Kristin Paton Home

Kristin Paton Home

Kristen Paton home

Kristen Paton home

Kristen Paton home

Kristen Paton home

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Was it the scent of patchouli oil permeating the air, the folk singers performing on the street, or the fact that the only Le Corbusier–designed building in the United States stood right here within the campus of the oldest university in the country? Whatever it was that fueled our passion for Harvard Square all those many years ago, the flame still burns.

With its perfect storm of habitués—students, academicians, poets, writers, artists, doctors, lawyers, physicists, tourists—Harvard Square has long been the place to find unique shops catering to the bookish, the hip, the sophisticated, the worldly, and the gourmand.

Alas, many of those storefronts have been replaced by bigger chains or fallen victim to the area’s high rents, but Harvard Square remains the place to find very special things to buy. Case in point: Kristin Paton Home.

This jewel of a shop, on a quintessential Harvard Square street, is nestled among traditional clapboard houses, a gourmet sandwich shop, and Planet Records. Visitors to the small space, which doubles as Paton’s design studio, are greeted by an array of one-of-a-kind, rare, or exclusive furnishings. The classically trained designer lived in London for eleven years, and her offerings are discoveries from Europe as well as the U.S.

Kristin Paton Home, with its idio­syncratic location and distinctive style, is a fitting tribute to the Harvard Square tradition.

152 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge, Mass.,
(617) 491-9000, kristinpatoninteriors.com. Open Monday–Friday by appointment.