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Greystone Featured on Positively Philadelphia

 

Greystone Interiors’ Winter Peace Tree at the Ritz Carlton’s Festival of Trees was featured by Lauren Lipton on Positively Philadelphia on December 8. In addition to the article’s lead photo, interview and write up, there is a podcast available where you can listen to Lauren interviewing Mary Jo.

Click here to hear the interview.

Grand Design – Lourdes Show House Puts Its Best Décor Forward to Attract Visitors

 

BURLINGTON COUNTY TIMES

Grand Design – Lourdes Show House Puts Its Best Décor Forward to Attract Visitors (Excerpt)
By: Martha Esposito

Next door, the family room is spot for unwinding. The colors here are red, blue and beige. New custom cabinets flank the rebuilt gas fireplace, which hides a radiator, features circular shapes.

Designer Mary Jo Gallagher filled the room with touches of England: White lusterware fills the shelves and tables, and the pillow that inspired the room – a brick-colored square covered octagonal tapestries – rests on the blush sofa.

Makeovers Big & Small – Transforming interior, tweaking décor improve look, feel of room

 

COURIER-POST
HOME & GARDEN
Makeovers Big & Small – Transforming interior, tweaking décor improve look, feel of room
By: Judith W. Winne

When Mary Jo Gallagher spotted a colorful petit point pillow in England, she know it would serve as inspiration for the dramatic makeover of a family room makeover in a Haddonfield show house.

“It has vibrancy and interest,” said Gallagher of the pillow.

And now, so, too, does the light-filled room.

Little things, and big ones, can point a makeover in a certain direction. Whether you’re an amateur or professional designer, a concept for a makeover probably will begin with a specific glimpse of an overall vision. Maybe it’s a turn-of-the-century credenza or a Victorian painting. Often, color sets the tone.

For Gallagher, it was the reds, greens and buttery golds of the pillow.

“I loved the colors,” she said. “They said warmth and timelessness.”

The adjectives describe the new version of the room in the Georgian-style Haddonfield home. A recent Lourdes Health System show house, the 80-year-old home is set back on Kings Highway near Haddon Heights border.

A show house requires a massive makeover, typically everything from landscaping to a fabulous new kitchen. Gallagher, a 56-year-olf interior designer who lives in Haddonfield, selected her project the 11-foot by 25-foot family room.

The result is a space that is elegant and casual, formal and informal, traditional and modern. The slogan on Gallagher’s Greystone Interiors LLC business card – “classic, beautiful, personal, comfortable interiors” – fits the redecorated family room.

A homeowner can create significant change with a smaller redo, advised Gallagher, by doing such things as adding fresh paint or new window treatments.

Homeowner Bernadette Dronson is very pleased with her refurbished family room.

“I just love it,” she said. “It’s so calm. It’s calm and warm. Now, (the room) is really, really livable.”

The space’s biggest transformation focused on the red brick, propane fireplace. The wall now boasts a bluestone hearth and surround. Painted wood built-ins frame the gas fireplace.

“It breaks up the whole wall,” said the 43-year-old homeowner. “It gives you storage. It gives you a place to display your family pictures and things that are special to you.”

Show house coordinator Janet Reynolds also admires the new room. “IT is a significant transformation from a rather plain room to something the family can enjoy,” said Reynolds, who welcomed visitors to the house this month.

“Our guests (at the show house) really seem to feel it is comfortable and warm and welcoming and they can see themselves or their family enjoying the room. The fireplace wall with the bookcases is so beautiful compared to the brick wall that was there in the past.”

The new look is updated but traditional. The fireplace transformation cost about $4,000, said Dronson. This is considerably less than the cost of materials noted Gallagher, and doesn’t cover labor.

Dronson has seen the home change dramatically. She grew up in the house along with five siblings and now lives there with her husband and three sons, two of whom are away at college.

Now, on the wall across from the fireplace, stylish French doors replace sliding glass ones. Double-lined linen drapes baffle sound and permit privacy, but also allow light to brighten the room.

“The drapes aren’t really meant to close,” said Gallagher. “They’re meant to frame the windows.”

Silk Roman shades provide a peekaboo look and that, too, was intentional.

“I didn’t want the room to come off as a tomb,” she said.

The couch, starring the celebrated petit point pillow, is upholstered in a sturdy, scarlet red cotton, offering a nice, nubby feel. (The previous furniture was overstuffed, said the designer). A compact coffee table with a shelf below for books and periodicals was created from tiger maple and made for the room. Had-woven rugs in tribal patterns and bright colors add pop to a parquet floor that was refinished.

The television, not a high-tech flat screen model, is gone from a spot where it partially obscured light entering from the sliding glass doors. Instead, the swivel TV is atop a console table on a long wall. The new location allows the seated homeowners to face the fireplace and/or the TV.

Naked radiators now are encased in latticework wooden enclosure, designed by Gallagher. What was once mere plumbing is now furniture.

Gallagher said she believes in designing a room for the present and the future.

“I think when you do a room, you want something long term, not something you’re going to be tired of in two or three years.”

S. Jersey Company Featured in Book

 

COURIER-POST

BUSINESS EVENT
S. Jersey Company Featured in Book

Haddonfield resident Mary Jo Gallagher’s company Greystone Interiors was featured in the recently released book, Showhouses 1-A Decorators’ Tour by Tina Skinner.

The book highlights more than 370 color photos of the best of today’s innovative interior designers in elegant homes across the nation. The book shows Gallagher’s design for the 2008 Cape May’s Designer Show House called “Home Away”, which shows a gentleman’s retreat at the shore.

Gallagher also won the Press Award for the 2008 Hammonton Designer Showhouse. The award was called “Major Space in Foremost Place” for her second-floor sitting room.

Gallagher, IFDA has been principal and owner of Greystone Interiors since 2002. She works primarily in high-end custom residential design. He work has taken her from New York to South Carolina. Gallagher works with craftsmen and artists, custom designing cabinetry, lighting, upholstery, interior finishes and murals, guaranteeing that each project is unique and personally put together for each client.

Greystone Interiors is at 121 Gill Road in Haddonfield. For information, call (856) 429-6233.

Greystone Featured on Fox29 News

 

Greystone Interiors was featured on a Fox29 News story with Jenn Frederick at the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia. Greystone created a Winter Peace Tree for the Tree Festival (on display until December 29) that has everyone talking about it!

The Ritz Carlton Hotel is located on South Broad Street (the “Avenue of the Arts”) at Chestnut.

Don't Cramp on Style in a Small Living Space

 

COURIER-POST
HOME & GARDEN
Don’t Cramp on Style in a Small Living Space (Excerpt)
By: Judith W. Winne

Mary Jo Gallagher of Greystone Interiors in Haddonfield helped her elderly mother and aunt decorate their new apartments in a borough building for seniors.

“What I did was window treatments and brackets on the walls, shelves, so we could have some dimensionality on the walls,” says Gallagher.

“We showed off some of their pictures and figurines that are meaningful to them. It was very important they be surrounded by things meaningful to them.”

Gallagher’s aunt, for example, had some Royal Doulton figurines to display. Gallagher switched up some of the fixtures, so the lights were ore in keeping with the decorative style of the other furnishings.

“They were utilitarian,” the decorator says of the original fixtures. “They were builder’s-grade-type light fixtures.”

For younger renters, who may be particularly interested in brightening their space, color, can be a challenge, Gallagher notes. Although some landlords may permit re-painting from neutral to darker hues as long as renters revert to the original color before they leave, other owners may not.

What can the renter do? Textiles, tapestries, pictures and architectural elements (sconces, brackets, shelves, iron work) can add interest and color to neutral walls. A multi-patterned Oriental over a beige wall-to-wall carpet can perk up a space.

“It’s art work for the floor,” says Gallagher.

Enter Practicality – Three Families Make Varied Use of Invaluable Mud

 

COURIER-POST
HOME & GARDEN
Enter Practicality – Three Families Make Varied Use of Invaluable Mud Rooms
By: Judith W. Winne

The vast, cherry wardrobe closet in Mary Jo Gallagher’s Haddonfield mud room pairs beauty and function.

“It houses coats, bags, dog food,” says Gallagher, who had the wardrobe specially built and hand painted.

An inscription on the wardrobe reads, “To everything there is a season.” Scenes on the poplar closet depict the natural worlds – everything from bunny rabbits to winterberries.

“I like things that make you happy when you see them,” says Gallagher, an interior designer.

Other key pieces in the mud room are an easy-care floor, a large pantry and an umbrella stand.

For homeowners lucky to have one, a mud room can be an indispensible space. Indeed, it may be the most practical place in the house.

It’s typically an entry point where you dump, at least temporarily, your packages, groceries, school books, dirty footwear and, yes, mud or dirt. It also may be the spot where family pet sleeps, the clothes are laundered and running shoes are laced.

“You need a place to sit,” says Gallagher. “You need a storage area. You need a place for umbrellas. You need a floor surfaces that are impervious in bad weather.”

Gallagher’s mud room floor is a multi-hued, stone-looking ceramic tile that’s attractive and a snap to clean. A large pantry holds grilling implements for the outdoor barbeque, some kitchen appliances, flashlight and screwdriver – what Gallagher dubs “overflow from the kitchen.” A granite top serves as a convenient landing strip for packages.

“It’s always nice to have a place where you can put things down,” she says.

Maximizing a Mountwell Avenue Kitchen

 

HADDONFIELD PATCH

Maximizing a Mountwell Avenue Kitchen
By Judith Winne

For 10 years, Helene Delaney toyed with the idea of remaking the one room that is the centerpiece of family life.

“When I first moved in, I always knew I wanted to do the kitchen,” said Delaney. “The cabinets were old, and they weren’t in great shape. You struggled pulling the drawers out.”

Her early 20th-century old home on Mountwell Avenue needed a more practical kitchen, one that fit the needs of a 21st-century family. And Delaney wanted a more beautiful kitchen, too. As Delaney’s friends redid their kitchens over the years, she kept mental notes.

“There were so many things I saw in other kitchens that I really liked,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘Someday, someday.’”

That day came last summer. And the result is a kitchen that cooks up meals with an easy, attractive flourish.

The finished product features high-end appliances, including a Wolf stove, a whisper-soft Bosch dishwasher, a Blanco sink deep enough to hide dirty posts from view and a double Miele oven. The countertops look like marble, but they’re actually granite. The clean, white cabinets are maple.

Recessed, dimmer lighting throughout and English lantern-style hanging lights in polished nickel over a center island add brightness no matter how gloomy the day.

“My kitchen before was dark, and this has made all the difference, which I really love,” said Delaney, who added that her kitchen “functions so much more efficiently.”

The dishwasher is situated near a utensil drawer, making it easy to put away the clean forks, knives and spoons.

“I put everything away in one stop, instead of walking across the room,” said Delaney.

The refrigerator is close at hand, within arm’s reach of the big sink, convenient for washing off fruits and vegetables.

Although there are not, perhaps, as many cabinets as a big kitchen might boast, there are nice, small touches – such as dedicated space for cutting boards, trash and recyclables and a tall elegant tiger maple wall cabinet that stores the necessities of modern life, like the phone, calendar and keys.

There were challenges, including a ceiling in the old kitchen that was higher in one corner than another, as well as space issues. The kitchen is modest 12½-by-17 feet. Although the new center island is rimmed with stools, the cozy family table had to go. New walls and ceiling, as well as wiring and plumbing were musts.

Delaney was so confident in the ability of her interior designer/general contractor Mary Jo Gallagher of Greystone Interiors to shepherd the project from beginning to end, she took off for a month-long vacation to New England. Delaney’s husband, Terry, was on the scene, but only for part of the time.

Gallagher is as pleased as Delaney with the way this project turned out.

“I like the timeless style,” said Gallagher. “It is not going to be dated in 10 years. And it’s a highly functional kitchen for the cook.”

A 49-year-old homemaker with three children – two in college, one in high school – Delaney said that now that she has a great kitchen, she is not going anywhere.

“I am not moving from this house,” she said, and jokingly added: “I will die here.”