As a proud property owner in Maine, there is nothing more important to me than family. But right after my family, comes the priority of partnering with and supporting small, family-owned businesses in Maine that help us ensure our guests enjoy the best of what the state has to offer. When we renovated the Retreat House this past winter, we teamed up with some of my favorite Maine makers. I wanted to share these special people with you because, without them, the Retreat House project would not have been successful.
When we decided to renovate the Retreat House this winter, we knew we needed to add furnishings to the home. I wanted to update some furnishings we had and blend them with old pieces we found and some new pieces we loved. I am really pleased with the outcome. We refurbished 14 rooms in the Retreat House alone, so this was a major task. I reached out to my friend Kristyn Plamondon for help. Kristyn is a dear, childhood friend. I consider her my sister because of our shared family history. Kristyn and I have some uncanny shared personality traits (God Bless Our Husbands) for two people that do not share any genetic material. We both love nothing more than to complete a task and move right on to the next one. We love to find the history in things and find beauty in what has been cast aside.
Kristyn is an artist, photographer, and lover of all things with a story. She jumped into this project in spite of her very full life to help me. Kristyn refurbished the two church pews we had that had been left inside the Retreat House from when the church owned the property. She turned them into the perfect seating benches for the conservatory. She refurbished my father’s brass-end hatch top table from one of the WWII Liberty Ships for our Lounge. She refinished a family desk for the Lounge and my grandmother’s pedestal table that used to sit in her cottage here. It now graces the parlor in the top floor apartment. She found and refurbished a total of four small side tables (many of which I thought were beyond repair) thanks to some help from her husband Josh. He’s one of my favorite people too, by the way. Mostly because he’s so good to Kris, but also because he so good to everyone else. Kristyn found and refurbished two dressers and a beautiful armoire for the bedrooms in suite 1. They suite this space perfectly in proportion and detail. It is like she was in my head.
Kristyn sees the beauty in things people have cast aside and forgotten. She has the skills and knowledge to bring them back and give them new life and purpose. She is the keeper of her family and artifacts. She loves to find the story behind the piece. Kristyn’s furniture refurbishing business is called A Square Deal, after a store that her grandparents had reselling treasures.
You can visit A Square Deal on Facebook. Tell Kristyn that Jesse sent you!
Photography by Rachael Anderson