Bringing Vacation Home : Starfish Cottage, ME

We have been wanting to visit Acadia National Park for several summers now. We finally got to it this year and beat the crowds by booking our stay the first week of September. Tip: it's always less expensive that way, too. Aside from a downpour on our first full day, the weather was absolutely perfect, and finally: not too hot!

Our backyard stairway to the rocky coast: 

Maine, to me, is one of the most beautiful, refreshing places to visit in driving distance to us. And, Acadia really delivered in that regard. We had the most beautiful hikes, walks and bike rides. Even our dog Lucy, who is 11, was pulling us up a rocky mountain side to see what was at the top!

Our reward for a pretty tough hike:

There's no shortage of house and cottage rentals in the area, ranging from in-town to ocean front to lakeside. We found a fitting, well-appointed seaside cottage listing online, and while it doesn't seem so from the outside, it ended up being quite spacious for the three of us.

Everything was appropriately suited for a cottage in the woods by the sea, without letting the sea and nautical theme get too out of control and campy.

01 / Toss magazines or store towels in a wire basket inspired by farm potato baskets. From Rejuvination.com
02 / Abstract the wire basket idea with this canvas hamper by Pehr, available at Hudson.
03 / I'll never tire of the look of a lit Moravian star. The materials on this mimic wire and glass nautical lanterns, but not so literally that it becomes too "themed". Plus, the star reminds me of a compass rose.
04 / I like this sea urchin-inspired update on the Moroccan garden stool, available at Kohl's.
05 / Quirky octopus hook pillow available at Hudson.
06 / Where the forest meets the sea. Acacia serveware brings the woods inside and mirrors that amazing kitchen backdrop at the cottage.
07 / Loved the china blue plates against the aqua wall. If you don't have a collection to display yet, these melamine plates by Thomas Paul are fun, nautical alternatives. Available at Lekker.
08 / Vacation homes are the perfect place for that reclaimed wood table you always admired. You can even have one custom made at Vermont Farm Table.

{ For more of my ideas on how I'd outfit my own seaside cottage, check out my Getaway Houses: Beach board on Pinterest.}

My ongoing lament is that with mass production and information globalization, you can't find anything native or unique when you travel (unless you really go to rural places or the far reaches). So it's always my goal to hunt down small, independent shops when we travel. Luckily, the combination of consumer's growing demand for more unique things and support for small, local businesses has made them a little easier to find lately. Here are some favorites from this trip:

BAR HARBOR

Steer clear of the tourist-y haunts (just how many town-labeled sweatshirts do we all really need?) and you can find some really great shops in Bar Harbor. One beautifully curated, but totally unpretentious shop I visited was Salt. I saw this very unique, elegant line of barnacle pottery by Anna Woolf of Wild Card Pottery, an Ellsworth, Maine artist. Isn't this just the coolest thing?

(images from Wild Card Pottery's Etsy page)

Window Panes is also a very nice shop. Best for kitchen gadgets, special home accessories, and more "known" national brand names such as Thymes. I spent a good amount of time inhaling the Frasier Fir line they had on display. It smells like Maine and the holidays.

DEER ISLE + STONINGTON

We took a detour trip to Deer Isle on our way home. We stopped in the little town of Stonington to stretch our legs, eat Maine blueberry ice cream and visit some local shops.

First we visited a tiny, fisherman's shack-like shop, Dockside Books and Gifts at 62 West Main St. It's propped on the harbor shore and you can easily miss if it wasn't for the sign on the roadside, so keep an eye out for it. They had a very good variety of locally made Maine goods and books all in one spot. I picked up these Maine treats there:

 { Clockwise from top left: }

Paine's Balsam Fir Incense is the next best thing to packing up a tree to take home. And that retro-looking packaging is just too perfect.
Maine Jams and Jellies: Go blueberry or go home. You don't want to miss blueberry anything from Maine.
Art of the Sailor hand-tied hanging trivet. They also make coasters, round trivet mats, bookmarks, bracelets and more. So pretty!

Before we hit the road back home we had dinner at The Factory Tavern (Yelp listing, here) where I had the lobster chowder with applewood bacon and the most incredible fish and chips I've ever had. Eat there. It is so good—super fresh, modern, yet comfy, casual and so neighborly. I think we were the only people there that didn't know everyone else in the restaurant!

We heard about The Factory Tavern directly from its owner, a wine hobbyist, at the Seasons of Stonington wine and gift shop, that he also owns. He told us about little Isle au Haut, where the chocolate I was buying is made by hand at Black Dinah Chocolatiers.

Unfortunately we didn't get over to the island, so I think I'm going to order their sipping chocolate for winter that, according to their site, says "each batch is made carefully by hand and subtly spiced with cinnamon, Ancho chile, and cardamommmmmmm." (Well, I added the mmm part.)

So, until next time, Maine. Your pine smell, big skies and fresh air stay with us.

Shop Talk: Pilgrim Waters

I first met Susy Pilgrim Waters at a local design salon where I was invited to share my Pinterest and social media experiences as they relate to both my business and blogging. We made an instant connection and I was fortunate to visit her at her home studio earlier this year.

In a nutshell, Susy is an incredibly talented illustrator and surface designer with an enviable client list and extensive portfolio of work. It's impressive how well her work translates across so many applications—from hand-written logos to textile designs to book illustration. She is typically commissioned for her work (by clients like Crate&Barrel, Iggy's, surface designs for Pizza Hut, NYC Public Library—on 5th and 42nd in the Children's room—and more), but she also has a beautiful line of her own blankets, scarves, and housewares that you can purchase in the PW shop.

Above: Limited Edition Veggie Medley Towel in Citron

Visiting Susy at her home studio in South Boston ("Southie"), I enjoyed getting to know her, her work, and her husband Keith—who partners in the business and is also an accomplished computer artist specializing in computer facial animations for the likes of Pixar. We sat down to chat over homemade scones—"close enough" to tea time!

Their sweet cockerpoo Tillie joined in, too.

We looked through some of her past commissioned work.

Then we took a walk around their elegant, modern home and workspaces. Here, a busy corner of her work studio:

In her studio, Susy was showing me some of her influences and inspirations that include Robert Stewart Design, Ben Nicholson, and Barbara Hepworth. I'll definitely be looking into them in more detail.

Above: Susy holds up my absolute favorite piece in her PW line: the Boulders Throw — a design inspired by sculptor Barbara Hepworth's work. They are handwoven and hand silkscreened in Khatmandu. What I love about Susy's designs is they have a modern, graphic edge, but are softened by her nature inspired approach.

We flipped through a "trunk show" of her pashmina designs. It's almost impossible to choose a favorite, so let's get a few! I'm thinking these will make fantastic gifts for just about any occasion—Mother's Day, a hostess gift for that summer house stay, birthdays, for your bridal party, and more. You can find new designs (shown in progress below) here in her shop.

For the kitchen, I like a combination of these "Veggie Medley" printed tea towels and these handmade silkscreened bread proofing trays:

I like the the red dot on clear wood version on the upper left. What's your favorite?

Finally, I cannot leave out the fact that Susy is also a talented painter. You can see some design aesthetic crossover with her products, but ultimately her paintings have a presence and impact all their own.

Well, I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do, and that I helped you discover another favorite housewares source!

If you are in the Boston area, her products are also sold at the Peabody Essex Museum, the ICA, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Tess, and Nomad.

or
Shop the entire PW collection online.

To see more of Susy's commercial work,
check out her portfolio.

Mudroom Makeover

The weather here in the Boston area isn't exactly what we all pictured for a long weekend—it's pretty soggy out there. But, the silver lining to those rain clouds is we have retreated inside with some time to finally finish some spring cleaning projects (in fact, we just finished a big garage clean out Saturday afternoon. HIGH FIVE!) It is also giving me the chance to finally show you the mudroom project that we completed late last year. I grappled with what to do with this space for a while. I kept adding inspiration to my mudroom board on Pinterest and gave it some percolating time. I finally decided to hinge everything as an ode to the premise (and function) of the space: the transition between outside and inside.

Disclosure: this was not exactly a DIY project. We had enough crumbling plaster and carpentry needs that we called in a professional. And we are so glad we did. Sometimes free time and a project that doesn't go on for months and months in household disarray is worth every penny.

Below: Doors Before / In Progress / After

The front door (orange) didn't have a frame or much of a casing to speak of. The plaster was crumbling from water damage on the bottom half. The door into the garage (gray, on left) had a spray painted glass center (what??) and a commercial, metal threshold that stuck out into the mudroom. It was a total eyesore. 

The front door "frame" was demolished and built back up using a wood frame and a concrete compound fill. Due to the nature of our commercial-turned-residential building and the odd lack of spacing around the front door opening, this was the perfect solution.

The metal threshold was removed from the garage door and a custom solid wood threshold was built in its place.

We replaced the garage door with a beautiful, solid maple door complete with a new brushed metal doorknob and a metal frame (that comes standard with this type of industrial/commercial door). All of the door trim and the front door itself were painted to match one of the warm grays in the birch pattern wall paper (from Sandpiper Studio's Book, EcoChic, in Birch). The mudroom is narrow and this kind of space is not really worth trying to make look larger. So, I went in the other direction and embraced the narrow scale and coziness of the space by using a very visually dense paper. The effect was quite cool—the vertical pattern of the birch trees heightened the room even more and you do feel like you are walking through a tree-lined path into the house.

No mudroom or entry is complete without a keyholder and mail station! Of all the options I looked at, I kept coming back to this Magnetter from Umbra. And I've always liked the humorous BÄSTIS hook from IKEA for Lucy's leash.

Below: Flooring Before / In Progress / After.

We took the opportunity to rip out the feeble 2x4 boards that were standing in as baseboard. We added some "quarter-round" trim to the TOP of the baseboard because we wanted something sleek and modern, which is hard to find in a sea of traditional baseboards.

While the tile in the mudroom is in perfect shape, it had nothing to do with the style of our house (or our taste) at all. So, we simply covered it, wall-to-wall, with super low pile Flor carpet tiles in Toy Poodle in Lime so it would look, unabashedly, like grass beneath our feet. (Heaven Sent in Kiwi is similar—Toy Poodle seems to have been discontinued). And for an entry or mudroom, definitely look for their medium or heavy traffic-graded styles.

I found these fantastic felt storage bins on Etsy. We kept the fixtures we already had and liked a lot, such as our TJUSIG shoe rack and hat rack with coat hooks from IKEA (unfortunately, they no longer have them in the Birch finish).

The Prato umbrella stand rounds out our grassy indoor/outdoor mudroom. And by the time I finished this post, Monday has rolled around and the sun is out and shining. With umbrella stowed away, we are hoping those spring showers are giving way to sunnier summer days—and a post about outdoor living and dining. Stay tuned!

Cheers,
 from Ourhaus!