When renowned furniture maker Thomas Moser approached Chip Gray, innkeeper at Freeport’s Harraseeket Inn about having his designers decorate a room using his sleek, contemporary-yet-traditional furnishings, Gray figured it was a win-win situation. He took the team through the inn and let them choose the room. “They chose one we’d just finished redecorating; it looked great, and they ripped everything out.”
While the rest of the inn is decorated in an updated and bright New England country style, the Thomas Moser room is sleek, modern, and earthy. Truth is—and Gray agrees—not everyone loves it, but for those who are in the market for Moser pieces or who prefer a contemporary vibe, this room is ideal.
Every aspect of this suite-sized, corner room has been specially designed, from the entry, to the bathroom (with soaking tub and heated towel rack), to the over-sized room itself, with a fireplace and seating area on one end, bed and desk on the other.
Every piece of furniture—the queen-sized pencil-post bed and nightstands, Aria writing desk and chair, adult and child-sized Windsor-style chairs, dresser, armoire, Vita love seat and lounge chair, coffee table—and every accent piece is for sale. Guests can inquire at the Moser gallery across the street about the furniture
In the room, a leather-bound book details all the non-Moser pieces, which are equally intriguing:
• figurative oils by Tanya Fletcher
• custom wall painting of the entry, by Field, a Portland-based company founded by Friederike Hamann and Colin Sullivan-Stevens
• fine art photography by Gifford Ewing, of Denver and Sorrento, Maine
• pottery by Tim Cichocki, who fires his work in central Maine
• lamps crafted by Hubbardton Forge and by Visual Comfort & Co.
• pillows, mattress pad, down comforter and cover, and mohair throw from Cuddledown
• a rare wool throw and a rare wool blanket, both hand made by Swans Island Blankets
• rugs by Safavieh
Now add a sandstone fireplace with floating live-edge walnut mantel that fills one end of the room, barnlike sliding doors to the bathroom and closet, shades that filter sun, and drapes that insure privacy.
The whole blends textures and earthen shades, it’s calming yet edgy, sleek yet artsy, contemporary yet traditional. It may be in New England, but there’s definitely a New York accent. Put me in the like it camp.
