Design

Dark Fables

By Jenn Rose Smith
Dark Rustic Inspiration Board

Dark Rustic Inspiration BoardI love Halloween because it’s the one time of year I get a free pass to explore the darker side of my aesthetic — and I suffer from a lifelong proclivity towards all things antique, spooky, and strange. The older I get, the more I appreciate the subtler charms of my favorite holiday: the inevitable chill in the air, the promise of time off from school or work to come, and that one magical night of masked fun. It’s the only holiday that allows us to indulge our fantasies, put on a costume and become that “other” version of our self, one that exists in another realm of reality. This year I’ll be little red riding hood, and my board is inspired by the dark farmhouse and woods I’ve always imagined at the beginning of her tale. Le Petit Chaperon Rouge was first published by French author Charles Perrault in 1697, and the story in my mind most definitely happens somewhere in the shadowy and rustic French countryside. Don’t you just love the darker, older versions of fairy tales? Looking at these images I can almost smell wet moss, rich merlot wine, and fresh pine logs crackling on the fire… Whatever your fantasy is this Halloween, I hope you’ll embrace it without reserve.

image sources {row 1} zsa zsa bellagio, helga and bear, buzzfeed {row 2} photo problem, “evening” by gabrielle joseph marie augustin ferrier, a kitchen in france by mimi thorisson {row 3} rolland bello, anthropologie, cindy beau, lovely life