04/15/2019
Dear Friends - I’m happy to share with you my story featured in Easton CT News.
Sunday Feature Story
"Interior Design and Country Living"
By Noelle Newell
My childhood provided the raw materials to lay the foundation for my future. When I was a mere five years old, my mother instilled in me that curtains should never break at the sills in the living and dining room. Curtains should break at the floor and be lined and interlined with a weight sewn into the corner, so they wouldn’t blow in the wind. At the same time, my mother also told me that there was no reason to color inside the lines of my coloring books. I understood both of her messages, that on the one hand, I should be disciplined, yet at the same time, I should also be creative and original.
By the age of nine, I knew that I wanted to be an interior designer. My mother was a voracious reader and subscribed to a wide range of periodicals: some in the arts such as Horizons and Architectural Digest, and some New York-centric such as New York Magazine, The New Yorker, and Interview Magazine. My parents would take me out and about at a young age to dinner parties where I was often the only child. I would entertain myself by rearranging the furniture in the room in my head as I noticed people hadn’t a clue in furniture placement.
My parents also included me (and later my younger sister) on some of their trips near and far in the 1960’s and 70’s, which always provided me a source of artistic inspiration. My parents would find things for our home while traveling, such as brassware from a bazaar in Teheran or a Japanese silk screen that we purchased on a trip to Hawaii. They always included me in the buying process. I remember distinctly at 11 years old, helping my father in the selection of a Japanese screen. We took our time reviewing the painting - weighing in not only on the subject matter, but as to whether or not it had the right balance between symmetry and a-symmetry. My mother provided me with an eclectic taste mixing Persian rugs, with upholstered furniture in white and sky blue velvet fabric from the former distinguished W J Sloane furniture store, with paintings we purchased in Quebec City and sea shells we collected on Martha’s Vineyard.
I went on to earn degrees from the Fashion Institute of Technology and Curry College. After graduating college, I spent a year studying art history abroad and studied decorative arts at the British Institute of Technology and Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London.
After living and working in Manhattan as an interior designer for several years, my husband and I moved from Manhattan to Cos Cob in 2000, before moving to Easton in 2004. We settled in Easton for many reasons, but mostly, from an aesthetic standpoint, Easton reminded me of the farm towns near where I grew up in Bergen County. Silverman’s farm reminded me of Van Riper’s in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey before it closed in 1994. I have fond memories of drinking apple cider, eating cider doughnuts and the splendor of colorful autumnal foliage. I recall my mother piling myself, my sister and a handful of friends into our car and going there on a regular basis. It cost twenty-five cents to drink as many small paper cups of cider you wanted, and I would always have to win by finishing the most, even if it meant getting an upset stomach.
It was these fond memories from childhood (except for the stomach aches) that compelled me to provide a similar setting of for our son Alex. In one sense, I have succeeded, since Alex landed his first job at Silverman’s. During our first fall season in Easton, I also won a pumpkin by guessing its weight, which was similar to Alex's weight at four months old.
At times, I do find Easton a bit on the quiet side for my taste and perhaps not the most practical decision for my career, yet it has been a fantastic place for raising our son. We have a beautiful home; it is the perfect amount of square footage, and we have roughly an acre, which is also the ideal size for us. I call our seasonal sunroom my summer home, as I tend to plant myself there in the warm months. When it’s hot, I enjoy the balminess and the contrasting cool breeze from the windows, the ceiling fans, and the view of green oak and maple leaves open in their full glory. At night, I listen for the sound of crickets, particularly when the pace of their song slows down as summer fades to autumn.
In addition to my profession as an interior designer, I am also a contributing writer for Wall Street International, and I have also written for Aspire Design and Home, East Coast Home and Design, and VENÜ magazines. I write mostly about interior design, architecture, art, and travel. My career as a writer feels like a natural extension of my work as an interior designer-very much like a branch growing off of a tree. Writing provides me a place to share my passion with a wider audience.
(Written for Easton CT News)
