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Angela’s Aerie

Atop Portland’s Munjoy Hill, rug designer Angela Adams fills her sunny living room with vibrant textiles and art, natural treasures, and a quartet of carpets that serve as landing pads for furniture, sunbathing cats, and her stretching routine.

By Sarah Stebbins
Photo by Greta Rybus
From our May 2018 issue

1. Paintings

Adams and her husband and business partner, Sherwood Hamill, like to celebrate their families’ “rich history of living and working on the water.” Here, a painting of a whaleboat is paired with a whaleboat model built by Hamill’s grandfather. To the right is Waldo Peirce’s Sea Fantasy. Even Portland painter Honour Mack’s colorful oil has a watery quality.

2. Sideboard

Hamill designed the textured walnut Timber sideboard, which provides a perch for hand-carved wooden birds by Dorothy Brown of North Haven.

3. Crystals

“I have an obsession with crystals and minerals, and they have inspired a lot of my work.” Of the prismatic glass sculpture by Falmouth artist Laura Fuller, Adams says, “I think it holds magical powers — the loving energy of Laura and the positive power of crystals.”

4. Blankets and Pillows

“I love draping interesting textiles around the house.” A 1960s striped blanket and a pillow she designed grace a Womb Chair; on the sofa, a serape-like throw is layered under an Icelandic sheepskin. The two-tone pillow is from Brunswick’s Spindleworks, and the red bear is by Diane Toepfer of Portland’s Ferdinand.

5. Sofa

Textiles (and cats) pop against the camel sectional Adams loves for its “Danish lines” and comfy leather cushions.

6. Antique Compass

Hamill collects antique nautical instruments, such as this 19th-century device.

7. Art Books

“Three of my favorite artists are women sculptors,” says Adams, who keeps tomes about Louise Bourgeois, Louise Nevelson, and Eva Hesse. Of Rockland-raised Nevelson: “Her work taught me that being an artist didn’t mean you had to make beautiful paintings.”

8. Fabric Art

Bits of handmade lace provide stepping-stones to a fabric sculpture by South Portland artist Karen Gelardi. Adams uses the lace as coasters.

9. Rugs

No giant rug with the stylized motifs Adams is famous for? “We decided to go minimal since our accessories and art are so colorful,” she says, acknowledging the white mohair from her collection. A few patterned rugs from her Studies line flank an Icelandic sheepskin. “We love to stretch on them with the cats.”

10. Coffee Table

Adams frequently switches up the displays on Hamill’s white-oak-and-glass Propeller table, “creating new stories.”

April 2024, Down East Magazine

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