Happy New Year-2011 Calender now on SALE!

RURAL MODERN STYLE is colorful, contemporary painted hardwood furniture and home accessories FROM FURNITUREA out of Portland, Maine. A rural modern style is inspired by the traditional forms of rural Maine architecture and the decorative arts, re-imagined in a modern cast and imbued with a whimsical spirit. Custom designs and custom colors to order.

The company that would become Furniturea was started as a carpentry company in 1974 in Bridgton, a small town in rural western Maine. Brian Haddock, the 1st and for awhile the only employee, combined his formal design education and his interest in craft to found a carpentry company to repair and restore old houses. There were plenty of old houses that needed repair and restoration in rural western Maine. 

What I love the most about this line of furniture is the contemporary lines and colors that all are customizable for anyone who wants this fresh look in a unusual size or color--slight modifications and you have yourself a custom piece that literally sings a song to who ever walks by. As you know, details are everything to me and I love the kiln dried maple and birch hardwood and veneer harvested locally from the forests of New England and eastern Canada. Free of added formaldehyde and meet California’s 2009 clean air standards.

I have been so lucky to have FURNITUREA add my new line of pillows to this amazing space. I love love this style and hope to fill my house with it one piece at a time. I am so so inspired by these modern lines and shapes...amazing.

Attached are some photos of the store front that I happened to take the evening before MERRY MADNESS A Shop ‘til you drop event held downtown Portland Old Port!! Enjoy.

Year End

Hello and Happy Holidays! A quick post before the holiday break. Been a great year full of different opportunities and experiences. I loved my time at Maine Magazine & Maine Home Design Magazine + meeting so many wonderful people that are doing what I am doing---working at something that means everything to them and making a living at it. And of course all the people that came up to me during the few shows we attended that thanked me or mentioned how they love the pillow prints...I loved seeing people walk up to the pillows and smile. My heart melted. It was like a piece of my world was getting through the madness. So amazing how something can hopefully change a mood or bring joy to someone...color and texture can be amazing like that.

The girls are getting big fast and holding onto every moment! Pillows selling like mad and searching for another stitcher that will help us out--Loving adding new things to the existing line of home + kiddo prints---I also have 4 new designs I am excited to print that are multi colored bold abstracted flowers--one up per pillow. Simple but cool. So many ideas cooking--oh and Maslen and I are working on yardage now---so that I hope will be something that we will have come Spring/Summer! (Stacked Deco will be the first print we are trying..) Carol Bass who was the master mind behind MAINE COTTAGE FURNITURE And one more thing--AU's new print that I designed is coming out SUPER FAST for SPRING--We just approved the 3 new colorways. (LEMON DROP YELLOW/A SUPER CREAMY BLUE/ and super amazing ERIN OLIVE GREEN that will for sure be my favorite.  The new bag print will be on natural color nubby cotton fabric--(before they printed on white). Excited to see how this changes the look and feel and will be able to carry over to FALL nicely. I will post as soon as I can.

Freelance has been steady and always looking for great graphic design gigs that speak to me. Did a few websites this year and a lot of brand identities that I really loved...just excited to keep going and really take my work to new heights. 2011 will be about organizing the madness and streamlining things---fine tuning really. Life is crazy but lovely and I would not have it any other way. Very thankful to do what I love and be here in my studio. Life for me is bringing simplicity to our home and loving the girls...and showing them that dreams do come true everyday. 

A little blurp from LIVEWORKPORLTLAND that sums it up nice I think. I love being apart of this amazing working community. CHEERS to you all and hope to connect soon. xo e

LiveWork Portland – CreativePortland.Me Profile: Designer Erin Flett

HOLIDAY PICNIC

Mas and I had an amazing weekend at the HOLIDAY PICNIC SHOW. Since it was our third show ever, we were excited to connect with such amazing creative souls. The amount of great work was incredible and hanging out next to ZETI for two days would brighten anyones spirits! (see me and ZETI below...) I have to say that connecting with other little kiddos with the pillows was amazing. Seeing how they loved the pillows and really gravitated toward the little critters made me smile. We sold quite a few large pillows as well and met some very cool people. We sold the barkcloth frames which was well received and sold a ton of paper posters as usual...and even my calender was printed in time for the last day. Please enjoy this collection of images I put together quickly. I hope to post about all the individual artists I met. So so many! Thank you all of you for making the last two shows a great start to a new year for studio e! xo e

Hello hello. Maslen and I had a great show at the SHOP-A-DO event held out SPACE GALLERY, 538 Congress Street, downtown Portland. It was held Friday and Saturday night and it was amazing. Maslen and I were blown away. Friday was wall to wall people buying everything from cashmere rope necklaces, (had to trade for one) handmade clothes, felted critters (these little owls that were amazing!) and fine art---AND so thankful to say a lot of PILLOWS, PAPER PRINTS + everything else we had for sale. Once I dig out I will post on some of these amazing souls I met! It was a whirl wind of amazing people and stories and time to connect with fellow mates that are doing the same thing Mas and I are doing---making handmade goods because we love it and because it's our passion. So amazing to connect with so many people that totally buy in to BUYING LOCAL! LOVE IT and thank you so much for stopping by, saying hello, telling a story and picking up something. 


Another amazing thing happened this week. I had some great wholesale orders that came in which is always amazing and fun, but a special call out to CITY BIRD who mentioned to me that a couple of my pillows are going to be shown on a set in Detroit 1-8-7 (a show on ABC set in Detroit). The set designers loved them and bought them to be used in a home that will be featured in January or February. GO DETROIT! So I will hopefully have more on that once I receive more information! 


Okay and the last thing that I wanted to post was a great feature on the LIVEWORKPORTLAND BLOG
They were nice enough to do a blurp on me for a new section of the website featuring local people living and working in the portland area. Loved it, honored and so thrilled to be apart of such a life changing organization. So please visit the site often and really get involved. The best way we can thrive here in Portland and Maine is to seriously buy local, support local businesses. I for one buy where it's most economical and makes sense for my family--but I have to say that buying from local farmers, shops and everything inbetween feels better and ultimately better for my family. So bit by bit, even if  it's more expensive for us, we are going to make more of an effort. WE have to. We owe it to this amazing state and community that we love so much!


PS. A little video from SHOP-A-DO that was super amazing: 

Shop-A-Do 2010 Time Lapse

vimeo.com

SPACE Gallery annual Shop-A-Do event December 3, 2010. Portland, Maine. Music by Alias from the title track off "Resurgam" http://space538.org/