Setting a holiday table at the BDC

Mix natural elements with a generous serving of shiny objects, add a dash of artistic details along with a shot of traditional touches, and your holiday setting is sure to sparkle!

Last week I attended a Boston Design Center lecture and presentation featuring holiday table settings as influenced by Historic New England properties and collections. The table settings were displayed on the 6th floor of the BDC, where the yearly Dream Home event takes place (click here after reading this post to see views of designed spaces
from previous shows).

One of three tablescapes on display at the BDC

A Bauhaus-influenced Dining Room, circa 1938
The Gropius House of Lincoln, Massachusetts
{Photo from Historic New England website}

The Gropius House was the inspiration behind one of the three modernly-festive tablecapes. The Gropius House was the New England home of Walter Gropius, founder of the German design school known as the Bauhaus, and his family members from 1938 to 1983. His wife, Ise, willed the property to Historic New England (at the time it was called The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities) to be used as an historic house museum. Wendy Hubbard of Historic New England presented numerous images of this unique property including this view of its modern dining room. Note the pair of Sori Yanagi Butterfly Stools by the fireplace, leather and chrome chairs by Marcel Breuer, and the round Eero Saarinen tulip table which were loosely interpretted with modern design pieces from the BDC, along with items from the collection of reproductions offered for purchase through
Historic New England.

Placemats were fashioned out of “Shoot for the Moon” wallpaper reproduced by Christopher Norman for Historic New England, and the outside was brought in with this table from Janus et Cie adorned with fresh cut greens, pine cones and faux bois silver candlesticks. Simple black and white ceramic Japanese place settings, as favored by Gropius, complete this modern winter tablescape.

In the second two vignettes, designers Susan Newberg and Phylllis Tracy of Neptune 1 Studios showcased pieces from their collections of decoupaged plates inspired by historical wall-coverings.

The dark blue colorway of “Shoot the Moon” provides a rich backdrop to this table setting featuring plates designed with scenic images captured from the 18th-century English wallpaper that still adorns the Jerimiah Lee Mansion in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Susan Newberg, whose graphic design expertise has brought new-life to these historic wall-coverings, is pictured here with designer Rosanne Palazola. All of us have design pieces represented at New England Fine Living in Middleton, Massachusetts.

Nancy Faye Glass (a design friend of mine that I met while working on The Stevens Estate in North Andover) and Phyllis Tracy are both wearing designer fashions from the Peabody Essex Museum boutique. I recognized Nancy’s black and white wool dress-coat as a piece from the Iris Apfel collection.

Iris would love this third table setting adorned with birds, feathers, and jewel-toned glassware and botanicals. The plates are designed with sectional representations of the pretty and bright floral paper that graces the walls of one of the glamorous rooms in the Beauport Sleeper-McCann House in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Interior decorator Henry Davis Sleeper actually designed homes for members of Hollywood’s elite including Joan Crawford. His design sensibility was intelligently whimsical and theatrical.

I am putting “visit the Beauport”
on my 2011 to-do list!

Neptune 1 Studios Decor Chinois Collection is available at The Martin Group at the Boston Design Center and online through Historic New England. Click here for more retail locations.

Neptune 1 Studios at New England Fine Living:
JOJ Frost Collection and The Lee Mansion Collection

Neptune 1 Studio’s Ashley Bowen Collection
is also available at New England Fine Living

Contact Neptune 1 Studios if you are interested in carrying their line or commissioning a piece.


If you are in the design profession in the New England area and are interested in learning more about Historic New England and their curated collections, they have a new design group membership that includes visits to the historic properties on their register among other benefits. For more details on the Ogden Codman Design Group Membership click here.



{Images from Historic New England website}

For a wealth of information on historical architecture and design in New England, click here to view past issues of Historic New England Magazine online.

A few words from a friend ...

My friend, Rosanne Palazola of Tuttle & Co.
in her designed space at Tapley Hall for
Reflecting on Danvers History through
Interior Design, July 2010


Portrait of Louise Thoron Endicott
by John Singer Sargent


Rosanne’s space at the summer design show at Tapley Hall paid tribute to Louise “Lulu” Thoron Endicott, who while a privileged resident at Glen Magna Farms during the early 1900’s, was not afraid to get her hands dirty, and spent much of her time tending the gardens.




Inspired to bring the outdoors in, Rosanne created
a thoughtful vignette that combined items from
the Danvers Historical Society collection with
a handful of modern elements for this indoor
version of a gardener’s potting shed.


Carpet from First Oriental Rugs of Danvers

Rosanne combined richly textured fabrics,
simple burlap walls, and artful images to
create a charming and memorable space.




The sentiment on this accent pillow was
appreciated by many visitors to the show.



An historically patterned floorcloth created by
Lisa Curry Mair of Canvasworks Floorcloths

Please visit Rosanne’s design blog, Focus on Design when you get a chance. Her recent post on a canvas floorcloth presentation that we both saw while at Glen Magna Farms for our Designer High Tea includes a lot of the information that I have been meaning to share (it is so nice to have friends who participate in the same events and then write about them in their own blog!) Since I have been noticing floorcloths a lot lately – chevron patterns seen on numerous design blogs and a large scale shell painted on one at the York Decorator Show House – I thought it would be nice to share a bit of this conversation with you ...

Click here for more about floorcloths
in the words of Rosanne Palazola

Question: What would your floorcloth look like if you were to commission (or make one) for your home? Click here to add your thoughts on the Canvasworks blog, or feel free to share your comments here!

Glen Magna Farms: a look inside

John Singer Sargent’s 1902 portrait
of Mary Endicott Chamberlain,
who once lived at Glen Magna Farms

Now that everyone knows why returning to Glen Magna in Danvers last week for a designer event was like a trip down memory lane for me, I am now ready to move on and share some interior views of the estate. Views that I did not get much of a chance to see when
I was a young twenty-something running
back and forth to the kitchen.

Next to the small cook’s kitchen is a large and elegant dining room, where presidents Taft and Cleveland once dined. The Danvers Historical Society recently had new carpeting and window treatments added to this room. I can only imagine what kind of parties have taken place here over the last 200 years (Glen Magna was built in 1812). I guess that is why I love old
homes so much, for their mysterious past!

The wallpaper, which was hung in 1923, was created out of French wood blocks from 1814 and depicts
the love story of Cupid and Psyche (which is
not as romantic as it sounds!)



This statue, found on the second floor of Glen Magna in the historical archives, looks like the woman in the wallpaper, but is Lysithea, a figure from Greek mythology, daughter of Oceanus (see how she is holding a shell and the ocean is at her feet)
and a lover of Zeus.

Next to the statue, is an original fence post finial from the historically renowned gardens of the estate.
This finial became the inspiration for one of
the designer vignettes at Tapley Hall.

Designer Ann Chapdelaine had a lamp created
using a reproduction of the classic finial shape from
Glen Magna’s collection, and repeated the
festoon motif throughout her vignette.

Above the mantel in the Bride’s Room at Glen Magna is a painting of the Derby Summer House with a mysterious woman dressed in white (Lysithea?) walking the grounds. If you can identify her, please do!




The Derby Summer House
or McIntire Tea House ...
A rare and unique example of
American Federal architecture



The Bride’s Room

The Groom’s Room

A closer look at the wallpaper in the Groom’s Room

Friends (and designers) Erica and Brandi,
who joined us for High Tea, pose for a
modern day snapshot in the foyer.


Close up of the pretty wallpaper in the foyer




I am not sure what is hidden up here, but it was
a beautiful view as seen from the second floor.

This wallpaper found in an upstairs hall is my favorite.

Although I like the graphic look of this one as well.

In the Drawing Room, “Greek Key” and “Egg and Dart” wallpaper borders create panels that frame artwork,
like the portrait below of Mary Endicott,
painted in 1887 by Ethel Mortlock.

This is just a brief (and very unofficial!) look at the rich history seen at Glen Magna Farms. If you are in the area, contact the Danvers Historical Society to get a real tour of this magnificent property. And if you are a bride-to-be, consider hosting your special day
where many before you have elegantly
celebrated love and romance!

Still to come ... Q’s and A’s
from our discussion on design

Open Wed. July 28th through Sun. Aug. 1st