Published December 09, 2004; www.iberkshires.com & The Advocate
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— Dorothy, “The Wizard of Oz.”
LENOX — “I have a really high embarrassment threshold, and, by the same token, I’m missing a certain fear gene,” said Karen Beckwith of Beckwith & Barrow Interiors in a recent interview.
Beckwith, a self described Navy brat and “native of all over” arrived in Lenox from Garrison, N.Y., a small town 50 miles north of New York City, two years ago and managed to launch a successful business.
She moved here with her husband, Scott Barrow, a professional photographer, and her daughters, Ardis, now 18 and Rebecca, now 14. Armed with an Off Spring magazine article listing the nation’s 100 best public high schools, a book, “100 Best Small Art Towns in America” and “gut instinct,” Berkshire County became Beckwith’s first choice as the place to live, work and finish raising her family. They moved to Lenox without jobs and knowing only their real estate agent, Barbara Kolodkin, who has become a close friend.
Beckwith said her first big surprise in Berkshire County was that, although she knew no one, everyone already seemed to know her.
When she went to Legacy Bank to open her own account, the teller informed her she was already in the system. The local veterinarian, too, had her name, and the new family orthodontist thought she was a native, since he knew the Beckwith family had been in the area for years.
“It feels comforting to come to a place with an uncommon last name and find a family tree,” Beckwith said. “In all of the places I’ve ever lived, no one ever had my name before. I feel like I belong here.”
She and her husband had talked about moving for several years because their two girls were enrolled in private school, 30 miles south of Garrison, and the 80-minute commute on a major highway twice a day was draining. However, they had been renovating their home in Garrison, one section at a time, for 16 years until, Beckwith said, “It had been polished to a high luster and was exactly the way we wanted it.”
Her children had lived in the house their whole lives, and it was the longest Beckwith had ever lived in one place, so the decision to move was not an easy one.
The impetus for the family move began on the most infamous day in American history, Sept. 11, 2001.
“Two planes flew down the Hudson River, just yards from where I lived and worked, and crashed into the World Trade Center,” Beckwith said. “My kids were at school across the river, toward the city, toward the mayhem. And sitting at my neighbor’s, watching the news, weeping, I saw the second building go down. I stood up and said, ‘I have to get my kids.’ It was in that moment I couldn’t fathom leaving my kids across a body of water every day that I couldn’t cross without a bridge. We had always talked about moving after the kids were away at college, but after that we thought, why wait?”
After many months of research and innumerable visits to small towns from Camden, Maine, to Kilmarnock, Va., they chose Berkshire County as the only place that had everything on her “short list” of 30 things she wanted in a new town. Her motto, as a veteran mover from childhood days, was, “put it in a box and let’s go.”
That did not win her any popularity contests with her children or the longtime friends she was leaving behind, but Beckwith said she was determined to make the move “an adventure rather than a chore.”
Warned that New Englanders were hard to get to know and that it would take a long time to be accepted, she said, “I have not found that to be true. The people I’ve met have been generous and friendly.”
Finding suitable studio space to share with her husband at 56 Church St. in Lenox, above Zink’s restaurant, was not instantly successful, however. Beckwith said it took her husband six months of patience and persistence, the help of real estate agent Ellen Cohen and the willingness of a landlord who had other plans for the space, to “give us a chance.”
Beckwith, a graduate of the Parsons School of Design and Florida State with a bachelor’s degree in visual arts and The Fashion Institute of Technology with a degree in textile design, began doing residential interiors at the request of a local associate. With a broad range of experiences in art, design and textiles, she has done a multitude of design projects, from redesigning malls in France to conceiving the embroidery pattern for Cannon sheets. She is also a painter, and her long-range plans include more time for painting and selling her artwork.
Word of mouth has generated most of her business, thus far, she said. Focused on making houses into homes, she offers interior design suggestions based on her own home design. She said she feels every house needs “something quirky, something unique to the particular chemistry of its inhabitants.”
“Choices should be made based on your personal interests. Make sure your home accommodates that — whether it’s cooking or reading or sitting in front of the fireplace or TV. Figure out what you love best, and in some creative, quirky way, make sure that it is there for you in your home. From a design perspective, it should be beautiful, but the real test is how it makes you feel when you walk in the door.”
Because Beckwith and her family are all artists, they have a blackboard in their entryway for self-expression. Currently, the blackboard has a “fantastical mermaid” that her oldest daughter, Ardis, drew. There are rules for the blackboard.
“Everyone gets a turn to put up something funny or inspiring but no four-letter words, no chores and no grocery lists are allowed,” Beckwith said.
She has also created a moon garden in her backyard and said “digging in the dirt,” made the yard feel more hers.
“When I’m finished designing a house, the goal is that house feels like the client’s own home,” she said.
To accomplish that, she said she also had to cultivate the art of listening. Alhough she recommends that people who are considering opening a business in the Berkshires to “do more research than I did,” she added, “There are only two things you need to succeed — enthusiasm and the intention to want to do a really good job for people. You must be committed to those two things.”
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