Designer Snapshot: The Light Stuff

By Paula M. Bodah

Among the many ventures (and adventures) Jerry Rippetoe and Tony Sienicki have embarked on together in their four decades as partners was a stint operating a bed and breakfast. Of all their experiences—from traveling to retailing to their interior design business—their time as innkeepers may be most responsible for the charm and geniality that infuses every corner, inside and out, of their shop, tj’s at the Sign of the Goose.

At the Cape Neddick, Maine, shop, the furniture, accessories, and decorative objects are displayed in pretty, well-thought-out vignettes throughout the rooms of the property’s several buildings and in the beautifully landscaped gardens. Tj’s is more than a place to find unique things for the home. It’s also a haven of sorts, a destination that offers a little something for the soul as well as the house.

Much of tj’s welcoming ambience comes from Jerry and Tony’s passion for beautiful lighting. The pair designs the many lamps that glow throughout the shop, fashioning the bases from unique objects they find on their shopping expeditions around the globe and topping them with custom-made shades.

Jerry showed off one of their handsome lamps in Perspectives in our September-October issue. Here he shows us a few more of tj’s distinctive light fixtures.

Photos courtesy of tj’s at the Sign of the Goose

The duo found this sculpted bronze, as well as its male mate, on their recent travels.“We ‘redirected’ them, marrying them to a beautiful wooden base with gold-leaf accents,” Jerry says. “The silk shade is a work of art in itself; the armature is hand built and the covering is hand sewn by our couturier upholsterer in New Hampshire.”

Deco lamps are made with wooden bases hand-crafted in Maine and glazed black with 23k gold-leaf accents. The silk shades are made in New Hampshire. This lamp’s base is thirteen inches high, with a nineteen-inch shade, making for an elegant, theatrical look.

“We discovered these 1920s Art Deco glass bases in Europe, then turned them into these dramatic lamps that make a strong statement,” Jerry says. The silk shades are handmade in Maine.

“Yes, we occasionally have a strong Nor’easter or three here in Maine, and hurricane lamps are part of any well-equipped cottage’s furnishings,” Jerry says. This twenty-eight-inch-tall version has a hand-carved based and a tall, fluted, hand-blown Italian glass shade. Slip in a four-inch pillar candle and you’ll be ready for the next storm.