If you’re passing through Portland on your way to French’s Point, make sure and stop in and check out one of the City by the Sea’s most famous and beloved design studios – the Angela Adams studio at the base of Munjoy Hill. Since childhood, Angela Adams has sketched patterns inspired by Maine’s weather and landscape. Now she uses that inspiration to create her stunning wool area rugs and other home accessories, and her husband, furniture designer Sherwood Hamill, crafts sleek furniture that compliments the beauty of Adams’s colorful pieces, pieces that manage to reflect both Maine’s wild ruggedness and its cool serenity.
Adams’s work is known for its playful use of color and its distinctive textures and patterns. The rugs typically have a modern look, with swooping wave patterns or asymmetrical bubbles or intricate Kaleidoscope arrangements. Adams now also creates one-of-a-kind tapestry rugs under her “Treasure Tapestry” collection that are abstract renderings of nature like “Rain”, “Forest Floor” and “Ocean Floor”. Check out “The Wedding” tapestry rug, a cartoonish collage of domestic and recreational images and abstract swirls on a white background. These rugs must be commissioned and are priced on a case-by-case basis but typically cost $250-$500 per square foot. The area rugs in Angela’s custom collections are priced starting at $375 to upwards of $3,500.
The company also designs household items and gifts like pillows, linens, glassware, and beach towels. And of course, the studio also features Hamill’s elegant furniture that anchors the complicated patterns of Adams’s work beautifully. Definitely worth a visit, not least because Angela herself works on-site.