THE GOOD LIFE
ST YL E
Summer Partee
From woodwork to retail, the kindergarten teacher-turned-designer has learned how to do it herself
IT WOULD BE EASY TO MISTAKE Summer Partee for a lady of leisure, with her flowing blonde tresses, pristine white blouse, and gentle Southern drawl. But don’t let her delicate exterior fool you. The founder of Summer Blaise Interiors and Events knows her way around a hardware store. “I love working with power tools,” she says. “I get so many stares when I go to Lowe’s. Guys are like, ‘Do you know what a screwdriver is?’” Partee laughs it off. “I’m not a high feminist—we definitely need men in our life—but I’m not going to wait for my husband to come home and do projects around the house. I’d rather learn how to do it myself.” The 29-year-old Lake Norman-area native discovered her knack for interiors four years ago after she left her job as a kindergarten teacher to stay home with
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her infant son. She used her Belmont home as an outlet to explore her creativity and tackle some DIY projects. “Our budget was really small, with just my husband working,” she says. She learned to refinish old furniture she found at Goodwill, Habitat ReStore, and Facebook Marketplace and spot treasures at local antique stores. Soon, her signature style emerged: a modern farmhouse aesthetic dotted with vintage accents and a neutral palette of creams, beiges, and wood tones. “I started sharing pictures on Instagram and used our house as a marketing tool,” she says. “A couple of people took a chance on me, and my little hobby became a job.” In 2017, Partee launched Summer Blaise Interiors (Blaise is her middle name) out of her house and started with a few small projects at a time. She also had a booth at Catawba River Antiques where she sold
her refinished furniture. Partee added event planning to her brand the next year and brought friend Emily Rhyne on board as a full-time event director and planner for weddings, corporate events, and special occasions. This year, Partee has expanded again, with a Belmont retail store she opened alongside a gift shop called Surprise Me. A large part of the Surprise Me space was unused when Partee visited late last year. “I was in there shopping one day, and I started talking to the owner,” she says. “I could tell COVID had slowed business for her.” Partee closed the deal in January, transformed her half of the space in three weeks—she and a friend built the massive wooden checkout counter themselves— and opened Feb. 4. The shop, on a strip of Main Street that Partee says reminds her of Mayberry, sells
COURTESY JENNIFER ABERCROMBIE BEAUTY
BY TAYLOR BOWLER
