in vogue once again, perhaps the ivy will follow?

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  68. They absolutely look like they're just out from a story book. xoxo

    http://hellofridaybypaik.blogspot.com/

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  69. my best friends house when i was little was covered in ivy so seeing these piks bring back good memories! Hope you are having a good week. xx
    ps: though of you when I saw this:
    http://think.bigchief.it/articles/2011/10/13/your-bike-is-hot/

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  70. I love these!
    The one of the last image is so charming!

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  71. My husband always spoils things ! When I point out houses like this, he says what about the spiders .. lol.
    Our old house had ivy on the grounds and I always wanted it to climb the house. it refused :(

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  72. my grandparent's house was covered in ivy - i always pretended it was a castle when i was little!

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  73. I love the way these look. It's really too bad ivy is an invasive species. Here in America it is not a native species and kills off many other native herbaceous plants, chokes our native trees & is nearly impossible to kill! And not only that, but not a single animal eats it. Most will not eat it even if they are starving.

    Bummer.

    But moss on the other hand can create a beautiful enchanted look as well and it's super easy to grow (at least here in the Northwest). You can actually make moss "paint" by blending together a moss patch with buttermilk. Wherever you paint with it, it will grow. Imagine the possibilities!

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  74. Love-but sooo bad for the foundation-the owners must hate it...

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  75. yes please. there's something completely medieval and wealthy and rustic and scary and amazing (yes, all at the same time!) about ivy on buildings.

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  76. i love ivy covered houses too. i think the first one i saw was in hitchcock's "rebecca." there's something so mysterious about them :D

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  77. these do LOOK amazing! I want to read by the window and take a nap with a breezy flowing in.. but my first thought is BUGS! lol

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  78. These houses have to be haunted.

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  79. Ivy does look beautiful, but you really shouldn't let it grow on your house. It's roots can weaken and break down bricks, leading to all sorts of expensive structural problems and damp.

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  80. Oh how lovely! The last one looks like a hobbit house!

    Maria xx
    www.cheekypinktulip.blogspot.com

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  81. Anonymous12:18 PM

    The last house is Llanrwst courthouse here in Wales. You should see it when it turns red. Beautiful.

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  82. Amazing image, looks like an aamzing house, would look stunning in the snow too.

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  83. No, no, no, no, no!!!!!!!!!!! I hate them. Maybe it's because I grew up with a house half covered in ivy. The house next door to work has it too and I still hate it, they have to cut it back every 8 weeks or so, and it's just messy and horrid.

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  84. I LOVE THESE HOMES!!! I love the mystery the ivy gives the homes.

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  85. Definitely a breath of fresh air and super English-styled houses. First time I've seen a house covered in Ivy.

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  86. I agree with you! Breath of fresh air in the morning, and in the evening. Lovely house. I just hope that there are no bugs in it. :)

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  87. Here in America it is not just a native species and kills away lots of other native herbaceous plants, chokes our native trees & is practically impossible
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  88. These are definitely stunning. I would really like to holiday at one of these.

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