Gladrielle's Kaldorei home brings the forest indoors

Gladrielle got in touch with the Housing Herald and invited me over to see her home.

I'd already had a little peek around the garden before our proper tour, so I knew I was in for something special.

Nine months of building, tearing things down and starting again have resulted in a Night Elf-inspired home where streams run through living spaces, trees grow indoors, moonlight pours through windows... and there appears to be reading material next to every toilet.

I love when someone thinks about the important details.

A house by the water

My host starts our tour outside.

The garden is large, lush and very obviously designed to be used rather than merely looked at. There are plenty of places to sit, eat and relax, with the whole space stretching right down towards the stream.

In fact, the garden is close enough to fish from a chair.

This would probably be very exciting if I had ever learned to fish.

It's not like I need the sustenance anyway.

Gladrielle: Don't know of any other plots where you are close enough to fish.

I ask whether she'd deliberately picked the plot for exactly that reason, but apparently it was a happy accident. Gladrielle knew she wanted to live near water and incorporate it into the outdoor space. Discovering she could fish without even standing up was just a bonus.

She had previously experimented with a beach plot, but eventually decided this area was a better fit for a Night Elf home.

I can see why: Plot 6 in Founder's Point is the closest to water that I've seen.

There are … sunk into the ground enough so that they stand in for Gladrielle's preferred willows, there's plenty of greenery, and a custom hot tub.

The original plan was to use the Boulder Springs tub, but its lights caused problems with the look she wanted. But this never stops any housing enthusiast: She built around the problem.

You can clip inside by sitting in a hidden stool... but there is only one.

Gladrielle: No budget for a second stool

The outdoor decorating experience, summarised in one sentence.

Bringing the outdoors inside

Stepping through the front door doesn't really feel like stepping indoors.

A little stream runs through the entrance, … inside … line the stairs and, looking upwards, you're greeted with an impressive view: Flowering trees and other foliage frame the view above and, for a moment, it becomes difficult to tell exactly where the architecture ends and the garden begins.

That becomes a recurring theme throughout the entire house.

My first question is therefore the obvious one: How is the floor so clean?

Gladrielle: Night Elf secret!

I need to know. It'd save me so much trouble at home - not that I've got trees in my house.

At least, I spot a few little piles of leaves scattered around. Someone must be sweeping these leaves. I do love when decor is specifically placed to add realism. All those falling petals have to go somewhere!

Beyond the entrance is one of the oldest tricks in housing: a forced-perspective false window. It always adds some illusion of space to a build.

The moonlit garden

Gladrielle starts on our right, through a small sitting room, leading into one of those skybox circle rooms where she built a small park.

There's a moonwell, trees, elevated grassy areas, places to sit and somewhere to roast marshmallows near a large tree.

Gladrielle: I like having lots of areas for sitting and food. It's gives off a welcoming and homey feeling.

Dosaki: Nothing says cosy like fire and food

Although the undead and fire have a complicated relationship.

One of the cleverest details here is almost invisible unless you know what you're looking at. Gladrielle uses the top of … to create small grassy elevations throughout the room.

If gives the landscape a three dimensional texture and makes the whole space feel much more organic. I don't think I've seen them used like this before.

Opposite the moonwell, there's a statue arranged almost like a monument.

My host tells me she hopes we'll eventually get Night Elf statues. For now she's had to make do with a Blood Elf one.

The composition is intended as a memorial to the World Tree and the lives lost. It reminds me a little of the Temple of Elune in Teldrassil before...

Uhm...

It...

...burned.

Moving swiftly on.

Please make yourself at home

Upstairs is dedicated to guests - There are bedrooms, a kitchenette with tea, coffee and snacks, a study and a full bathroom.

Gladrielle describes the whole area as deliberately warm and cosy, and that comes through as you explore each room.

She prefers an open floor plan and that is clearly obvious when you look at her bedroom doorways: they are very wide and there are no doors.

I briefly point out that getting out of the shower and wandering across to your room to look for clothes might otherwise be an interesting experience.

Gladrielle presents the radical solution of taking your clothes into the bathroom with you.

Oh yes.

That's an option too, I suppose.

Regardless, privacy screens can be pulled across where needed.

Each bedroom has its own custom fireplace, with …s used to give the beds more of a Night Elf feel.

But it's the tiny details that sell these rooms.

Books sit slightly askew rather than perfectly arranged. There's a ceiling fan overhead. Objects are positioned as though somebody actually uses them rather than as if the room is waiting for an estate agent to take photographs.

Gladrielle tells me she deliberately sacrificed size so she could spend more of the decor budget on detail.

I think that was the right choice: Large rooms are only impressive when they are appropriately decorated, but smaller spaces tend to be much easier to make convincing.

We end the upstairs tour by looking at the bathroom. As usual I inspect the toilet. I'm not obsessed. It's just a common item that everyone makes and everyone does it differently!

I can't help but notice that there's also reading material next to the toilet.

Gladrielle: Got to have that!

I am beginning to understand Gladrielle's priorities.

The main living areas

The other wing contains the main living spaces: the master bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and dining room.

The living room features yet another custom fireplace.

And this is a fireplace. It's huge. It's modern. And it's still Night Elven.

The room around it is considerably larger than the guest spaces but still manages to feel warm rather than cavernous - something my guide has clearly spent a lot of time thinking about.

The master bedroom continues the same theme, with moonlight coming through the windows and branches curling around the bed.

Gladrielle: Happy accident above the bed, how the branch wraps around

I'll pretend she did it deliberately if she does.

There are also two particularly fun features here: functioning storage and a custom aquarium.

The aquarium stopped me in my tracks. I've seen a few, but none after pets were added.

It's beautifully put together, but Gladrielle has also paid attention to something housing builds often can't convey through screenshots: sound.

That's why I recorded it too!

A … is hidden inside to provide the sound of running water. It really sounds like an aquarium pump.

A kitchen built in harmony with nature

The kitchen and dining area keep to the theme of the house. Much like the entrance hall, there's a stream running straight through it.

Gladrielle deliberately avoided modern-looking refrigerators and appliances, preferring simple cooking areas that felt more appropriate to the theme.

Gladrielle: It was important for the house to feel like it was built in harmony with nature.

Dosaki: Yes, I can tell. Sometimes you feel like you're inside of a tree or a forest

Nature isn't something that was used to decorate the house. It feels the other way around: The house has been arranged around nature.

Streams break up spaces rather than walls; Trees become architectural features; Branches frame furniture; Vine covered windows open into distant landscapes.

With so much vegetation to take care of, there's even a dedicated herbalist room that feels halfway between a workshop and a garden.

Dosaki: I suppose you do need to have a green thumb to maintain this house.

Gladrielle: To get it started, then it does the rest on its own.

Night Elf secret again, presumably.

We move on, following the stream and Gladrielle stops me. There is another bathroom nearby.

The Bel'ameth dining room

The final room is Gladrielle's dining room. She used the artesanal Bel'ameth Nestled Bedroom.

She originally considered using the temple room for the space, but it was simply too large. And I think choosing the smaller room was absolutely the right call. It's something that comes up repeatedly during our tour - oversized rooms can become cold and overwhelming.

The room almost feels like a garden. Plants and architecture blend together, with the smaller dimensions allowing all of that detail to surround you rather than disappear into empty space.

Nine months of building - and rebuilding

This house took Gladrielle around nine months to reach its current form.

There was building. Then tearing it down. Then rebuilding it. Then presumably staring at something for twenty minutes before moving it three pixels to the left.

Just Housing things, you know?

Interestingly, the Night Elf theme wasn't there from the beginning.

Gladrielle: I was really lost when I first started. Just using furniture from the town vendors.

It was hodge-podge of different things and no cohesion.

Once I decided on the Night Elf theme, then decorating became easier and everything started coming together.

There are some Nightborne influences too, but the biggest inspiration came from somewhere much closer to home. Specifically, her own home and her own mother

Gladrielle: When I was young, my mom was very good at homemaking. I guess she inspired me.

Little touches here and there. Like pots of flowers. Always food ready for anyone that came by.

She was very good at showing hospitality, and really had a gift for it.

When I join tour groups, one of the comments people say frequently is that it feels homey and cozy here, so I always appreciate that.

It makes me feel I captured the feeling well.

Those memories seem to have shaped the build more than any particular piece of Warcraft architecture: There is food everywhere. Chairs tend to face one another. Guest spaces are properly equipped.

There are endless little objects that exist purely to make the rooms feel occupied, useful and inviting.

I'd say she captured exactly what she was aiming for.

Though, surrounded by actual trees and other kinds of vegetation, I think she has gone quite a bit beyond putting flowers in pots.

The economics of cosy

So how much does nine months of building and rebuilding cost?

Gladrielle isn't completely sure, but estimates she's spent over 2,000,000 over the last few months. A large part of that has gone towards Auction House purchases.

Housing is proving to be a wonderful way for crafters to make money and an equally wonderful way for everybody else to discover how quickly money can disappear.

Gladrielle gives me one particularly painful example.

The fish used in her aquarium were selling for around 120,000 shortly after being introduced. She waited about a week and the price dropped to 25,000.

Still expensive, but significantly less likely to make your accountant rise from the grave raise an eyebrow.

tips for builders

Before I leave, I ask Gladrielle what she's learned during the build.

Her first piece of advice is to stop looking at decor items only as the thing they're supposed to be.

Rotate them. Look at them from underneath. Look at their shape.

A bench does not necessarily have to be a bench.

In fact, Gladrielle tells me she's probably used her benches for everything except sitting!

Large rooms are another challenge. Rather than trying to fill one enormous space, she recommends dividing it into smaller living areas. That helps create the cosy feeling running throughout her own home.

Colour matters too.

She has apparently spent a small fortune on dyes, but considers them essential for creating a particular mood. Bright colours can completely change how a room feels, while blues and purples can create something much calmer and more tranquil.

Finally, think about how people will actually occupy a room. Arranges seats so they face one another.

It's a tiny decision, but it turns furniture from decoration into a place where people might actually sit and talk.

That's perhaps the recurring lesson from most of the articles we feature: Don't just decorate a room. Imagine somebody living in it.

Oh, she didn't mention this but, give your gardens some elevation - it makes them look so much better!

What's next?

Despite the amount of rebuilding that got the house here, Gladrielle is now largely happy with it.

The next patch is bringing some new flora, and those Arcan'dor trees may finally be retired in favour of the willows she originally wanted.

There's also a hanging vine Gladrielle has her eye on for the upstairs balcony.

These are tweaks rather than another rebuild, but I know housing builders: they can't resist a grand new build.

Wrapping up

What I like most about Gladrielle's house is that none of its most successful features really stand alone.

The aquarium is impressive. The custom fireplaces are clever. The garden is gorgeous.

But the reason the house works is the way all those things reinforce the same idea: This is supposed to be a home.

There is somewhere to sit. Somewhere to eat. Somewhere for guests to sleep. Tea and coffee are ready upstairs. Chairs face one another. Food is left out for visitors. Books are slightly crooked. Leaves gather beneath falling petals.

And wherever you go, nature seems to have been allowed to wander in with you.

Gladrielle spent nine months trying, rebuilding and refining until the place felt lived in. I think her mother would recognise the hospitality.

And if you're ever invited over, don't worry about bringing anything. There's food all over the place.

Just remember to take your clothes into the bathroom with you.

If you'd like to see more of Gladrielle's creations, check out her Youtube Channel!

I'll see you next time!