It’s (almost) a wrap

Silver paper sparkles in a room filled with designer patterns.

Space decorated by Katie Rosenfeld and Rachel Reider

for the Concord Museum Holiday House Tour 2011

Naughty or nice? This wrapping paper is sure to get noticed.

Space decorated by Katie Rosenfeld and Rachel Reider

for the Concord Museum Holiday House Tour 2011

Small, brightly colored packages look right at home
nestled in a pair of dining room chandeliers.

Space decorated by Hillary Bovey of Concord for the

Concord Museum Holiday House Tour 2011

An evergreen garland strung with gifts adds
holiday charm to this traditional fireplace.

Space decorated by Kate McCusker of Theodore & Company

for the Concord Museum Holiday House Tour 2011

If only ... a place for everything and everything in its place.

New England Finery Magazine, Autumn 2011 p. 57-58

Michael J. Lee Photography

Remember this great wrapping room featured in the last issue of New England Finery? If you are in the throws of the holiday gift buying/wrapping/giving season, I bet this kind of dedicated space is looking like a must-have about now. And if there is a lock on the door it would be the ideal place to hide surprises from sneaky little (and big) ones who just have to know if they are getting everything on their list.

I have barely had a chance to do much holiday shopping myself (so boys if you are reading this you can stop looking), however I have been putting the finishing touches on some holiday gift giving and decorating ideas for the next issue of New England Finery. Look for it online later this week. Click here to subscribe (it’s free – my gift to you : )

5 under 40 Snapshots

Clockwise from the top:
Debra Folz, Nima Yadollahpour,
Kelly Smith, Jinhee Park, Rachel Reider
photo credit: Michael Fein

Thursday, September 15th at The Galleria in Boston

Hosted by New England Home Magazine at the Galleria in Boston, the 5 under 40 event showcased carpets custom-designed by 5 of New England’s talented design stars (of the under 40 crowd ; ) Woven by Landry & Arcari, these unique textiles were a brilliant backdrop to a lively evening of industry socializing. Each carpet was auctioned off to the highest bidder with all proceeds donated to Barakat, Inc., a charity based in Cambridge, MA that promotes educational opportunities for women and children in central and south Asia. I took a few photos of the carpets, and a lot more pictures of the crowd ...

Carpet designed by Rachel Reider of Rachel Reider Interiors

Carpet by designer Debra Folz

Designed by Kelly Harris Smith of FilzFelt

With designer Rosanne Palazola of Focus on Design

With new friends of mine, Robin Davis and
Sharon Hunt of Designer Bath in Beverly

Rosanne with event sponsor Leslie Fine of Leslie Fine Interiors and
latest New England Finery cover photographer Michael J. Lee, who
with his dapper white-trimmed jacket ended up in a lot of candids!

Michael with Linda Merrill of Surroundings
and The Skirted Roundtable

Michael with New England Icons photographer Greg Premru

Michael with John Kelsey of Wilson Kelsey Design

In the middle: Joanne DiFrancesco of JD Communications
Left: Adam Graber, Vice President of Sales at GerrityStone

Chris Kelly, Fifth House PR with Sarah DiFrancesco, State Street

Julieann Covino of Jace Interiors on the left

with interior designer Katie Rosenfeld, and on
the right with Sage from Mally Skok Design



Thank you New England Home Magazine
for hosting another fun design event!

End note: Photographer Michael J. Lee will be getting on his bike to ride 100 miles next weekend to benefit the Big Brothers, Big Sisters foundation. Click here to read more about Michael’s ride and to support him in reaching his fund raising goal.
Good luck, Michael!

Tweet up at 12 Chairs

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Boston design industry tweet-up hosted at 12 Chairs on A Street in Boston. This Fort Point based interior design studio and home furnishings shop, run by Roisin Giese and Miggy Mason, offers a well-edited selection of sustainable design goodies, gift items and furniture. They also display local artists ... I loved this painting of a city alley (above photo, right-hand corner) which reminded me of a recent New England Finery photo shoot in the North End (see page 40 of the April/May issue).

From left: Roisin, Miggy, Jennifer and Julieann

The event was put together by social media wonder Julieann Covino of Jace Interiors along with Jennifer Driscoll, editor of Perspective Magazine, another digital design publication which features architectural design in New England. The event took place just a day after the launch of New England Finery issue 2, so Jen and I had a lot to talk about! Perspectives Magazine already has 7 issues published, and Jen was more than generous in sharing her tips in running a successful design magazine online.



Sharing ideas and resources along with celebrating Boston-based design was the objective of this get together. As Julieann mentioned, Boston has a strong design community, and while it is great to connect on twitter and facebook (which is how many of us communicate), seeing each other “in real life” at these types of gatherings is a great way to really get to know the many talented people in our business.




I went to the event with my friend Rosanne, and we enjoyed some delicious munchies, wine and Prosecco (my favorite ; ) while chatting with new and old friends. While I didn’t take a lot of people pictures (we were too busy talking) here are some quick mentions of who was in attendance ...


Linda Merrill of Surroundings (another designer with a great digital design magazine) who I have mentioned numerous times on this blog!

Photographer Michael J. Lee, who actually shoots all the covers for Surroundings Magazine and whose work has been seen in a wealth of other shelter publications (he even made it in New England Finery, see page 32-33 of issue 2).

Designer Leslie Fine, who wrote an article for New England Finery issue 2 (see pages 28 – 31). While we were talking that night, she mentioned an upcoming project to design a 20 x 30 foot display area for the Residential Design and Construction Show for New England Home Magazine (who we have both guest blogged for recently). Take a look at how it came out by visiting her design blog. Fabulous!

I also got to meet Katie Rosenfeld a designer from Weston who I had only “spoken with” on twitter previously. We had discovered online that we both attended Boston College around the same time. We have probably crossed paths many times without realizing it!





I met others including lifestyle blogger Erika Johnson of Radiant Republic, designer Rachel Reider who just won this award, artist Marilyn MacLeod, photographer Sarah Winchester, remodeling expert David West, and Christina Tassie Miller of the PR firm J.D. Communications.

Lots of design-related professionals were there, so if you are in the area and would like to meet a bunch of creatives at the next event, contact Julieann at Jace Interiors and she will make sure you get an invitation.




And did I mention there were prizes? I actually won this gorgeous silk/cotton ikat pillow from Fabricadabra. It is going to a special someone who has just this color on one of the walls in her home. If you are reading this, Mom, pretend that you are surprised when you get it ; )

Thanks to Julieann, Jennifer, Miggy and Roisin for hosting this fun event. I look forward to seeing you and everyone else at the next one!