This month Home Truths visits with Zoe van Baaren, an interior and exterior designer, who has a passion for making spaces look magnificent.
What’s your nine to five?
In true Portland fashion I wear many hats. The general theme of my work is anything that involves the beautification of home and garden. However, for the record my card reads, Interior decorator, farmer florist, and landscape gardener.
In terms of interior design, what has inspired you recently?
Eclectic layering of color and pattern. Throwing out the rule book and surrounding yourself with everything you love. You can always find a way to marry all the odds and ends.
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Knowing your house, this might be tricky narrowing it down to one, but what’s your favorite room and why?
Wow that is a tricky one. I think I will go with the conservatory. I adore the wallpaper, the light, the views. It is like sitting in a glass green house. You can see the enormous evergreen trees, the wide open sky and, glimpses of the garden with the very English stonewalls within.
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What one thing have you done to your home in the last year, that makes you happy every time you walk through the door?
Well, I have made a recent purchase from this wonderful antique shop in town, Bernadette Breu. It is a pair of 4ft-tall flamingo sculptures. They are make of folded banana leaves and wire. They are painted copper and truly are a work of art. I pet them and visit them everyday! Pure joy!
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Summer is here. What are you most looking forward to in the coming months?
The garden, the garden, the garden. I have 63 rose bushes that are blooming all at once. The foxgloves and delphiniums are shooting up through them all, it is a site to behold. My cut flower seeds are growing at a fast clip, promising to be a sea of color. The dahlia beds will be a bounty this year. This was the first year I was able to divide the tubers. Now I have twice as many as last year! Some ladies collect shoes but I collect plants and I don’t see myself stopping. Perhaps Myles should start looking for a bigger property for us!
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Zoe van Baaren can be reached via http://www.zoevanbaaren.com.
Bricks and Mortar 