Upstairs: White Walls + Colorful Floors

Refinishing the floors under the old carpet on the top floor bedroom was not in the budget - so Rachel chose a vibrant turqoise paint for the base color and for added punch hand stenciled her own design accents in bold red.

Color Transforms the Bath

Wallpaper Accent Wall

Mod Living Room

These next few shots - courtesy of photographer Greg Bowl - show the living room area. To drive home the 50's mod style Rachel landed a kidney shaped coffee table.

My Sweet Pad # 1: Rachel Paxton

Helping people discover their niche and settle into a home that is uniquely their own is what makes being a real estate agent satisfying and a great joy for me at times.

Rachel had lived in JP part-time for years - alternating between a small condo in JP and her home on the Vineyard where she has created a thriving business selling her paintings and painting custom commissions. But -- she yearned for a place in JP where she could live and paint and had been looking on and off for years for something in her price range that could work. I came across the Union St house and thought of her immediately because the first floor was already semi-gutted and potentially perfect for a painting studio. Still, when I saw how cleverly she closed up some windows for a 'painting wall' and lit it to her precise needs - and added a few windows to each side of the room for more natural light - I couldn't get over what a perfect work space it became.

I sold this house tucked away on Union Ave in JP to an artist - Rachel Paxton - and I can't get over how she transformed every square inch of the place. Let's just say the trim wasn't hot pink when she bought it..among other things. The decor of the interior rooms are all done in a 50's mod theme.

Nov. 3, 6-9 pm-- Photographs by Brooklyn-based Rosie McCobb + JP's Elizabeth Albritton

Black and white image above by Elizabeth Albritton
Color image above by Rosie McCobb

Thank you to community-spirited agent and art-enthusiast, Joe Fallon, who this month curates a show of photography at the McCormack & Scanlan Real Estate office/gallery. On display through November 2010 will be photographs by Rosie McCobb and Elizabeth Albritton, who each shot a series of images inspired by the neighborhoods they live in and love. The opening reception is Wednesday, November 3rd from 6-9 pm at 68 South Street in Jamaica Plain.

McCobb's series, Unexpected Brooklyn: Neighborhood Landscape in Transition, is the result of her fascination with three neighborhoods in Brooklyn that are at "the midpoint between the old blight and the recent rejuvenation." These documentary photographs were taken on her visual safaris into Bedford-Stuveysant, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Red Hook "collecting compositions of things that are often unnoticed, yet striking in their color, design and beauty." She says, "I feel it is my job as a visual artist to slow down and capture my surroundings." Rosie's work is printed on archival canvas, and mounted on stretchers like a painting. To view more of her work, please go to http://www.rosiemccobb.com/

Elizabeth Albritton seems to share that view, as her series Summer, night considers well-loved spaces in Jamaica Plain "as a locus of new mystery." She uncovers unknown views of familiar landscapes in works that make masterful use of long exposures, available light and light she adds. All the digital photographs in the series are printed on archival metallic paper. To see Elizabeth's work please go to www.elizabethalbritton.com