^ vintage spaces
TOP: The vintage velvet sofa and loveseat were purchased in Lawrence, KS. New leather bomber chairs and a large area rug give the space a blended style that beckons guests to relax and mingle. BOTTOM: Two separate pieces were combined to give character to the bare concrete walls in the ladies lounge. By simply stacking the small book shelves atop the vintage buffet, it added height and dimension. Various found objects like an old Portuguese tile and an antique carved wooden bowl add personality to the setting.
TOP: The ladies lounge, with a boudoir-style vintage sofa, was designed to offer a private area for pre-wedding or party celebrations that take place in the iWerx event space. BOTTOM: An end table found curbside was refurbished with a little chalk paint and new drawer pull. A farmhouse tray with mini-clipboard and pearls add charm to the design when paired with the urn-style yellow lamp.
Completely self-taught, with no formal education or training in design, Newton calls herself, “an accidental designer,” Newton draws upon her previous experiences in independent event planning and consulting, as well as catering in the hotel industry. “I’ve always been fascinated with design. I just had this desire to get my hands on things and to make it right.” The “turning point” Newton said, came in 2007 when she and her husband broke ground on their custom home in rural Liberty, Missouri. Pam and her husband custom designed their house, and she describes the intense, sometimes contentious, discussion process that ensued between herself and the custom designer. “I wanted our home to feel like it had been there for years, even though it was new,” Newton said. Her home incorporates antique barn wood siding on the floors, church newels at the top of the stairway, custom-made kitchen floor tilework, and vintage lighting from Europe “that I got off a crate.” Newton’s persistency and vision paid off, as the designer won an award for best custom home in a certain price range, and the home was featured on tours. It was then, Newton said, that a lightbulb truly went off: She saw a need for people to not have cookie-cutter houses and living spaces. Her design business, known as Uncommon Relics, began with friends and word-of-mouth referrals. (A website, www.uncommonrelics.com, is forthcoming.) “The spin on my design is to be uncommon, instead of a cookie cutter,” Newton said The environmental aspect also is important with her reclaiming furniture and other pieces that might otherwise end up in landfills. “The oddity of it is, the majority of it stays in my mind,” Newton said of her creative process. She gestured toward a space near the front-door en-
tryway at iWerx. “I can look at this space, right here. Once I get one piece, I’ll go on a treasure hunt, and I’ll find that one piece that I think is going to work there, and in my mind, everything else falls into place.” “The pieces just speak to me,” Newton said of her experiences, like walking into a barn filled to the ceiling with items. “I think God instilled this vision in me, and it sticks out like kryptonite.” From One Piece”to the Big Reveal “That one piece,” she explained, could be anything. She pointed to a pair of early 1970s mustard-colored sofas positioned near the iW- erx coffee bar. They previously belonged to one owner in Lawrence, and Newton purchased them off of Craigslist for $200. She had them professionally cleaned, and then paired them with new pillows and a new area rug to help incorporate a mix of vintage and modern elements. The area coffee table base came from a downtown antique mall, and Newton’s husband built its top. The surrounding walls are filled with the works of rotating artists; in July, Kansas City area art- ist Lynette Ubel’s paintings adorned the walls. Also in the large opening space near the iWerx entry are barrel leather chairs from the 1960s that Newton picked up at an estate sale; nearby shelving holds a typewriter, a retro radio, a vintage skateboard, and much more. “When I find this stuff, I just have to have it,” she said. “That’s what is cool about what I do, is the stories – that’s why I love it so much,” Newton said. “It goes back to feeling like I’ve been here before, that the pieces that I find all have a story. I think people feel that when it comes into a design element. I think people sense the story and the his- tory behind each piece.” Newton speaks to her customers first, gathering their own ideas and
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