Have you started planning your summer travel yet?

Although I’ve blogged about visiting castles and chateaus abroad, one of the biggest treasure troves of opulent, awe-inspiring mansions is right in our very own backyard.

These opulent Gilded Age mansions are nestled in the North shore of Long Island and Newport. This historic concentration of mansions has become known as “the Gold Coast.”

The Gold Coast is home to 11 mansions that were built during the late 19th century (from the 1870s to about 1900) for industrialists such as Carnegie-Mellon, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Roosevelt, and more.

These mega mansions are what inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald to write, “The Great Gatsby”, which was such a great book!

So let’s take a walk down millionaire’s row where every house is more stunning than the last.

Are you ready?

Here is the famous 65,000 square foot “Breakers” home built for Cornelius Vanderbilt II.

Via unabashedlyprep.com

Seriously swoon-worthy, right?

The incredible attention to detail, symmetry of the space and gorgeous rich colors is truly exquisite.

When I need to get inspired, I love getting ideas from these luxurious spaces and bringing in a touch of old and new into my projects.

Via unabashedlyprep.com

The most affordable way to achieve that luxurious 19th century look is to transform your furniture with a can of your Amitha Verma Furniture Paint. You can then combine your painted furniture with a mid-century or modern piece to create an amazing designer look that will have everyone thinking you spent thousands!

Via unabashedlyprep.com

Many of the colors were actually inspired by my travels to different chateaus, states, palaces, country homes and more ☺ The color on this paneling reminds me of our own French Gray.

Let’s move on to our next mansion: The Elms. This lavish estate was the summer home of coal magnate Edward Julius Berwind.

Via Pinterest

The gold details, chandeliers and incredible artwork are almost other-worldy.

Next up: Chateau-sur-mer.

Via Pinterest

This is one of the first mansions built from the Gilded Age. How gorgeous is that blue? I love nod back to classic French architecture.

Each one of these elegant homes were built by following classic principles of architecture and design. Whenever, I’m trying to get a little inspiration I love turning to colors, patterns, motifs and fabric patterns from the past, how about you?

Want to plan a visit?

These “Gold Coast” homes are now owned by The Preservation Society of Newport County and are available to the general public to visit.

So what do you think? Have you been to any of these? Would you want to go? Leave a comment and let us know!

I hope you enjoyed this blog, I know it was a bit of a history lesson but you can learn a lot about where you want to go when you study the past!

Tweetable: “To know your future, you must understand your past”

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As always, thanks for sharing this blog with your friends, family & loved ones.

Till next time!

With love,

Amitha