Grasmere in the Providence Journal Bulletin "Week-End" section July 25th, 1999
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| Grasmere can help you beautify your home
by Katherine Imbrie photo: J.Malloy Some shops just have an aura of beauty and tranquility about them, and such a place is Grasmere in Barrington. Specializing in treasures for the home and garden, Grasmere is named for a lake in England's romantic Lakes Region and is the creation of husband -and-wife team Beth Siqueland-Gresch and Peter Gresch. Inside, antique cupboards, tables and other large pieces of furniture are prettily arranged to showcase smaller items for sale, including a stunning collection of Arts and Crafts pottery vases, dried flower arrangements, silver serving pieces, and soaps and candles. The Gresches first opened Grasmere five years ago a few doors down from its present location in the heart of Barrington's unofficial home shopping street, Maple Avenue. Nearby are the Stock Exchange home-consignment store, Teapots & Tassels gifts for the home), Quality Paint and home-decorating store, and New England Hearth & Patio (outdoor furniture). Grasmere moved to 40 Maple in March. The new place is not only more commodious inside. but also outside, where this spring the owners greatly expanded their offerings of unusual and sophisticated nursery grown plants, mostly for use in containers such as window boxes and planters. (Among their offerings this spring were a purple-leaved heuchera, a nasturtium with interestingly variegated foliage, and several varieties of this year's plant for window boxes: sweet potato vine.) SO SKILLFULLY has the store been painted and decorated both inside and out that it's hard to believe it once was an auto service garage. Outside, the cinder block walls have been painted soft green with eggplant trim, and the service bay doors have been replaced with varnished wood French doors and a multi-light transom. Giant terra cotta pots planted with trailing ivy and tall trees complete the transformation.Grasmere is not only a retail business, but also a supplier for parties and weddings. Some customers hire them to decorate their houses for Christmas. For summer; one of the store's most popular selling items is its grapevine basket planters, a neat variation on the window-box concept. Meant to be hung on an outdoor wall, the baskets are lined with moss and then filled with various arrangements of colorful container annuals and trailing vines. The baskets, which range in size from 15 inches to 24 inches, cost $45 to $120 planted. and may be brought back to Grasmere to be refurbished with new plants seasonally for about $25. Among the antiques for sale inside the shop are arrangements of dried flowers in wire baskets ($42 to $110), a circa 1900 inlaid wooden letter box ($115), a Hull pottery vase ($75), an Art Nouveau candelabra ($825), and a circa 1875 Belgian carved oak cupboard ($4,400). Grasmere, 40 Maple' Ave., Barrington, is open Tue's. -Sat 10 a.m.-5 p.m. with addihonal hours on holiday weekends. Telephone: 247-2789.
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