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Interior Design | Sage’s Interiors
 “My wife and I can go into an antique store and find a wonderful thing. But when we get it home it looks awful. Others can go into the same store and find a piece of junk and make it look wonderful,” says William Fellerman. “Some people have it and some people don’t.”
William and his wife Linda knew that when they moved from Long Island to New London seven years ago they’d need some help. The house was a new construction by Harry Snow of Snow Building Construction, and there were many decisions to be made. They chose Sage Scott of Sage’s Interiors in New London. “She asked us to send her a video of our home in Long Island and show her all the stuff we had,” recalls William. “She asked us to mention what we wanted to keep and what we couldn’t live without. I liked that approach. It showed that she didn’t just want to spend our money.”
The Fellermans loved their bedroom set and dining room set, so those came to New London. “Sage reupholstered the dining room set. It looks like a brand new set,” says Fellerman. Sage also helped them pick out tile, flooring, color combinations, window treatments ¬ even frame artwork. “She met us at the frame shop with swatches of paint and fabric and matched it up to the artwork. The whole room really meshes. Now if I want some advice on something, I talk to her right away.”
“It is my goal to listen to the client to help them get what they want. It’s their house, not mine,” says Scott of her design philosophy. “If I hear, ‘My designer made me do it. I didn’t like it from the day it went up,’ the first thing we’ll do is take it down at no charge.”
Sage Scott has been an interior designer for 20 years. Her first job in the area was a consultant in the interior design department of a local furniture and carpet store. She was limited to the showroom, offering clients flooring, window treatments and wallpaper options. “I’m a visual person,” says Scott. “A client would come to the store and describe what they needed, and it would have been so much easier if I could go into their home and see it.”
 Scott opened Sage’s Interiors, a full-service design firm, in 1988. She understudied with Mary Kraft Frey, former interior design editor to Good Housekeeping magazine. (Frey is also well known for her work with Emil Hanslin, founder of Eastman in Grantham.) For a time, Sage’s Interiors was run out of her Sunapee home. Two years later, she found office space on North Pleasant Street in New London. Later, she realized she needed a bigger office. A vendor commented, “Office? Don’t you mean showroom?” Scott found another location on Main Street, eventually moving to the 210 Main Street location in New London three years ago. The showroom is filled with sample books, fabric swatches and window treatment ideas ¬ many available to be brought to a home to be seen in the actual setting.
“So often, interior design can be daunting and intimidating. It can be overwhelming to do your own home,” says Scott. “My job is to make it fun.”
Every client has different needs. It could be as simple as finding a window treatment for a door that opens into the room, or as difficult as receiving a phone call from a Slope ‘N Shore homeowner: “There is a terrible odor in the basement. Something’s wrong and I need your help.” Scott and her team found that there was a crack in the foundation, and mold and mildew were throughout the home. “The house had to be completely gutted,” recalls Scott. “We had to buy everything new ¬ carpet, furniture, sheets and towels ¬ even new dishes. We were in close contact with the homeowner throughout the process.”
Isa and Bob Rex wanted to upgrade their New London home, and stopped into Sage’s Interiors in 2005. “We had moved from Vermont a couple years before and were trying to make our furniture work in the new house,” says Isa. “We thought we needed some couches recovered in the downstairs area, but we needed help to figure out where to start.”
Scott redecorated the area, and Isa and Bob were so pleased with the results that they upgraded the rest of their home. “We couldn’t be happier with the result,” says Isa. “I would recommend Sage to anyone. She has a great sense of how things should come together and is a terrific person to work with.”
Bob adds: “She is well organized, efficient and does what she says she is going to do in a timely fashion. All those things make everything go really well.”
When a client is happy, Sage Scott is happy. She feels fortunate to have a “the best vendors and contractors to work with. It takes a long time to find the best carpet person in the area.” But more than that, Scott is pleased that “so many clients have turned into friends. I’m blessed to be in this business.”
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