Holiday Tradition at Endicott Mansion

Earlier this month, the Danvers Historical Society held their winter gala at the Endicott Mansion at Glen Magna Farms. Florists and artists were invited to deck the halls. I was more than happy to return to this former show house to style my decorated rooms with wintery floral arrangements plus a bit of holiday glam. With snowflake-like wallpaper from Farrow and Ball, the decorations could remain simple ...

evergreens with white roses

sparkle on the bookshelves

feathery arrangement displayed in a winter white vase

from Janus et Cie via The Boston Design Center

whimsical DIY snow globes ... just for fun

How are you decorating your favorite

rooms this holiday season?

I am in Coastal Home!

This past summer at a preview party/press event
for the Danvers Historical Society design show Reflecting on Danvers History through Interior Design, I had a nice conversation with Coastal Home publisher Keith Lemerise. He liked the room I designed and I mentioned how I knew some designers that had recently been featured in his magazine (Nicole Yee was in the summer issue). Upon leaving, he gave me his card, so I began to follow this fairly new magazine on both Facebook and twitter.

One day, CH editor Lynn Felici-Gallant posted on Facebook that they were looking for some inspiring photos and design ideas for the upcoming fall issue.
I sent over a list of content ideas that I knew I had photos to (I always try to use my own photos on my blog) and guess what? Lynn looked over my ideas and then my blog, and chose an image from one of my posts to feature in the current issue!

I took the photo above (top right hand corner) on one of my trips to the Boston Design Center, in one of my favorite showrooms, JANUS et Cie. Read my “Must Do” article in the online version of Coastal Home by clicking here. For my full post with photos from the JANUS et Cie showroom, click here.

And to subscribe to Coastal Home magazine,
click here.

Just another cool example of how easy it is
for social media to connect people with ideas –
and opportunities!

Flood insurance ...

The Weatherend Westport Island Settee would
make a great outdoor – or indoor – piece.

Photo from Janus et Cie website

Well it’s raining in my part of New England again. Two more days of downpours are in the forecast. Many of us in my local area are just getting over a couple of weekends worth of heavy rain that kept us indoors for days on end, and then flooded many a basement. Fortunately, the basement in our home is not “finished,” so all we had to do was watch that the pump did not burn out while working overtime to bring the water back up to the street level.
Others were not so lucky.


A scene taken from the pages of the Janus et Cie catalog.
Does this look familiar to anyone???


Keeping track of multiple pumps while rescuing furniture and other floating odds and ends is not a fun way to spend a weekend! After experiencing one or two storms like this, many often think, “what is the chance that we will be flooded again?” Even with safety features like French drains or correctly positioned downspouts in place, the worst can still happen. Around here it is best to prepare for the worst,
yet hope for the best ...



With that in mind, I have chosen some great pieces of indoor/outdoor furniture that I saw recently at the Janus et Cie showroom in the Boston Design Center that would look very stylish in a finished basement and could certainly replace the waterlogged pieces that I have seen out on trash day. While these pieces may be more expensive than hand-me-down sofas that often find a home in downstairs playrooms, they are great investment pieces that you know will survive an inch or two of unexpected water (or 8 or more as some of us have recently witnessed!) With a grouping of these pieces on a tile floor made cozy with outdoor quality rugs, one could have a very chic downstairs dwelling that could easily survive the wrath of Mother Nature!


Almost too pretty to be outdoors.

Water would go right through
an open weave piece like this.

A stylish place to eat, do paper work
(file insurance claims?) or play cards.

This bench seating was super comfortable and could
easily support a crowd of tv viewers or gamers.

Avoiding any type of porous wood is key.
Cast aluminum frames like these are ideal.

Not afraid to get wet.

A wide variety of water-repelling Sunbrella
fabrics are available to create a custom look.

Kick back and celebrate knowing that your
investment is well protected (hello bar cart!)



Janus et Cie

Boston Design Center

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