6 - Home & Garden
The Newtown Bee - April 8, 2016
Cider Mill Designs:
Horticultural designer Kim Charles created this succulents display, a collection of Echeveria, hen and chicks, and weeping stonecrop, for adding pop to a restored home on the Property Brothers HGTV program. Kim Charles of Cider Mill Designs and pooch pal Alfie sit on the stone wall that doubles as a work bench in fair weather. Ms Charles repurposes unusual items from flea markets and tag sales as containers for her original horticultural creations. —Bee Photo, Crevier By Nancy K. Crevier Sandy Hook resident Kim Charles’s fulltime job is digital marketer for Stone Farm in Newtown, wholesalers for reclaimed stone and brick, “and outdoor living solutions.” But her own business, Cider Mill Designs, has solutions, as well: creating outside-the-box, oneof-a-kind potted arrangements that can make a small corner burst with color or add panache to interior design. Working from spring through late fall, Ms Charles sets up shop on the long stone wall that runs beside her home — a former 300-year-old cider mill. There she lets her imagination run wild, bringing together creative plant materials and creative containers to make custom arrangements and terrariums for her customers. She surrounds herself with her tools and ideas
Open terrariums, such as this orchid in a glass bowl, are a signature of Cider Mill Designs, and popular with Ms Charles’s A simple combination of herbs brightens the bar in a home, another Property Brothcustomers at markets and events. ers commission from Cider Mill Designs.
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in an inside work space when inclement weather or off-season orders demand her attention. The natural beauty of her property and the surrounding environment are always inspirations to her, Ms Charles said. The love affair with her cider mill home began as soon as she and her former husband purchased the property 20 years ago. The exterior of the ancient mill had been renovated, leaving them with a blank canvas inside and a blank canvas outside, where old established gardens rambled about the house. It was the perfect combination for the a fashion designer who was rapidly morphing into a horticultural designer. After graduating from Buffalo State University with a degree in fashion and business, Ms Charles moved to England where for two years she worked for a husband/wife design team in Nottingham — and met her future husband. “There were gardens everywhere. I became obsessed with them. There’s a lot of similarities between fashion design and garden design. It’s about pulling color and texture together in unique, new ways,” she said. Newly married, she and her husband then moved to Scotland for a year, before returning to London. “That last year I lived in England, my in-laws moved to Devon, in the south, and that truly propelled my shift from fashion to the horticultural world. That’s where many of the big, formal English gardens are,” Ms Charles said. While ideas were brewing for her, she still was not working with plants, nor did she immediately do so when the couple moved to America. Getting Started It was not until she decided to stay home
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