AROUND THE PARK AGAIN by Sharon Lee Tegler
An image of the picturesque blue cottage at 8 Evergreen Road as part of a photo essay by Severna Park native Lauren Garber shot following a recent snowstorm and shared on Facebook evoked a touch of nostalgia for those of us who saw it. She kindly allowed us to use it as our opening photo. We recalled that its exterior and interior appearance changed several times over the past decade and a half. But it actually has a much longer history as part of a family home.
According to local historian Scott Jay, the little cottage across from Severna Park Elementary School was built in the early 1950’s by businessman Howard Wheeler as an annex to his home. It was first used as Wheeler’s office and later as a combination laundry room and playroom for his children Howard, Janice and Judy.
The first alteration to the cottage, which had fallen into disuse, came in 2007 when owners Lauren and Kevin Russell and Larry Strasser chose to use it as a showroom for Russell & Mackenna’s coastal style furniture.
Starting with a tall, skinny bookcase, designer Lauren Russell, the company’s founder and creative director, began building furniture for her Round Bay home in a one-car garage with help from husband Kevin in 2002. Her pieces were admired by friends and neighbors who quickly became clients, one of whom ordered half a dozen of Russel’s vanities along with an $18,000 deposit check which the couple used for seed money to start their company. Lauren’s father Larry Strasser, a former CEO, joined the firm as president and created a business plan.
The company quickly progressed from the garage to a warehouse space and, subsequently to a plant and storage facility in Jessup. On reaching sales of a quarter of a million dollars a year, they partnered with a wood furniture building plant in Dover, Delaware.
Meantime, Lauren Russell found the perfect place for a showroom – what she described as “a shed in Olde Severna Park opposite the elementary school”. It was owned by Quayle & Company Designs by that time. Lauren Russel and Hal Quayle transformed it into the quaint cottage space seen below. In the same year, Sarah Wright joined the team to manage the flagship store and they moved in.
Russell’s beautiful little gem of a showroom, with its brilliantly colored glass balls and vases, an array of chic accessories and colorful coastal styled furniture, drew customers from far and near. Both Russell and Wright remembered that a number of visitors to the location said they had visited the cottage as children when it was a playroom, crossing the street after school to visit the Wheeler children.
Already doing a robust online sales business and having partnered with a design center called Urban County, the company continued growing by leaps and bounds. The “coastal look” they helped popularize, with its sea-meets-land-toned furnishings, drew the attention of national publications including the Wall Street Journal. The team even painted the exterior of their cottage showroom the company’s signature periwinkle blue.
But more changes were on the way. By April of 2011, Russell & MacKenna had acquired the intellectual property of Maine Cottage, taking on its prestigious name. As Maine Cottage, their business continued to expand.
As 2011 came to a close, the team realized they needed even more space and moved their flagship store from the cottage to a larger location in Annapolis. D. Wayne Speight of Speight Studio Architects briefly considered moving in at that point but found it was just too small and, instead, relocated to 540 Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard.
On New Years Eve of 2011, the Paper Trousseau moved from their storefront location at 554 Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard to the little blue cottage. A few months earlier, Paper Trousseau’s owner Tammi Molavi initiated a collaboration with fellow artists Christie Sappington, who owned Christie Sappington Designs, and Cink Deveas, who owned Cink Art, to operate together under the banner “The Studios at Paper Trousseau” in the new location.
Molavi’s decision to move from her original B&A Boulevard storefront grew out of a need to eliminate her shop’s retail sales operation and focus on event and wedding invitations and fine stationary. Eliminating retail meant less space was needed. So, when Maine Cottage relocated to Annapolis, the three women jumped at the chance to acquire the cottage.
Still owned by Quayle & Company Designs, which also owned the building behind it, the cottage had lots of windows, the interior was well lit and it provided needed workspace. Event invitations were Paper Trousseau’s primary thrust with Molavi an expert wedding consultant, Deveas a popular sketch artist and graphic designer and artist Sappington a store design/merchandising specialist who also developed a line of decorative wedding accessories.
Paper Trousseau occupied the location for a little over nine months before the trio was ready to move on. Molavi believes that, for a brief period, the cottage was used by interior design firm Barefoot Dwelling which Mary Quayle was a partner in. The company is currently located in Annapolis.
In 2013, Sew Beautiful owner Margaret Blunt moved her design firm into the quaint blue cottage that is currently owned by David Orso who uses the building behind it (formerly owned by Quayle & Company Designs) as headquarters for the David Orso Team.
Sew Beautiful has been there ever since. Blunt made the cottage truly her own by painting it Tiffany blue and adding a bright orange door as seen in the opening photograph. She also gave the interior of the cottage an initial facelift and subsequent updates.
Blunt has actually been designing rooms for Severna Park residents for 21 years, providing beautifully made custom window treatments, cushions, pillows and bedding, upholstery, slip covers, area rugs and more. She began Sew Beautiful in a workroom in her home and expanded it to a leading design firm in the greater Annapolis area.
Her staff – designers Ronnie Harmon and Sarah Kraus, project manager Amy Publicover, and installer Greg Brinsley – are expert at what they do and excel in giving customers what they are looking for be it rescuing a beloved couch or chair or designing a new room. They all like the way the cottage’s light and bright interior looks today.
“We just celebrated our 20th anniversary last year,” Blunt said. “Today we are a full interior design firm. Our main focus remains fabricating custom window treatments, bedding, cushions and other soft furnishings for homeowners in the greater Annapolis area. However, we’re able to provide so much more.”
While Blunt is staying put for the forseeable future, we can report that Tammi Molavi moved on to create j.lolly, a table setting design business, with partner Michelle Hickman.
Lauren Russell and partner Sarah Wright briefly sold part of Maine Cottage’s equity to Balsam Brands. But they bought the business back in 2019. Russell has moved to Vero Beach, Florida and runs the creative end of the business from there while Sarah runs operations from Maine Cottage’s offices in West Annapolis. Luckily, the partners shifted primarily to online sales for consumers and the trade in 2019 which turned out to be fortunate when COVID-19 hit. Maine Cottage fans can currently see its full array of products by visiting Maine Cottage® Official Site | Where Color Lives!
