This Decorator has NO Attitude! \u201CLet Cottage Whimsey Do Something Beautiful For You.\u201D

Carol Cyr and Winnie LoGioco, photo by Stephanie Sittnick

by RONA MANN

Carol Cyr is a happy woman.

Different than many because she is perfectly content where she is right now. She has worked hard to get where she is, but has thoroughly enjoyed every day she put in to getting there. She has a successful business. She has customers who have easily evolved into friends over the many years spanning her career. And she makes people happy because when you're always surrounded by the kind of beauty that reflects you and your family, you are at peace.

There is no more personal level on which you can meet someone than on their turf...their home. Their safe place. The place where they can be themselves, the place where they prepare their meals, rear their children, dream their dreams and relax without judgment. It's personal, very personal, and that's where Carol Cyr enters the picture.

That’s why Cyr loves what she does. She is not a realtor, nor a home builder, but she is a home beautifier. As the delightful proprietor of Cottage Whimsey in Old Saybrook, Cyr spends every day at the appealing space she has created, meeting people with whom she will work, helping to make their dreams real, helping them to create their own beauty, whether they have a tiny loft, an office, or a seaside mansion. It matters not to Carol if they want her help in doing or re-doing their entire space, or just want a newly upholstered cushion for the living room; she still gets that rush of inspiration and creative juice flowing with every project.

Although Cyr's background is that of a decorator, she now happily refers to what she does as, "Most of my job is to keep people from making mistakes." Then she laughs because she readily acknowledges that "everyone has needs and wants, but not everyone can physically make them happen. I can and do.”

Cyr has owned the iconic Cottage Whimsey for ten years now, having taken the reins of the well-established home decorating den in 2009. “It always had an outstanding reputation,” Cyr begins, “so I was not about to change the name. This is what people knew and liked, and I liked the name ‘Cottage Whimsey as well.”

Last October the bolts of fabric, the window treatments, the wallpaper books, and more were straining at the very seams at Cottage Whimsey’s Boston Post Road location, so it was time for a move. “I had been looking for a while,” Carol said, “but it had to be just the right space.” Now it is.

Like a caravan of Bedouins, the Cottage Whimsey staff moved the entire operation in just days from the Boston Post Road location to their new home on the Middlesex Turnpike. It is not only larger, but also not lacking windows, so the space is continuously bathed in light. Customers can hold upholstery samples up to the light and see true colors, and there is also a working studio and workroom downstairs so Cyr can create her magic right on site. She also has added to her business the unique practice of mentoring customers who want to do their own work, right in that downstairs studio...hence the comment, “I keep people from making mistakes!”

Cyr has always believed in the old adage about measuring before cutting, since the saying goes, "Measure twice, cut once." However, she thinks you should measure as many times as it takes to get it right...and then, and only then, do you cut!

The upstairs portion of Cottage Whimsey is all at once a light and airy place with what seems to be hundreds of sample books throughout. Still, there is no clutter here. A customer comes in looking for new upholstery fabric saying, “I like flowers, but I don’t want a big pattern. I want a smaller design.” The words

hardly leave her lips before Carol Cyr knows the exact book to select from the shelves. "Here," she offers, "take a look at these for a while. If you don't find anything that suits you, we've got plenty more." What an understatement, because if it involves fabric, wallpaper, or window treatments, they’ve got it in spades at Cottage Whimsey! Just a glance at some of the samples, and you may well find names you easily recognize, easily the best in the business: Ralph Lauren, Laura Ashley, Romo, Brunshwig & Fils, Schumacher, Hinson, Jane Churchill, Robert Allen, Cowan & Tout...the list seems endless.

Looking for new window treatments? You will be dazzled at Cottage Whimsey for they offer classic fitted wood shutters, Hunter Douglas honeycombs, roman shades, tailored cornices, draperies; plus hard window treatments such as shades, blinds, and shutters; soft window treatments like sheers, curtains, swags, valances, and roman shades; or perhaps a combination of both called a layered window treatment. There are woven woods, cellular shades, pleated blinds, verticals, cordless and motorized shades for child safety, panel tracks...and if all this is confusing, that’s why Carol Cyr is there to guide, to suggest, to come

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to your home or office, look at the space, do all the measuring professionally, and help you find the look YOU want. Cyr has no decorator’s attitude; her only goal is to make your home a comfortable place for YOU, decorated to reflect YOUR taste. “It’s a process,” Cyr says. “I ask a lot of questions, show samples, have lots of patience. There are so many variables. We work till the customer says it works,” and for the hundreds of homes, offices, inns, and restaurants Carol has helped decorate, indeed it works.

Want to bring Carol some photos? She'll welcome them but will still want to go visit your space so that it will be done and done right, the only way she knows how to do things. “We’ll go anywhere,” she says cheerfully. “Connecticut, New York, wherever the customer is.”

You will also find custom furniture at Cottage Whimsey, just another offering from the talented Carol Cyr. She will work with anyone, bring lots of experience to the table, and bring it with no attitude at all because above all, she has the highest respect for the way a client feels about their home, and that earns her respect before she ever cuts a piece of fabric for you.

Come see what’s new for your home at Cottage Whimsey, now located at 375 Middlesex Turnpike in Old Saybrook. www.cottagewhimsey.com (860) 395-0636