Sotera Tschetter

Nearly every surface inside and out of Sotera Tschetter’s 1925 Tudor has been touched by this Renaissance woman. But her inspiration actually comes from early twentieth-century England and the famed Bloomsbury group of writers, painters, and freethinkers who challenged the boundaries of art. Eleven years ago, Tschetter was at the forefront of a movement that blurred the boundaries between home and garden—and her Bryn Mawr garden store, Bloomsbury Market, and nearby home are perfect examples. Each shares common traits—handcrafted ironwork made in her metal shop, acid-aged concrete, and vintage garden wares scattered inside and out. At home, a writer’s room is tucked in the garden, and a vintage garden gnome sits on her kitchen counter. An aged garden chair is used indoors, and chandeliers are electrified and suspended outdoors. If you love this, you should see her store. This cobbler’s child certainly doesn’t have holes in her shoes.

Grounded
“When I travel to England, I want to live in that environment,” says Tschetter. “I wouldn’t move—but I can go there in my head,” she adds. “There’s something romantic about that.”

Made from Hand
From brick garden walls to tinted plaster interior walls, handcrafted awnings, and hand-built bookshelves—Tschetter has created and cocreated a home that is aged and weathered with a deeper history and place than its Tudor core. “It comes from my set design background,” says Tschetter.

A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss
Besides corunning her own retail and wholesale operation, Tschetter is head of product design and development for Smith & Hawken. The Marin Country–based specialty retailer is re-creating itself, and Tschetter runs the S&H satellite office in Minneapolis, where she also leads the design and development of the Smith & Hawken line for Target.