“Dwellings showcased on the May 12 Bainbridge Performing Arts Home Tour include small, cozy spaces, to go with those large and grand.Whether they appeal to an atavistic instinct to curl up in a den or a straightforward desire for less to clean, Denise Harris’ gypsy caravan and Craig and Nancy Johnson’s condominium show the comforts of containment.For Harris and friends, small did not mean fewer hours of construction, however. More than 1,700 hours have been devoted to the gypsy wagon so far, Harris said.Building the caravan was like any other project, she said. If you start, you might get obsessed.But the most important thing is that it was built from scratch – built, not bought. The ornate red cart (pictured on front page), which serves as Harris’ guest house on Fletcher Bay Road, recalls carnivals and carousels; one can easily picture a pair of carved horses hitched to the wagon.Modeled after British-made Ledge caravans of the early 1900s, the 14×6-foot wagon has a two-degree difference in the slope of sides from the ends, which made it particularly difficult to build.Harris and master cabinetmaker Dave Sutter made separate trips to England in 1998 for a first-hand look at wagons that survived an old custom – wagons as funeral pyres for gypsy patriarchs.When Harris returned, her husband, Bob Cederwall, milled cherry, birch and fir from island timber. Seventeen hundred hours of work later, the wagon has all the loving attention to detail visual artist Harris and craftsman Sutter could give.A large bed glides easily from storage. A countertop is inlaid with such personal symbols as a minute paintbrush and a portrait of the family dog. Several windows are stained glass, fabricated by Mesolini Glass. Fabric by Janie Ekburg covers the bed and the cushions that run the length of the cart’s sides. Every inch deserves description, but the flavor of the whole may be conveyed by a single exterior detail. Looking closely at the brackets hand-carved in floral motif around the base of the wagon, one notes that the finish coat of paint (there are many) is chiaroscuro – the gradations from light to dark that help give paintings depth. It’s a telling touch, an act of love.* * * * *Nancy and Craig Johnson’s condominium, like the other units in Winslow’s Sun Day Cove, is a plain box with buff-colored shingles. The blandness of the exterior makes walking into the Johnson’s brightly colored nest a visceral jolt.Where some Northwest homeowners may shy away from primary colors, perhaps taking their cue from the muted natural palette of the regional setting – grey skies, wood tones, grey stones – the Jonhson’s 1,245-square-foot home glows like a little jewel box. French lights with hand-blown glass shades in red, cobalt blue, yellow and green, hang just above the dining room table, doubling in brightness in the table’s copper surface.The floor below is Katalox (Mike Mills Hardwood), a gold and dark brown Mexican hardwood with a natural stripe motif the Johnsons reinforce with zebra-striped chair coverings. The couple tackled the room’s red cornices themselves, letting one coat of paint suffice and using ribbon as a finishing touch.The best part, Nancy Johnson said, is (that) you can change ribbons when the mood strikes you.The Johnsons have gathered an eclectic art collection. Micronesian masks share space with a gold and blue polka-dotted chicken sculpture wearing real baby shoes, and Native American baskets abut a large and precise replica of a Cubist painting carved as a wood relief.There are glorious views of Eagle Harbor, and a interior courtyard with Japanese garden. But it’s the Bead Room – Nancy Johnson’s nest within a nest – that feels like the heart of the home.It could be day, night, any time at all in there, Craig Johnson said. You can’t tell. Hanks of beads in every color run the length of the white, windowless, self-contained world where the resident makes her Nancy Hofeditz Johnson jewelry. She opens built-in cabinets and pulls out tray after tray of color-coded beads – silver beads from Bali, beads shaped like little birdcages, olive glass from Lopez, purple beads, red beads and orange beads so bright under the fluorescents that one can close one’s eyes and see a blue afterimage.I just did what I wanted, Nancy Johnson said. It’s my house and it makes me happy. That’s the way it should be: If it pleases you, go for it, and who cares what anyone thinks.The Johnson’s fearless home decor makes this statement: You can get away with anything, if you do it with conviction and brio. “