A country home at peace in Newtown
After the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting last December, Nora Murphy said she wasn”™t in the Christmas spirit to start decorating her Newtown home. With the whole town in mourning, she didn”™t feel like doing much of anything.
But in the midst of launching an online home decor magazine, she didn”™t really have a choice. The holiday issue was coming up.
“All of us were devastated in this town, but I still had to do this,” Murphy said. “I had a deadline on the calendar and I didn”™t want the photographer to show up and have nothing to show.”
She looked at the bare farmhouse antique table in her dining room and started to think. She wanted the table to be warm, comfortable, inviting ”” for it to feel like home. One thing led to another and she started to layer deep red, white and black throw blankets on the table. She dug out straw placemats she originally bought for summer and started to set the table, placing red roses on the table and garland on the mantel.
“Everything turned magically into Christmas,” she said. “I don”™t know where inspiration comes from, it just does. All said and done it was probably the most warm table setting I had ever done. It was cathartic and really came from within.”
Later that day a neighbor came over and told Murphy her heart had melted at the sight of the table.
“She needed it too,” Murphy said. “It may just be decorating, but look what it did for someone. It made them feel good and at home.”
A year later, the photos are now a part of the 2013 holiday issue on Murphy”™s newly launched website, NoraMurphyCountryHouse.com. The digital magazine offers personal musings and tips for how to get the “country look” for all seasons, whether it”™s through decorating, antiquing, gardening or entertaining. The magazine is the foundation for what will eventually be an ecommerce platform for home goods.
In 2011, Murphy started blogging about the Connecticut country home lifestyle and soon found an eager crowd of readers around the world. In the last year and a half, the blog has been viewed 40,000 times in 62 countries without any advertising, Murphy said. And a significant portion of readers spend about 20 minutes to an hour on the site.
“There”™s a community of people out there ”” country house lovers ”” and they love the idea of a home in the country, creating an environment that is comfortable and has a wonderful, light spirit,” Murphy said. “It”™s beautiful but not in a museumlike way. It has a lot of eye candy for you, but you”™re able to live there.”
The former executive vice president of style and advertising at Ethan Allen Interiors Inc., Murphy said she left her position at Ethan Allen after she felt she had taken her skills and talent as far as she could after 10 years at the company. Early on she was charged with building the furniture company”™s advertising department, which later translated to heading up a new website.
Her skills and connections are now aiding her in her newest endeavor. For the last two years she”™s been producing content on her blog without any source of revenue. While she believes there”™s an opportunity to eventually advertise and sell items directly on the site, she hass felt it is important first to build up a following.
“It has been a lot of work to do the blog,” Murphy said. “But I”™m a firm believer in connecting with people, establishing a following and then ”” once we have a really strong, solid foundation ”” that”™s where the natural progression is, to start creating the different faces of the Nora Murphy lifestyle.”
In a couple weeks Murphy intends to begin selling antiques on the site to help people directly get the look they want from the magazine. Murphy plans to curate “hunt club” collections, offering items such as vintage textiles one week and equestrian-inspired antiques the next.
“A lot of folks don”™t know where to find these things and that”™s what we do really well,” she said. “We have great resources and we go there and hunt.
Moving forward she plans to sell items featured in the editorial content. In the spring she plans to partner with an upholstery company in Woodbury, Conn. to show readers the craftsmanship and care that goes into building a chair. She”™ll then offer readers the opportunity to buy a Nora Murphy signature chair.
“I think it will work really beautifully together,” she said. “The revenue will be coming to us.”
To get off the ground, Murphy”™s primarily relied on her own wit and the help of former colleagues at Ethan Allen who”™ve volunteered to work pro bono. Many of them are women who have left heavy-hitting positions as art directors and designers to start their own families, but still want to keep a hand in the game.
“All these people believe in me and are counting on me,” Murphy said with a laugh. “That”™s an incredible confidence booster ”¦ They know me (and) how I visualize. They see the vision I have and they know I”™m capable of doing it.”