sweet home New Jersey

market
place
shops
Designer Joel Woodard
takes a break at J Design
Antiques Garden in
Oldwick, New Jersey—
open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Wednesday through
Sunday and also
by appointment.
sweet
home New Jersey
Photographs: john bessler
A Southern gentleman plants roots in Oldwick, New Jersey
details J Design Antiques Garden is
located at 53 Main Street in Oldwick,
New Jersey. Call 908/439-0001 or
visit jdesignantiquesgarden.com.
He may hail from Alabama and let slip
the occasional Southern colloquialism,
but designer Joel Woodard seems to
have made himself right at home amid
the rolling hills of New Jersey.
Not only did he and wife Susan North
recently renovate a fieldstone barn there,
but last year Joel opened a design studio
and home furnishings shop—J Design
Antiques Garden—just 10 miles down
the road, in Oldwick.
“Oldwick is such a charming little
country village,” says Joel. “There’s an
orchard just behind the shop, and next
door is the Tewksbury Inn. It’s a great
weekend destination.”
Joel expertly disguised any evidence
of the shop’s previous lives as village
post office and general store by
refinishing the wide plank floors and
introducing a bright white palette
sprinkled with bold orange accents.
Design books and accessories are
scattered about—dotting demilunes and
covering coffee tables. Swedish antiques,
upholstered pieces, painted furniture, and
vintage garden accessories are expertly
mixed with abstract art and photography,
giving the shop a look that’s more homesweet-home than home furnishings store.
“I wanted it to look like someone’s
country living room,” explains Joel,
“approachable, friendly, casual.”
With a dash of Southern charm thrown
in for good measure.
—Jenny Bradley
+
traditionalhome.com april 2010 49