Photography by Nicki Sebastian, courtesy of Rudy Jude.
Since last summer, when we launched our first-ever Maine issue—since long before that, actually, before we first featured the sculptural house of a sculptor and a clothing designer on Spruce Head—we’ve had our eye on the state and the design revolution quietly taking hold there.
Take a look at a few of our favorite elements.
The entrance to the shop. The couple also transformed the small plot of land that leads to the shop’s entrance.
1. Create a bioswale garden.
If the simple, textural walls look familiar, it’s because O’Rourke and Esteves borrowed the formula from the Soot House, on the opposite coast: gypsum plaster with titanium white “mixed in for textural and color variation,” O’Rourke says.
2. Keep the bones simple.
3. Think of doorways as frames.
O’Rourke uses doorways and windows as opportunities for framing rooms and vignettes.
Wares by Maine-based makers—ceramics by ANK Ceramics, photography by Jonathan Levitt, and jewelry by Ursa Major—are also on offer.
4. Collect natural ephemera.
The shop is dotted with tiny bits of nature—yellow-and-white flowers, branches, sea glass—that make the space feel personal and intimate.
Smooth rocks and a hollow crab shell next to some Rudy Jude denim.
The doorway to the shop’s petite dressing room is draped with a simple cloth, as is the back doorway (scroll down for a photo)—an effortless solution for leaving doors open and letting in the breeze.
5. Hang a cloth.
6. The evocativeness is in the details.
O’Rourke kept the bones of the space simple, and leaves the evocativeness to the tiniest details she places throughout the shop: vintage books on Wyeth, shown here; or, elsewhere, a miniature mirror (not pictured) and a children’s chair.
More tiny details: an oil lamp beside a ceramic vessel by ANK Ceramics.
In the front window, a curved branch displays a Rudy Jude Day Blouse—and bundles of dried flowers.
7. Use a branch for display.
Along one wall of the small space, the couple added a wide, stepped pedestal reminiscent of their Maine house and Esteves’ training as a sculptor.
8. Create sculptural shelves.
The pedestals were built specifically for the dusty brown tumbleweed that sits atop them: “We drove from Maine to California with both of our boys and a truckload of antiques and tools,” O’Rourke says.
9. Hang peg rails.
A small desk area in the back of the shop is surrounded by another New England touch: Shaker peg rails, painted white.
O’Rourke hangs Adirondack baskets from the peg rails. Beautiful on display, they’re also ample-bodied, for storage..
10. And Adirondack baskets.
An Adirondack basket—and one of Rudy Jude’s trademark net bags.
11. Keep the bath vintage.
The shop’s bathroom only looks like it’s been there forever.
12. Keep the outside spare.
“The double doors lead to a back patio that we share with our neighbors and friends, Olderbrother,” O’Rourke says. She’s kept it spare, and keeps the doors open—save for another simple white cloth—to let in light and air.
The shop’s simple signage.