The New England Living Show House has made its debut, and we are so excited finally to be able to show everyone our completed rooms! We shot these ourselves so some of the lighting isn't great, but we wanted to show you the finished spaces. The magazine shots won't be ready for a while, and we didn't want you to have to wait!
BEFORE:
AFTER: A European Country Retreat!
 |
| The headboard was handmade from reclaimed wood from a 19th-century home and pieces from an antique trestle bench, also from the late 1800's. It is tufted with vintage buttons, and the fabric is a Belgian linen blend. The bedding is made from all natural fibers. The rug is 100% New Zealand wool and has a Swedish-inspired design. |
 |
| The vintage-inspired European pieces make this room a very comfortable place to relax. The relief over the fireplace was made from a French mold then lightly glazed and highlighted in gold. The furniture used in the space is all over 100 years old and refinished. The window treatments are all made from beautiful linen imported from Belgium. The buttons on the draperies, cornice, and bolster pillow are all vintage. |
 |
| The chaise is made from reclaimed wood products and covered in burlap and 100% cotton. |
 |
| These hand-carved corbels are from a 19th-century home and were a gift from a friend of the innkeeper. I found them buried in the inn's carriage house under a tarp in an old crib. It was a fun experience to find something so beautiful buried under a pile of junk. They are so incredible, I just had to use them in the space. A little piece of glass modernizes the look just a tad. |
 |
| The bergere chair is upholstered in vintage velvet on the seat and hand-blocked linen on the back. |
 |
| The coffee pot and purple depression glass are finds from Brimfield. |
 |
| The sink skirt is made from 100% linen with embroidered circles embedded with Swavorski crystals. The floor is honed Carrera marble donated to us by Stoneworks. The sink is original to the house. |
The shower curtain is a little difficult to see, but it is made from the same fabric as the sink skirt with embroidered circles and individual crystals.
 |
| A view of the Trumeau mirror and the chaise. |
 |
| In the same way the cruise ships give you animals made out of towels, I give you sweet treats made out of towels. I bought too many and didn't know what to do with them, so it was a "make it work" moment, and this is what I did. |
 |
| A touch of lavender and a hand-painted French picture of an ice skating arena from the 1800's make a nice vignette. |
 |
| I wanted the guests to feel at home, so the embroidered pillow "Maison" means "Home" in French and was a perfect touch along with the vintage jeweled buttons used on the bolster pillow. |
 |
This rod was hand-forged and finished with this great pinecone finial, perfect for a Vermont inn.
|
 |
| The European figurine is carrying buckets of lavender. |
 |
| Okay, I will tell you the truth.... I just simply forgot until the last second that I had to stage the patio off the bedroom, so I did this the day of the reveal. |
 |
The ceiling in the tiny bathroom needed a little glam, so I added a tin ceiling generously donated to us by mbossinc. I love the sparkle it created in the space.
|
Room #2: The Gentleman's Lounge
Excuse the lighting and blurriness of some of these pictures. The professional shots are coming soon! I took on this room only 3 weeks before the Grand Reveal! We had a designer drop out, and it was a premier room off the Grand Hall, so it would have been a shame not to have it done. I used some of the antiques from the inn to help transform this space. Then I brought in the window treatments, the horse art over the couch (which are on loan from
Complements Art Gallery in Rhode Island), a chair and a few accessories, including the AWESOME zebra rug. I chose to paint the trim black and the walls a neutral linen tone. I painted out the ceiling in a light gold hue to offset the starkness of the black and white. I gave the room an equestrian feel with a slightly modern/rustic touch. The result is this great, comfortable space any gentleman of today would love to spend time in!
BEFORE:
 |
This is the BEFORE picture above!
Now here is the AFTER below! What a difference! |
 |
| The Gentlemans lounge transformed |
 |
Black and white could look stark, but not here. I added texture with the zebra rug and the different fabrics and accessories which give this room a rich, inviting feel. I found the lamps on the end tables in one of the stables in the carriage house. I actually tripped on them looking for something horse-related (which I didn't find). They were full of dirt and spiders! We cleaned them up, polished them with Rub-and-Buff and put on new lamp shades. Voila! Awesome refinished antique lamps.
You just have to think outside the box when you are staging a room....oh, and don't be afraid of dark, wet places that have tons of bugs and mice in them. After all, there is no whining in design! You all thought being and interior designer was a glamorous job. Well now you know what lengths I will go to get the right accessory for a room. I originally bought the chandelier I used in this room for the foyer of my own home - I guess I'll have to wait until the show house is over before I can use it where it was meant to go. It was a sacrifice I needed to make.
|
 |
| These chairs got a face lift with new fabric on the seat. We got them from another room in the inn, and we found this table in the antique store in the center of town. The phone and the chess set were also the innkeeper's. |
 |
| The server is from the antique store in town. The mirror I carry at our store! It's made from reclaimed barn board. I love to juxtapose the formality of the traditional server with the rustic effect of the barn board mirror. I made a humidor out of an old cabinet and filed it with cigars and vintage cigarette box and a crystal lighter. |
I added this great trunk again from the antique store and I found some equestrian finds from a horse store in Grafton. The number trunk is from The Window Scene. The Welsh pony sign was in the basement of the inn. The innkeeper pulled it out for me to use. It's original to the house.
 |
An upholstered chair from our store and a distressed Chinese-inspired end table with a little touch of quail feathers complete this view.
It's a little hard to see, but I used horse shoes painted black for the brackets keeping with the equestrian feel and a riding stick idea for the rod. Mixed with the historical equestrian toile fabric, it really completes the look. |
 |
Just a little better close up of the newly transformed lamps. The horse is a door stop again found in one of the rooms in the inn. The vintage ashtray I found in my basement. It actually has a race horse engraved on it. I have no idea where I got it from, but it works.
The black on black adds a rich dramatic effect. To balance the look, I added a cream chair with a touch of wood and some greenery on the opposite side. The antique firescreen and the coolest andirons that I found at the antique store really add the little touch of glitz this area needed. The clock I found in the owner's abondoned coffee shop in town. They have been using it for storage, so I went in there to see what I could find to use, and I spotted the clock. Oh, and stuffed behind a ton of furniture was the cool leather-bound modern coffee table. All it needed was a piece of glass. I knew when I saw it the touch of modern was just what this room needed to complement the horse art.
Okay, so I had to show you all the couch below. This couch was in one of the rooms at the inn and I needed a couch, so the owner was nice enough to pay to have it reupholstered if I supplied the fabric and the idea. So here it is.
BEFORE: |
 |
See why it couldn't stay this way?
NOW AFTER: |
 |
Wow! Okay, what did I do? Well, I had the upholsterer change it from a 3 seater to a 2 seater; it's sleeker. Discard the skirt idea all together; it's more masculine this way. Then I had her add the nailheads I supplied. I wanted the double row at the bottom to add a little dimension. Then what threw it over the top... I had her add the tufting to the back along with a little down fill. She painted the legs to match the black fabric.
Now that's a sofa!
(And just for the record this is not my work room - we are not this messy!) |
 |
I need a little more animal skin so I found this one at a local shop and thought I would use it on the back of the white chair to add a little depth. The antique walking stick finishes off the look.
Now that you have seen my rooms, take a look at a few of the other designers' beautiful rooms.
Gayle's Deco Dream |
 |
| Gayle Lipman is a designer from California, and she was a true inspiration to us all. She is 69 years old and has more energy than a 20 year old, along with a love for art deco spaces! I love how she used that influence. She used most of the furniture from the inn, she just recovered or repainted it to make a beautiful room. |
 |
| She used gray tones embellished with diamonds to get this deco feel. She pulled the headboard from another room and the rug is actually rug tiles made into an area rug. It's awesome! |
 |
The new bathroom! The paper is metallic and the owner re-tiled the space for her. Unfortunately, Gayle ran out of time and didn't get to finish, so the shower stall glass is missing as well as the accessories, but you can see how great it will be when it's done.
Eileen's Modern Take |
 |
This is Eileen Patterson's room. She also didn't get a chance to finish her space, but she went with a more modern take in her room. The rug in this room was a sisal blend its just beautiful.
Eleanor's Made-in-Vermont Room |
 |
Eleanor Shepard's is a designer in Vermont. Her room sports a serene palette. Eleanor really wanted the room to be designed with the lodgers in mind. Most of her pieces are from local artisans really capturing and highlighting the heart of Vermont. Great job Eleanor!
Rose Ann Humphrey also did a room but we didnt get any pictures of it. I will post them if I can get some to show you. |
The Grand Opening Gala!
 |
| Cloris Leachman enjoying the evening at the Gala! |
 |
| Cloris giving a speech. I'm stuck behind her. She was really very funny! |
 |
| Her Excellency from Tanzania! |
 |
| Here we are being introduced in the Great Hall, set up for the casino night. Left to right: the owner of the inn Robert Dean, co-chair Cheryl Frisch, Eileen Patterson, Eleanor Shepard, Dawn McLaughlin (me) and Rose Ann Humphrey. Gayle, the other designer, had stage fright and ran into the Gentleman's Lounge when they called her name. There were a ton of people there, and it was about 100 degrees. I wanted to run too, seeing as my hair was growing by the second! I tried to make everyone believe I was just bringing back the 80's. |
 |
| Tom, me, my sister, and my mom taking a minute to reflect on the event. Tom deserves to sit for a minute - he was the go-to guy to get this done. I couldn't have done it without him. |
 |
| My daughter and her husband. |
 |
My son Corey, daughter Kandace and son in-law Kevin striking a pose. Corey is taking a picture of Kate taking a picture of him. No more martinis for Corey. I can't find a picture of Kate. I hope someone got one. She was a great help in pulling this together and holding down the fort so I could be in Vermont on countless occasions to get it done.
All and all, this was an experience I'm glad I was a part of. The many months of hard work I poured into this hopefully will all be worth it in the end. I truly gave it my all, and I hope everyone will get a chance to go visit the show house. I met some great people and amazing designers and will cherish the new relationships I have made with them all.
It has been a truly memorable time at the Juniper Hill Inn and the New England Living Showhouse.
(For more information about the showhouse go to the link above)
xoxo |
