Donna Elle first arrived on Nantucket as a teenager in 1974, falling in love with the destination’s damp, salty air and cobblestone streets. To the impressionable future entrepreneur, this serendipitous ferry trip felt like a coming home.
Having lived and practiced interior design there for over 30 years, she is continually in awe of the island’s magical atmosphere. “Its unmistakable air and landscape affect my work and my clients’ reaction to it,” says Elle, who has been instrumental in the evolution of “Nantucket Style”—a coveted look that resonates with people’s fond summertime memories.
Evolving Style
Elle also has homes in Boston and Ft. Lauderdale, where she frequents showrooms at BDC (Boston Design Center) and DCOTA (Design Center for the Americas) respectively. Her ongoing travels—for speaking engagements, buying trips, design projects, or for personal escape—propel her creativity and reawaken her aesthetics, keeping both in constant motion. Whether designing for a city loft, seaside cottage, or renovating a longtime family home, Elle possesses a keen sensitivity to place and to the people for whom she designs that keeps her work fresh and each project unique.
Awards & Associations
The recipient of numerous awards, Elle has been voted the Inquirer and Mirror’s “Best Interior Designer” for three consecutive years beginning in 2004 and was named one of 400 people who make a difference on the Cape & Islands by Cape Cod Life in 2007. She is a sought-after public speaker and has been the subject of numerous articles in journals and magazines, including La Vie Claire and Cape Cod & Islands Home. Additionally, she is a member of WCAA (Window Coverings Association of America), WFCP (Window Fashions Certified Professional), IFDA (International Furnishing Design Association), ASID (American Society of Interior Designers), FSIA (Feng Shui Institute of America), and is a Lutron certified motorized window shading professional.
Entrepreneurship
Acting as principal of Donna Elle Interior Design, Elle is also CEO and creative director of Nantucket Windows, Inc., founded in 2001. Four years later she merged her signature style and talent for product design and created the Coastal Collection, a line of textiles, drapery hardware, bedding, and curtains. She will launch her much-anticipated wholesale line of home furnishings, Coastal Home, in 2008.
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