Northshore Home magazine highlights the best in architectural design, new construction and renovations, interiors, and landscape design.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1206063
80 WINTER 2020 J OANNE HURD WALKS THROUGH THE ROOMS OF HER Gloucester home pointing to rugs on the floors and tapestries on the walls. Abstract shapes and swirling colors become animal heads as she points to elements of the design. Some look geometric and tribal, some build on nautilus or fern shapes, and still others resemble the softly hued patterns of aged Aubussons. Upon closer inspection, they all reveal hidden images, interlocking designs, and shifting shapes and patterns that could be creatures or ancient motifs. Look again and a tapestry that seemed to depict primitive masks becomes a piece of abstract art. Hurd had worked for 40 years as an interior designer before beginning her tapestry business. "I don't know where the designs come from," she says. "They seem to find me, often in the night. For me, creating these designs is like returning to childhood and playing with colors, lines, and textures." For 40 years, Hurd has worked as an interior de- signer specializing in kitchens and bathrooms. Her clients, whose homes range from the North Shore to greater Boston to California, have come to her for what she calls "a marriage between function and aesthetics. My signature style is what the client wants," Hurd says. "What I love doing is educating people about the effects of their design decisions." In 1980, her brother, Ken, an architect and designer specializing in hospitality projects, was developing a design for the Towers Lobby of New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel. He asked Joanne to create a rug for the space. "I drew it out on vellum, with colored pencils, and was over the top with excitement," she says. That was just a brief interlude in her own growing artisan