ABOUT

As an avid gardener, Mary Beth enjoys bringing the beauty of the natural world indoors. 

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Mary Beth graduated from Middlebury College and holds a Masters of Business Administration. After moving to New York to pursue a career in banking, she decided to shift gears and follow her passion for the arts. Joining as an apprentice in 1989, Mary Beth worked at Sotheby’s, one of the world’s preeminent auction houses, and ultimately became head of Sotheby’s Appraisal Company. A student of the Isabel O'Neil studio, she is also an accomplished decorative painter and has both sold and exhibited her work. Most recently, Mary Beth spent ten years working at the New York interior design firm, McMillen Inc., leaving in 2021 as a partner of the company to establish her own firm, elmwoodesign.

 

She has a passion to collaborate with clients to assess their needs and accomplish their goals, and with architects, artists and craftspeople to achieve exquisitely detailed and timeless interiors.

 

Mary Beth renovated a historic 1830s Greek revival house (Elmwood) and its gardens on the north shore of Long Island where she lived for 30 years with her husband and two sons. Recent projects include a contemporary Pennsylvania farmhouse, a classic Upper East Side apartment, a young family’s house on the north shore of Long Island, and a vacation retreat on the Gulf Coast of Florida.