Houses and their interior décor have always fascinated me.  Each home has its own personality and speaks volumes about the owner.  Growing up around the world exposed me to many design traditions.  Deceptively simple Japanese style, austere New England antiques, optimistic mid-century modern, and Parisian flea markets all made their mark on me.

My career and work experiences had little to do with the design process, but over the years I found myself searching out opportunities to create.  Friends asked me to help re-design a space or coordinate the remodeling of a house.  In between those projects, I squeezed in work on my own houses.  These projects have included an old cape and barn in Francestown, New Hampshire; a Dutch Gambrel with an attached artist’s studio, a half Colonial, and a 1940s salt box, all in Rockport, Massachusetts; and two mid-century modern condominiums at the historic Racquet Club in Palm Springs, California.  Most recently, I plunged into remakes of an 1840s barn (converted into a house in the 1940s) and an all stone house built in 1911.  Yes, I am a renovation junkie.

In 1995, a good friend Bill, who had always urged me to put my design sense to work, died.  Several weeks later, I went on a whim to a public reading at the London Spiritualist Society, founded by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the 1890s.  That day’s psychic immediately zeroed in on me and said Bill — and yes she used his name — was beseeching me to use my creative talents.

Well, fifteen years later, I am finally taking Bill’s advice.  After retiring last year, I launched a second career in design and project management.  Please join me in that endeavor.

Tom Stockton

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