A fairyland in Merion Station

In Beatrix Potter’s children’s book, The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher, Jeremy, a frog, lives in a damp little house at the edge of a pond.

Lindsay Carota’s collection of metal, wood, and ceramic frogs reside in a large Georgian revival house in Merion Station with a swimming pool in the backyard.

Potter could have been interior designer for the three-story, brick home decorated in the watercolorists’ blues, pinks, greens, yellows, and purples.

Lindsay and Noel Carota moved to the five-bedroom home in 1990 when their son Farrell was a year old. The enclosed porch became his playroom with a blue ceiling, purple rug, and a carousel horse Noel’s father, Emil, gave him as a child.

The living room is furnished with floral-patterned upholstered sofas and chairs surrounding a coffee table fashioned from a glass table top balanced upon two large green carved-wood frogs. A metal frog sculpture sits in the middle of the table.

Lindsay said she has been collecting the amphibians since she bought a ceramic frog for her first apartment when she was 21.

Bob Williams found the coffee table for Lindsay. He was then owner of Calico Corners, a fabric and home goods shop in Wayne.

Williams painted fanciful designs on several chests and tables in the home and painted the dining room ceiling in swirls of pink. He wallpapered the room with a floral fabric. Lindsay sewed matching window treatments and made the window treatments in the rest of the home under Williams’ direction.

A corner of the living room features an ensemble of furnishings from MacKenzie-Childs, a household goods company. Four green, yellow, and white chairs painted with a fish motif surround a glass-topped table with a ceramic base under a ceramic chandelier.

When the Carotas bought the house, the previous owners had just redone the kitchen with black cabinets. “I hated it,” Lindsay said. She swapped the black cabinets for glossy white and purchased 168 flower-painted ceramic knobs from MacKenzie-Childs for cabinet pulls.

Lindsay wanted an alternative to neutral-toned granite for the kitchen island. She had just purchased a rolling pin striped coral and green, which inspired the custom-made parquet wood countertop.

The breakfast room has bright green chairs from Pier 1 Imports. The table, fashioned from a circle of frogs topped with glass, was designed by sculptor Jack Larimore. Pink and green tile art on the wall is from Home Goods.

Hardwood floors throughout the first floor are stained aqua or pink. “I like all colors but brown,” Lindsay said. In Noel’s second-floor office she pasted over the front of his brown desk with rows of yellow pencils.

The couple, who married in 1983, met at Noel’s cousin’s wedding in Wilmington. Noel was living in a condo near Fenway Park, home of his beloved Boston Red Sox. Lindsay was working as a buyer for a children’s shop in Greenville, Del.

Noel had been advised that waiting until after 40 to wed was too late to be a good husband. “We got married two months before I turned 40,” he said. Lindsay, who is 11 years younger, said, “We’ve had a wonderful 43 years together.”

Noel credits his wife for the home’s imaginative decor. “Lindsay did everything,” he said. “I just signed the checks.”

But it seems he appreciates whimsy as much as she does. When he greets visitors at the purple front door with the brass-frog knocker, he is dressed in a floppy red felt hat and a shirt with stripes of pink, blue, green, and yellow.

Guests entering the purple foyer are in awe of the staircase in the center hall. The risers are covered in multicolored tiles crafted by ceramic artist Amy Hetrick.

Friends often ask Lindsey to host bridal and baby showers in her home, which requires no additional party decor. She is happy to oblige. There is plenty of space.

Besides the living room and playroom there is a family room furnished with sofas and chairs, which are slipcovered in quilts Lindsay acquired over the years. “They are comfortable and easy to wash, she said.

Lindsay hopes she and Noel can stay in their fairyland forever. “Nobody can be sad in this house,” she said.

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