I have such a treat for you today’s edition of A Peek Inside: indie home tours….Vanessa Valencia of {A Fanciful Twist} has opened up her homes for an exclusive tour just for Indie Fixx readers. Vanessa is an artist (etsy shop) & blogger who regularly shares little peeks of her homes on her blog, but never before has she thrown open the doors for a full-fledged tour…until now. The observant among you may have noticed that I wrote homes and that was not a typo. Vanessa has two homes—she is both a city & a country mouse—and she is sharing both with us.
Vanessa’s style is not easy to pin down, it’s one part New Victorian (as described in the Dec/Jan House Beautiful), one part whimsy, one part magical, one part bohemian, one part museum and another part amusement park, a little bit dark, lots of romance sprinkled about, a soupcon of art deco & with plenty of diy all throughout. I won’t waste too much time in trying to describe Vanessa’s style, as it will be much more enjoyable for you to come up with your own description after reading my interview with her as well as drooling over all the images.
So, take a look, read the interview and share your thoughts. Personally, Vanessa’s country house just may well be my dream home! 
City house bedroom
1. How would you describe your designing style?
I would have to say that it is definitely an eclectic and collected design style - which seemingly combines all the design phases I have gone through since I started living alone at 18 to now. At the city house, there is a tinge of modernism left from my large scale abstract painting days, and collected pieces infused with a bit of wackiness and bright color flair. I went through a phase where I painted every piece of furniture I owned, including my piano and kitchen curio cabinet at the city house. So a bit of that remains, but I think my love of vintage and antiques have really taken over in the last few years giving my style a more vintage flair, especially in the country…
City house living
Country house bedroom in the spring
2. Tell us about your homes. How the city house/country house living evolve? Where do you spend most of your time?
I moved to Tucson in 1994 to attend the University of Arizona, at which point I moved into the city house. I lived there full time until I was 25 years old and had graduated from the University and started a career, where I met Mister Lovee (significant other). He had purchased this old property that needed work a few years before I met him. It had several canning and gardening facilities because there are many fruit trees, and the previous owners grew and raised all of their own food on the property for 30+ years.
Over time we realized there were spaces with potential for me to have my own room, studio, office and gallery, separate from the main house (which I don’t share in the photos in order to give Mister Lovee some privacy). Mister Lovee was very open to converting an Arizona room into my own girlie bedroom, a canning room into my studio, a canning facility into my office (most recent), and a canning and gardening house into a gallery for local shows and appointments. We dreamed about it for a few years, and then started to work on each space until it came to fruition.
I commuted between the city and the country house for years (spending most of my time in the country), and then made the country home my main residence about 4 years ago. I quit my business related job at which point I started spending all my time at the country house so I could create in my studio and run a little business selling my art. We own the country property together, and have high hopes of seeing it flourish even more. There are a few things we would like to do, and are open to and excited about future projects.
Country house bedroom
The interview continues after the jump
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