A VISIT TO MAINE COTTAGE
Color, Craft, and Coastal Charm
I stopped by Maine Cottage in downtown Annapolis, to ask if we could write a blog about them, and was greeted by a lovely woman, the studio manager, named Laura. We spoke for a bit and she offered me all the insight into their company — their history, their philosophy, and why their furniture has such staying power. Walking through the showroom, surrounded by fabric ladders stacked floor to ceiling in gorgeous colors, it was easy to see why.
Maine Cottage was born in 1988 in Yarmouth, Maine, founded by Peter and Carol Bass. The idea started small and personal: Carol, an artist, began painting and reselling "found" pieces of cottage furniture. That instinct — to take something ordinary and give it a jolt of color and character — became the foundation of the entire brand. Peter Bass brought his own thread of heritage to the business — he's the great-grandson of G.H. Bass, the Wilton, Maine shoemaker behind the Bass shoe brand. So there's a real lineage of Maine craft running through the company's DNA.
Maine Cottage also holds a notable distinction in the furniture world: it was the first company to offer American Country, Early Shaker, and Mid-Century Modern-inspired painted wood furniture across such a wide range of original colors. That combination — classic, familiar silhouettes reimagined in bold, joyful paint — is really what put them on the map.
In 2011, the brand was sold to Russell & Mackenna, a family-run furniture company founded by Lauren Russell. Today, Lauren Russell serves as President of Maine Cottage, and the company operates out of Annapolis, Maryland, while still carrying the spirit — and the name — of its Yarmouth roots.
The Style
Maine Cottage's whole identity is captured in the phrase painted on their showroom wall: "Where Color Lives." This isn't furniture that fades into the background — it's meant to lift the mood of a room. Think hand-painted wood furniture in cheerful, saturated hues, mixed with wicker and upholstered pieces dressed in playful coastal prints: lobsters, sand dollars, hydrangeas, daisies, shells, and crabs, alongside easy stripes,ginghams, and trellis patterns.
Their "Color Stories" groupings — Tickled Pink, Fresh Greens, and True Blue — show how deliberately they think about palette. Rather than one-off statement pieces, they build whole tonal worlds: dusty rose and coral paired with sage and botanical prints; grass green and moss with white daisies and birds; navy and denim blue with shell and floral motifs. It's cottage style, but elevated — nostalgic and colorful without tipping into kitsch.
The furniture library itself is enormous: more than 145 fabrics, 50 signature paint colors, and over 350 pieces spanning wood, upholstered, leather, and wicker furniture for every room in the house. Customers can customize almost everything — paint color, fabric, finish — which makes each piece feel bespoke rather than off-the-shelf.
The Furniture
They have a full range of furniture: cottage-style dining chairs and tables with painted frames, four-poster and captain's beds with carved details (their beds in particular lean whimsical — we love the High Tide one!), nightstands and dressers in a rainbow of finishes, wingback and slipper chairs upholstered in bold botanicals, and an enormous assortment of throw pillows that function almost like a paint chip wall for the whole collection. Case goods are solid wood, built to be repainted or reupholstered as trends shift, which gives them real longevity.
Why we love them
For TMI, sourcing locally is as much about relationships as it is about furniture. We love having the opportunity to see pieces firsthand, discover resources that offer something distinctive, and cultivate relationships with people in our own design community.
There is also something particularly meaningful about supporting another woman-owned business. Great design has always been rooted in collaboration—between designers, makers, shop owners, craftspeople and clients—and we believe those relationships ultimately make our work better.
Most of all, shops like Maine Cottage give us another place to find the pieces that don't simply fill a room, but give it soul. And those are always the pieces worth looking for.
xo, Tonya
