When I need to snap out of a stressful thought pattern or I’m stuck in line somewhere, I enjoy passing a little time tracking down dreamy dwellings. I’ll add a cottage on a lake in Alabama to my Airbnb wishlist, then contemplate suspending my wanderlust and settling down in a 1900s Savannah house I found on Zillow (whose monthly mortgage payment — and I am not even exaggerating a little bit — would cost about the same as renting a very average 1,200 square foot house here in Tampa). Sometimes I watch mother-daughter duo Karen and Mina transform houses in Indianapolis on HGTV’s Good Bones, or thumb through the pages of Dwell. (Yes, I still get a few actual paper magazines delivered in the actual postal mail.)
But my most favorite housing-related daydreaming happens on Instagram. Check out these three accounts.
❶ spookycozyhomes
Alexandra May (@spookycozyhomes) * Instagram photos and videos
91K Followers, 564 Following, 83 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Alexandra May (@spookycozyhomes)www.instagram.com
I fall for southern gothic, New Orleans-style, Spanish, and Mediterranean architecture the hardest, and spookycozyhomes, while not focusing on any one or all of those specifically, appeals to the same area of my brain that’s stimulated by them. A lot of the houses — castles? — are in New England (or actual England), but the draws for me are the ornate features, the mysterious vibes, and a curiosity about the long histories of each of these places and their current and former inhabitants.
❷ shltr
SHLTR (@shltr) * Instagram photos and videos
1M Followers, 507 Following, 3,481 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from SHLTR (@shltr)www.instagram.com
More focused on modern, functional spaces, shltr’s main draw for me is that it knows a good bathtub when it sees one. There’s literally nothing more relaxing than a bath, when it’s done right — in a tub that’s large enough, with a really good bath bomb (may I suggest Crystal Bar Soap’s bombs?), in complete silence aside from the sounds of the water and your breath, and accompanied by a good book and a refreshing, icy cold beverage.
❸ zillowgonewild
Zillow Gone Wild 🏡 (@zillowgonewild) * Instagram photos and videos
2M Followers, 11 Following, 827 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Zillow Gone Wild 🏡 (@zillowgonewild)www.instagram.com
As its name suggests, zillowgonewild showcases the most extreme and fabulous of everything there is to find on regular old Zillow. The biggest, weirdest, most unusual, most expensive, most outrageous properties you’ve ever seen all curated and sent right to your device. Isn’t technology wonderful?