Design Duo Settles into Newport

Step into the recently opened Design Newport at 121 Bellevue Avenue, and you might never want to leave. Not only are there interesting and beautiful textiles, furniture, artwork and objets everywhere you look, but owners Michael Valvo and Stella Martin are the type of people you'll want to sit down and talk with all day. While they've only known each other for a few years, they already finish each other's sentences and give each other a little jab here and there.

"We have a blast," Valvo says. "We lucked out." 

Valvo, the creative director of Red M Studio in the north end of Boston, and Martin, who comes to Newport from Stowe, VT, where she ran an antique business, really wanted to work together, but didn't actually see each other all that often. They met while Valvo was visiting Stowe and purchased a few items for clients from Martin. Then she sent him some items better suited to city style to sell in his studio, and the rest is, shall we say, history.

In the winter of 2010, Martin was heading down to Newport to drop some items off for a client at Newmans Ltd., a Newport-based restoration company focusing on fine metal art objects, sculpture, and antique mechanisms. She called on Valvo to join her for a day trip to the City by the Sea. Ironically, Valvo was friends with the owners of Karma, a consignment boutique with locations in both Boston and Newport, and he says his friends at Karma had been telling him that people in Newport would be receptive to his design services and that he should come here.

While stopping to visit his friends at Karma, which was located on Bellevue Avenue at the time, Valvo and Martin took notice of one of the many empty storefronts that lined the avenue last winter and called the landlord to inquire. 

"We came down and we looked at it and it was all dark and dreary," Valvo said. "Later on in the spring we thought about it, then we did it and here we are."

The fact that they decided to launch this business spur of the moment doesn't seem to have held them back any.

"I had all this merchandise in storage because I was getting ready to do a website," Martin said. "I had the website basically done, everything professionally photographed and it was all just waiting for me to get it together. Then we decided to this, and all I had to do was pack it up and move it down and bang, everything was here and everything just worked together. It's been fun and we've been meeting great people."

Design Newport had a soft opening in mid-June, then had their official grand opening the same night as their new neighbors, Badgley Mischka, Lily Holt, Boo Gemes and Sequin, who had also recently taken up residence on Bellevue Avenue.

"It's been great having them here because these three shops were all vacant when we looked at it," Martin said. "It's only been a couple of months and we haven't advertised because we wanted to do this softly and gently work our way into being here in Newport and finding our feet."

"We didn't want to come in screaming and yelling," Valvo added. "I thought that would be a nasty way to do things and so did Stella."

While Valvo goes back and forth between Boston and Newport, Martin has relocated to Newport.

"I've always wanted to be down here," she said. "I've been in Stowe, in the mountains, but the ocean just really moves me and is just so wonderful. I've always wanted to live near the ocean. I'm pretty excited. I wasn't planning on it."

The duo said that they really want to be a part of this community. They are currently working on plans to hold a benefit for Island Moving Company in October and may potentially work on projects with the Preservation Society of Newport County.

After a few months of being in Newport, "the people who come in here generally understand what we do here," Martin said.

"It's easy because they get what these things are, what these objects are,"she said. "They understand design and things speak for themselves and people know the language and it's good. We have people who come in and buy a certain piece, or are looking to do a room. We're just getting started now in getting clients for design work. We wanted to sort of feel our way and be comfortable where we are."

While Design Newport is starting to take on interior design projects, they also have plenty of items for people who are looking for that one special piece or just want something that's unique. Design Newport tries to be the exclusive dealer in Rhode Island and Boston, if possible, of any lines of wallpaper, rugs, and textiles they bring into their store.

"We just don't want stuff that someone else is going to have," Valvo said. "We're trying to be unusual and have stuff that other people aren't seeing. I like a wide range of things from severe modern and clean to very high glam pattern over pattern, and I don't think there are a lot of designers that can do that nowadays because I think the public is used to sort of a very simple, more graphic style that you see in the magazines. But I think it's really, really cool to mix and that's what we're trying to do here."

"I've always called my work modern romantic and Stella's stuff is very romantic and fun," he added.

The duo stresses that good design isn't about the cost of an item, and to prove it you'll find everything from Santa Maria Novella toiletries to a pair of $18,000 antique mariner lamps in their store.

"I just buy things that are great design," Martin said. "It doesn't matter to me what period it is. If it's great design it's great design."

"Architecture and design is about space and time," Valvo added. "It's about the time you're living in and it reflects that and people need to understand that. It's as much about the space and time as it is about the user. I think a lot of people get stuck in what they think they should have. So many people want what they think they want and that's a bad way to approach design. You've got to buy what you love."

Valvo and Martin say they are both really pleased with their first few months in the City by the Sea. From the sounds of it, the design duo will be here in Newport for a long while to come.