Mason’s home decor builds on modernist taste

Monday, 05 October 2009 06:27

Adding to the unique retail charm of downtown New Canaan, and part of a recent surge of incoming businesses, Mason will soon offer sleek home decor for a discerning clientele.

Friends Courtney Mason and Kristin Gallipoli are poised to begin a joint venture selling hand-picked, original mid-century furniture and home accessories from around the world at their new store along the corner of Elm and South streets. The shop at 48 Elm Street will open this month.

“Mason is going to be a really interesting destination, the likes of which New Canaan hasn’t seen before,” Gallipoli told the Advertiser last week. We’ll have music playing, the ceiling will be covered in Venetian crystal chandeliers. It’s going to be all lit up and there will be a real atmosphere in there.”

The pair met in town six years ago and their mutual tastes in fashion, interior design and decorative arts eventually inspired them to start a business that would sustain this shared passion.

“We always spoke about what an amazing store we’d have if we ever got together to do it,” said Mason, “but laughed that anytime someone wanted to purchase something, we’d probably look at each other and say in unison, ‘It’s sold,’ because we couldn’t bear to part with it.”

Gallipoli — who became interested in architecture and design early on while watching her father renovate old Victorian homes in Providence, R.I. — also boasts experience redesigning one of Philip Johnson’s iconic homes from the inside out.

She lived for eight years with her ex-husband in the stone and glass-walled Wiley House, which the revered architect described in 1955 as a “perhaps irreconcilable” effort to marry “modern architectural purity and the requirements of living families.”

While renovating their new home — with helpful “recommendations” from Johnson himself, who dropped by for a friendly visit — Gallipoli became well-versed in the index of largely Scandinavian surnames attached to the mid-century furnishings she and her then-husband began collecting.

Today, she and Mason offer a selective array of coveted items from the movement’s top designers, including a Hans Wegner Papa Bear armchair, Warren Platner lounge chairs with ottomans and raindrop sculptures by the ’60s design team Curtis Jere.

However, the pair stressed, their modish vintage wares by no means belong in a single setting.

“I don’t want someone to feel like they would only be interested in our store if they own a modern home,” said Gallipoli, who now lives in a more conventional house in town. “You don’t have to have a completely modern, sparse house with glass walls and no family portraits.”

“There are so many young couples here, and many live in a traditional house,” she continued. “But enough people have the style to know that you can put this stuff in a traditional setting and it’s beautiful.”

While Gallipoli has “scouts all over the country” who seek out the furniture and design pieces she wants, Mason handles the jewelry and accessories.

“We have a good combination of gift items and amazing vintage and contemporary jewelry that is so special,” said Mason, who worked as a model in Europe before segueing into fashion publicity and marketing. “There’s really something for everyone.”

“We’ll bring a different echelon of designers and decorators,” she added.

“We’ll provide a good mix,” echoed Gallipoli, referring to their in-town competition. “If someone can’t find what they’re looking for with us, we’ll send them to the others.”

The women said they “got really lucky” in securing a corner location in the middle of the downtown’s main thoroughfare. Outdoor furniture chain Patio.com had been using the space on a seasonal basis under a lease that expired today.

“That corner location just came up,” said Mason. “We looked at a couple of other spaces, (but) that one just popped.”

Asked how they felt about opening amid a financially strained environment, Gallipoli responded, “I feel like we’re starting at just the right time.”

“People who like lovely things will buy lovely things no matter what the economy looks like,” she added. “This is our passion, so this is something we’re going to do no matter what.”

As if to demonstrate the depths of that passion, Mason painted a picture of what it is like to comb through the detritus of past decades alongside her friend in search of design rarities.

“What I love best about working with Kristin is watching her in action,” she said. “We can go into a warehouse filled with junk — I mean filled — and in the furthest corner, lurking under boxes and piles of old clothes and whatever else, she’ll see the leg of a sofa and yell, ‘Hold the phone — that’s a Knoll!’ or whatever it is. And sure enough, after we’ve ripped out the insides and refinished the outsides and resprung, refoamed and reupholstered... it’s a masterpiece.”

“But even before it is that truly finished masterpiece and still amid the junk,” Mason added, “she’ll plop down on the newly spied sofa and exclaim ‘Aaaaah, deluxe.’”

For more information, call 966-6655 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Masonstyle.net, should be online by next week.