2008 Resource Guide

Melissa Wood Eric Roth

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Designer Sigrid Olsen loves her coastal residence on Massachusetts’s North Shore so much, she believes it is the secret to her success. A reflection of her purest vision, it is the touchstone for those who want to learn how this unique artist turned a love for textile design and hand-printing into a multi-million dollar business. Her home has provided inspiration for everything from her retail store interiors and home furnishings line to her fashion collections over the span of her career.

“My home is meant to inspire me,” says Sigrid. “It lets in sunlight, and is open and welcoming.”

A canopy of windows lets in plenty of natural light and inspiring outdoor views into Sigrid’s at-home design studio.

Splashes of pink bring fresh color into the bathroom’s decor.

Small bursts of tropical color accent the bedroom’s linen bedding, white walls, and light wood furniture and floors.

Tips from Sigrid 1. BRING IN THE BLOOMS: Flowers are the best and most immediate way to imbue your home with a springtime mood, especially tulips and daffodils, which become available in the early months of the year and bring a fresh splash of color. I also love to buy pots of hyacinths (even before the flowers bloom) because the sweet smell is intoxicating. 2. CLEAN SWEEP: We all remember spring cleaning as something our mothers used to do out of habit. But really, there is nothing quite so cleansing as de-cluttering your house. Throw away all old magazines, newspapers…clear the counters and the shelves…clean out your closet! Open the windows, let in some fresh air and take a deep breath. Spring is truly around the corner! 3. COLOR ME HAPPY: After a long, dreary winter a little color goes a long way. Find one wall in your house and give it a facelift with a coat of color. You don’t need to paint the whole room…just one wall to keep it a simple DIY job. Take a risk…choose bright apple green, tropical turquoise, or sunflower yellow. (You can always paint over it later.) I guarantee it will make you smile! 4. FRAME IT: I love taking photos from my Caribbean vacations and hanging them on one wall. If you don’t have vacation photos, you can get great tear sheets from travel magazines and frame those. I have a collection of small to medium sized white frames that are easily interchangeable and serve this purpose beautifully. A few quick changes and voila! You have a great wall of dreamy photos.

A frequent traveler with a demanding schedule, Sigrid finds refuge in the simple elegant atmosphere of her personal space. Especially now, with the close of her fashion business, her creative environment is very important to her. Now all aspects of her work life are integrated into the soaring light-filled house where she lives. Her home is defined by the simple clean lines of hardwood floors and white walls that are offset by bright, unexpected spots of color sprinkled throughout: single, striking walls of turquoise, teal and lime green, cut flowers, accent pillows, and her own colorful and organic designs hand-painted on a lampshade and in framed textile prints hung on otherwise unadorned walls.

“My home is meant to inspire me,” says Sigrid. “It lets in sunlight, and is open and welcoming.”

Though best known for her former clothing line, Sigrid is an artist first and foremost; in fact, she has hand-painted most of the prints and textile designs used on her apparel and accessories, and single-handedly redesigned her website to showcase her personal artwork, once featured on the walls of her retail stores and now available for sale. She grew up surrounded by art and artists; her father was a painter who studied at the Art Students League. Sigrid developed her own passion for art and enrolled in Montserrat College of Art, a small art school in Beverly founded by a group of working artists, where she studied a range of disciplines. After graduating in 1974, Sigrid first began her artistic career as a weaver, and even spent a couple years working on a goat farm.

Ten years later, she started her own business, Sigrid Olsen Handprints, after she explored a technique for creating colorful and distinctive textiles derived from prints stamped and cut from potatoes. Today, her name is widely known by women across America who were not only devoted to her clothing line, but charmed by her innovative use of color and artistic point of view.

Just as her career has evolved from art student and weaver to founder of her own fashion label, her home life has changed drastically too. Sigrid grew up in suburban Connecticut in the 1950s, but in the late seventies she lived—by choice—in a small house near Rockport that had no electricity or running water, though she eventually installed a telephone pole.

Sigrid purchased her Hamilton home in 2000, and both added onto the house and renovated throughout. She personally designed the interior, creating a simple, airy space for both her home and gallery.

“My design philosophy is simple: use natural materials in modern shapes and the house feels fresh, comfortable and chic,” says Sigrid.

For the home’s focal point, Sigrid designed a unique two-sided fireplace. The fireplace is a simple rectangle carved into a white wall divider that juts out halfway between the living room and the kitchen and an adjoining sitting room. The fireplace, which can be seen and enjoyed from both sides of the wall, divides the rooms but leaves the space feeling open.

 In Sigrid’s art studio on the other end of the house, large windows reaching up two stories take up one wall and dominate the room, making the outdoors seem as much of the décor as the simple and clean white walls and polished wood floors.

Sigrid’s own artwork provides tropical splashes of color throughout. Her paintings in pinks, blues, greens, yellows put bright bursts of color against the simple, clean interior. In the bedroom, for instance, her colorful scarves hang from a ladder, the only color against the achromatic tones of the  walls, bedspread, bed, and floor.

Sigrid makes sure to surround herself with the things that she loves. Since the Caribbean is a favorite vacation spot, she incorporates it into both her clothing line and her home. Bright pops of tropical color appear in places such as a single brightly painted wall. Framed vacation photos places not only add a splash of color (see below for Sigrid’s tips on adding color), but are also a fond remembrance of time enjoyed with family and friends.

Sigrid points out that like her art and her clothing, her home—and everything in it—represents her personally, serving as both an artistic expression and inspiration. “I love the wood, the stone, the spots of color and beautiful handcrafted items that speak to the artist in me every day,” she says.