preview of featured Artists & Artisans

Carol Bass, Maine Cottage founder & artist

Carol Bass We will be featuring the original works of several of our favorite artist and artisans throughout the house, including pieces by Maine Cottage founder, artist and South Carolina native Carol Bass. Carol’s work is alive with bold color, form, and texture that integrates effortlessly with our colorful furnishings. Her artwork will infuse the home with even greater depth and interest. You can view some of Carol’s work online at www.carolbassart.com.

Tracy Glover We love the beauty and originality of these glass lamps from Rhode Island artist Tracy Glover. They are perfect companions to our Maine Cottage style. A rich spectrum of sparkling gem tones is complemented by shapes both pure and playful. Each one creates a dazzling focal point in a room and no two are exactly alike. What they share is the vibrancy of color and light. Each lamp is created according to time-honored glass-blowing techniques. view a few lamps on mainecottage.com

Tracy Glover, artist

Brahms Mount in Hallowell, Maine

Brahms Mount Founded by Claudia Brahms and Noel Mount in 1983, Brahms Mount soft, natural fiber bedding is woven one-at-a-time in a reclaimed mill on antique shuttle looms in Hallowell, Maine. The result is artful, elegant bedding with a loose, easy drape in pleasing colors and rich textures. A long-time favorite of in our stores, Brahms Mount’s bedding will make a lovely companion to bedrooms at the showhouse. more on Brahms Mount.

Jill Rosenwald Known for her lively patterned pottery, Jill Rosenwald is a Boston-based artist with whom we collaborate on several ceramic lamp styles. Each one features brilliant exclusive Maine Cottage colors and patterns. The Ball, Teardrop, Column and Tulip shapes and sizes are ideal, solo or as a pair. These beautiful handmade lamps will combine effortlessly with this 1940’s craftsman home. view Jill Rosenwald lamps

Jill Rosenwald

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Design ideas – Living & Dining rooms

Presention Boards due to CSOL for Review After many hours of design meetings, idea gathering, and consultations within Maine Cottage, Ann Kistler and Sara Meyer have come up with a BEAUTIFUL plan for the many rooms in 54 Gibbes Street. Our very talented marketing crew rendered and assembled the plans onto three big presentation boards of fabric swatches, select furniture pieces, wood and rattan samples, and many color chips. Sara will present the boards and a brief narrative to the CSOL on November 16th.

Sara Meyer, Director of Retail Operations will make the presention.

A Family Gathering Place in Charleston

The theme for the house is “A Family Gathering Place in Charleston”. Here are a few excerpts from the narrative:

“Charleston is a perfect city for multi-generational family gathering. It’s the reason why the baby boomer generation chooses to own homes here and want to furnish them in family friendly ways. The Maine Cottage furnished house for the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League at 54 Gibbes Street is a fabulous illustration of a home where families may gather at any time of the year.”

“The family gathering place is a sought after ideal. The eldest generation is retired or semi-retired and has the time and financial means to have a place for extended family to enjoy. The grown children have busy lives and appreciate their parents’ generous offer of an inviting home in Charleston to get away as their schedules allow and bring their children (the much celebrated grandchildren) to a relaxing, easy place for all ages.”

“Comfort, joyfulness and practicality are essential in creating a home for multi-generational use. Maine Cottage is a natural fit as our style, fabrics and colors fit the bill beautifully. This home is all about relaxation and happy family memory-making. Rooms full of colorful furnishings fully integrated with original artwork bring even greater depth and interest.”

Design ideas: Living & Dining Rooms Here is a floor plan of the Living and Dining rooms on the first floor nearest to the front entry to give you a visual of the space.

Floor plan: Living and Dining Rooms

Living Room: warm, simple elegance Here are the highlights of the proposed Living Room. The plan creates a enticingly radiant collaboration of colors and textures to take advantage of the natural light, emphasize the red-orange of the Parquet floors, and play off the architectural details and of this grand 1940’s craftsman house. There will be curtains and a seat cushion cover for the built-in windowseat in the Living room all made with Maine Cottage fabrics and the wall behind a built-in china cabinet (not shown on plan) will change from a cool white to a creamy off white. We will round out the composition with original artwork, lighting, area rugs and other accents.

Living Room: proposal highlights

Sara & Amy in front of built-in china cabinet

Living room today

Richly-colored, geometric Parquet floors

Dining Room: warm, spirited, convivial The well-lit, open Dining Room is spacious with French doors leading to the kitchen, a handsome fireplace, and more built-in cabinets. The dining room easily accomodates seating for 8 or more. We chose a new butternut dining table paired with Jill Dining Chairs in zesty mango Pure Linen. We love butternut for its warmth and fine grain. Again, there will be curtains made in our fabric (May Flower) and additional upholstered seating and side tables (not shown here) in complementary greens and various textures – creating a stunning visual balance with the adjacent Living Room.

Dining Room: proposal highlights

Dining room today – facing front porch

Dining Room today – French Doors to kitchen, a gracious fireplace

Front Entry

First visit by Maine Cottage

Our First Visit to 54 Gibbes Ann Kistler and Sara Meyer of the Maine Cottage crew met up with members of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League at 54 Gibbes Street for a grand tour and 3 days of brainstorming. Ann flew in from Maine where she is our company Merchandise Manager. Sara lives locally where she is the Director of Retail Operations for Maine Cottage. Amy, Erin and Cindy of our 525 King Street store visited too – to provide ideas and opinions.

Here are a few more images of 54 Gibbes Street and our crew to give you a glimpse of the house as begin the process of making room-by-room decorating plans:

Sara (right) with members of the CSOL

Ann (left) with a member of the CSOL

l to r: Amy, Erin and Cindy of our Charleston store

Main Living room

Beautiful, original floor details

Stairway details

Top of the stairway leading to future office

Challenging sloping ceilings of a hipped roof – future child’s room

Basement – future recreation room

More basement – we wonder what these doors once were?