Today, we’d like to introduce you to Libby Britt.
Hi Libby, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Hi, my name is Libby Britt & I am an Interior Designer in Marietta (East Cobb) Georgia & have been in the business for over 30 years. I was born & raised in Atlanta (Vinings) & moved down to the Golden Isles when I was in High School. I went to Brenau Women’s College in Gainesville, GA, and studied Interior Design.
After graduating college, I moved back to Golden Isles & went to work for a wonderful lady named Elaine, who owned a custom window treatment workroom called Custom Drapery Shoppe & Interiors in Brunswick, Georgia. I had no idea at the young age of 23 & getting my first job how much I would fall in love with the custom home goods products business.
While most of my college design colleagues were getting jobs at architecture & design firms, I was riding around all over the Golden Isles with Elaine, taking notes, measuring windows on tall ladders in beautiful homes, learning how to write up tedious work orders & observing first hand as the workroom ladies stitched away in the workroom. There is something very magical about watching something come to fruition that was once a little piece of a fabric collection & seeing it transform into a beautiful piece of artwork otherwise known as a custom window treatment.
Just as important as learning how to choose the correct fabric, measure, write up the custom work orders & help the seamstresses navigate all the numbers, cuts, widths & all sorts of equations was making sure the hardware to hang the window treatment worked in conjunction with the construction of the finished project & most importantly how it was to be installed at installation by a professional installer which was a skill all on its own.
The work & detail that went into a finished custom project was not for the weary & I spent many a night up late thinking through all the details, hoping & praying that the final result was all going to fall into place seamlessly at installation with no (or at least very few) hiccups resulting with a happy customer & lifetime of continued business. Working at Custom Drapery Shoppe & Interiors was the start of a lifetime love of custom…. to know it & understand it is to love it!
After getting married & moving to Richmond, Virginia I got an amazing opportunity working as The Home Stylist at Laura Ashley. Laura Ashley, a British brand that started by Laura printing textiles off her kitchen table in the 1950’s, soon turned into a huge International homewares line by the 70s. You may remember the feminine & modest Laura Ashley dresses that were all the rage in the fashion world in the 80s with flowy patterns in botanicals, prints & checks with a mix of patterns & styles.
Being the Home Stylist at Laura Ashley for the state of Virginia was a dream job that I adored & I am sure without the experience of having worked hands-on at Custom Drapery Shoppe, I would have never gotten the position. A Home Stylists job is to not only pick out beautiful products readily available to sell in the home, such as wallpaper, bedding, lamps & accessories to clients, but a great emphasis is put on the custom products & fabricating finished goods with the endless bolts of fabric that so beautifully gathered around the cutting tables in the store.
I decorated homes all over Virginia in the Laura Ashley brand from head to toe. It was a thing & so very popular! A little funny story: when we sold our little home in Richmond in 1999, every inch was covered in Laura Ashley wallpaper, fabrics, custom window treatments & home furnishings. We received eight offers on the little cottage in just one hour…. something that was just unheard of back in the late 90’s. Everyone, even the men, loved the classic Laura Ashley style.
Although Laura Ashley passed many years before I joined Laura Ashley, I had the pleasure of talking on the phone to Sir Bernard Ashley (Laura’s husband), who was a gentleman in every way. Sir Bernard Ashley set me up to stay at the wonderful Keswick Hall, a luxury resort designed by the Ashley family & decorated in every detail in the Laura Ashley fashion in the late 90’s located in the rolling hills of Charlottesville, Virginia.
My time as the Home Stylist at Laura Ashley was short as my husband’s job took us back to the Georgia Coast to St Simon’s Island in early 2000. Still, the Laura Ashley style had forever been ingrained in my soul with the timeless, elegant & classic manner of English florals & gingham checks. Living on an Island was both rewarding for its beauty & slow pace but also challenging as resources were limited. Seeing a need & doing what any young designer & entrepreneur dreams of doing, I opened my own design store with my partner & mom, Toddie.
We called it The Tortoise & the Hare, a name we laughingly came up with on an airplane ride back from a design convention in New York City. I, the younger one, claimed to be the fast & furious one, always rushing to get to the next best thing & my mom, the more mature one, more cautious & thoughtful than the Tortoise…. slow & steady. The combo of mother-daughter was a hit with the old & the new combined & we made a name for ourselves & soon became a destination when visitors visited the island.
It was a fun adventure that lasted many years with a focus on beautiful gifts, home furnishings & interiors. We designed & decorated homes from top to bottom in The Tortoise & Hare fashion, from rustic beach bungalows to 8,000 sq foot mansions on the marsh, and had I not had the wonderful hands-on experience of learning custom products early on in my career, some of the intense window treatment designs would have never been imaginable as figuring yardage, writing workroom orders, choosing hardware & planning out installation for 20 ft high windows is not something you can just do overnight or order out of a catalog!
But alas, once again, all good things come to an end, and The Tortoise & the Hare days were also short-lived, just like with anything when timing & circumstances sometimes determine your path. Three young children in tow, a husband who traveled overseas for several weeks at a time, the global crisis & a hard direct fall off a horse head first soon commenced the closing of the Tortoise of the Hare in 2008. It was pre-social media days & had social media been present at the time, I think it would have been a game changer with the store staying open, but it wasn’t God’s plan & we moved yet again back to my hometown, Atlanta.
Many obstacles in the last decade, including a devastating flood of our family home that took one year to remediate & took every ounce of my energy to put back together, followed by another move a mile away to a 1960s home remodel where contractors quit & we were left sleeping on the basement floor because there was no electricity or air & it’s the heat of the summer & everyone just leaves because they think the world is ending during Covid also took even more of my energy while keeping the kids happy & pushing on through.
Although it almost kept me down I got back in the saddle so to speak, dusted off & pushed on through. The old saying that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger & stronger was what I had to be. Everyone had a hard time during those pandemic years & although it’s just a house with holes in the wall, painting that never was finished & contractors who left us with empty pockets & no finished work, it was just stuff & it all passes in time & you realize life is a gift & the show must go on.
So many lost so much of losing loved ones & so much more during those years, but we all have different battles & challenges & so it’s just what we endure. Going through a total renovation is one that is not for the faint of heart…… don’t do it unless you have the money & energy to tackle every little tiny thing that gets thrown at you… there are so many details & obstacles that you have to be prepared for… you can imagine during a national shutdown & crisis with so many unknowns, it was just exhausting.
Fast forward to 2023…. house is still not finished. Still, it is all okay because it’s just a house… 4 walls & a roof over our heads one child graduated from college, one child is in college & 1 headed off to college & now my vision of following my passion & dream of starting my own line of home textile products has circled back around & landed in the present. Sometimes, you have to go through time, space, hardships & circumstances & pack your dreams away in a little corner to be pulled out for another day & that is just what I did.
A push from a friend to go for it & a great circle cheering me on who knew all about my dream & vision from early on pushed me to take the leap. My husband & children, who were my biggest supporters, helped keep my enthusiasm going & they believed in this little venture as much as I did. Ever since the first day of learning what a custom product was to the great experience at Laura Ashley to owning & running a retail store, it’s all come full circle & I have been working to turn that dream & vision into a reality.
The Cape Cottage Company unraveled its name as we turned our little 1960s Cape Cod home into a 2020s Cottage, albeit during the pandemic, combining the new with the old, charm, ambiance & peace…. a way of living that is slower & relaxed yet full of life & energy. Entertaining has always been an easy gift for me as my mom was a caterer & party planner in Atlanta & I always helped her as a little girl.
After creating my line, I wanted to help people feel more relaxed when entertaining & by that, I mean the guests. Have you ever been invited to someone’s home or to a party & walked in & felt just so awkward standing at the door looking around only to feel total fear and anxiety? Yes, I have been there many times & for that reason, I knew I wanted to create not only a great product home line but also to help create a feeling of ease when the guests enter the home or event space.
At The Cape Cottage Company, we have been working on a host & hostess package where the idea is when you arrive at a party or venue, you are greeted at the door by a small table (the toasting table) that sets the stage for the rest of the guests time there. The table can be filled with many items of your choice, but you must always have a fresh beverage to grab upon entering because it is always a great icebreaker. Our toasting tables are only 30″ which makes them easy to move around & don’t take up much space.
The host & hostesses have the option of wearing a matching skirt, apron, ribbons, sashes, bows, bowties & shoes that all coordinate with the table fabric choice. Upon arriving, the guests grab a beverage that is adorned with a toasting tassel of their choice & make for a great conversation piece that usually starts others to look around & talk about their tassel, too.
Tassels can be school team colors, a cancer ribbon cause that is near & dear to them, the state colors in which they live, or it can just be a party theme color such as a baby shower reveal…. think “pick a pink tassel if you think it is a girl or a blue tassel if you think it’s a boy”. It makes entering the home, event, or party much more fun & gets the guests involved & it’s a great keepsake & party favor to take home & remember the event afterward.
I have always felt that it is much more important to make the guests feel at ease & comfortable than it is to have the perfect food, the perfect flowers or party decor or the best music playing, etc… what is important is that the guests feel welcomed & are happy to be there by making them a part of the celebration… that is what matters most after all!
Over the many years in the design business, one thing has always been a constant in my design aesthetic probably because of my time at Laura Ashley…. that little gingham check…. it just never goes out of style. Styles come & go, but that little check always makes its way back. The Cape Cottage Company is a lifestyle brand that starts with our little gingham check fabrics available in 14 colorways in two sizes.
The idea is to mix & match colors together, creating the perfect event colorway for home decor, themed parties, fundraisers, business branding colors, tailgates & on & on…. the sky is the limit on the color combos. Our products include custom table skirts, tassels, pillows, lampshades, window treatments with draperies & roman shades, napkins, napkin rings, placemats & other table wear & a new collection of apparel that includes skirts, dresses, blouses, aprons, bowties, sashes, buttons and sandals.
Our home products are made to be of heirloom quality so that they can be used over & over again & passed down from generation to generation….. think from a baby’s nursery all the way through to adulthood & then passed down over & over again. We pride ourselves in Made in the USA workrooms as much as possible but do utilize some overseas markets for items not accessible in the States.
We also pride ourselves in helping smaller mom-and-pop businesses when we can & work alongside stay-at-home moms with many of our items because we love helping others just like so many have helped us along the way. We also donate a percentage of the sales of some of our tassels to fundraising organizations, as we love to give back. If there is a cause needed, there is always a tassel combo to make for that cause!
With compassion for making people happy & at ease alongside a passion for well-made custom products that go hand in hand, our story is your story… you dream it & we make it happen one little colorful check at a time. For further information on fundraising & events, we invite you to reach out to us. Where there is a will, there is a way. My story (our story together) from your friends at The Cape Cottage Company.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I think I touched a little about the history of how the Cape Cottage Company came to be & the past struggles to where I came from, but I would say yes, there have been & continue to be many struggles as the company unfolds each day. The biggest struggle is finding quality workrooms in the US. Keeping the cost down & the quality up is a goal that just can’t be broken.
I am not looking to mass produce a huge amount of items overseas as I love the idea of helping our economy grow. There are so many gifts & talents right here in the States, but it is a lot of trial and error as I go. I have to get samples made at new workrooms constantly to test out the craftsmanship & quality. It can get expensive, but I do not want to compromise the value & integrity of a product just because of pricing.
I would rather pay a little more & take a little longer to have a product made for that customer that lasts the test of time than hurry & get something done just to make a dime. It’s quality over quantity… you probably won’t ever see The Cape Cottage Company on Amazon because good things take time & come to those who wait). And we’ve been told our products are definitely worth the wait & that is a wonderful compliment in every way!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Our work is taking our fabrics & turning them into pieces of art & craftsmanship. We design (with the help of our client’s selections) every piece & write every work order. Our biggest focus is our custom table skirts & although we do keep many on hand that are readily available in the most popular colors or reds, greens, blues & pink. Each piece is specially ordered & the fabric is not cut until every “I” is dotted & “T” is crossed. Measure twice, cut once motto!
Our turnaround time is six weeks. We make mostly home furnishing products based around entertaining, from table skirts, pillows, drink tassels, napkins, placemats & napkin rings to our host & hostess line of skirts, blouses, dresses, aprons, sashes, bow ties, bows & sandals for entertaining to custom draperies, roman shades, lampshades, wallpaper & adult & baby bedding coming soon. Our products are lined or come with liners & quality for custom is what we pride ourselves on. The Cape Cottage Company & it’s all about a lifestyle of happiness & ease at home & with hospitality.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out.
The biggest advice I can give for those starting out is to not take on too much at once & be selective about where you put your time & energy. We only have so much time in a day & the older I get, the more I have realized we just can’t do it all. It is great to give of your service & talent, but you can’t be all things to all people & you are not going to fit into everyone’s cup of tea.
You can be supportive of others, but find your customers & find your people who understand your mission & your purpose…. the ones who understand your product & your passion just as much as you do because they are out there. You just have to look. Choose things & others that touch you in some way & speak to you & it won’t feel like you are working or that it is a chore, saving your energy & time for what matters to you most.
Doing the hard work to get there will come naturally if it is something you are compassionate about. I would also advise those starting out to just go for it & take one day & one step at a time. Work at it every single day. Like eating an elephant, it’s taking a bite little by little, one step at a time, one day at a time. Also, don’t compare where you are to where someone else is, as their journey & circumstances may be completely different than yours.
Had I not gone through some trials & tribulations over the many years, I would not have gained the knowledge & willpower to continue to just go slow & steady (maybe I was meant to be that Tortoise). Things will shift & change & you just have to be fluid. Yes, have a plan & tackle that plan, but don’t get upset if things don’t go as planned or if you have to head in a different direction, as it’s all a part of the circle that completes the ring. Also, finally, I would say don’t spend too much time on social media!
While it is an excellent avenue for a business, look into being present & engaged by going to festivals, reading magazines & books, joining clubs & organizations, helping with fundraisers & looking to give back what you can, whether it is of your knowledge on a topic or fiscally giving always creates that circle of giving back & comes back around in ways we don’t expect. Surround yourself with people who lift you up & reach out to others by being bold…. the worst that can happen is when someone says no, but I guarantee you’ll get far more yes than no by just being open to ask!
Pricing:
- Toasting & Tailgate Tassels $12
- Custom Pillows from $50-$80
- Table Napkins set of 4 $20
- Placemats $12 each
- Custom Table Skirts $375-$800
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thecapecottagecompany.com
- Instagram: @thecapecottagecompany
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecapecottagecompany
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/libby-britt-79961725/
Image Credits
Kash LaHue Photography & Branding (Photographyandbranding.com, @photographyandbranding, and @photographyandbranding.com)
