Donna Elle
CEO & Creative Director
Entrepreneurship…
Interior Designer, entrepreneur, and artist Donna Elle holds a Bachelor of Science degree in education from Rivier College and attended Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) for interior design. She owned and operated her own workroom, Threads, from 1976 through 1994 on Nantucket until opening her full-service firm Donna Elle Interior Design, where she remains principal designer.
In 2001, Elle recognized the opportunity to specialize within the design industry and formed a second company, Nantucket Windows. Adding to her product design résumé, she has launched a wholesale artisan line, Coastal Home, which will be available in retail stores and boutiques across the country in 2009.
Textiles…
Elle has surrounded herself with fabrics since a young age: Near her hometown of Easthampton, Mass., she used to spend Saturday afternoons at various mills shopping for and learning about textiles. Later, she excelled in the domestic sewing market on Nantucket as a workroom owner, seamstress, and sought-after wedding gown seamstress. These hands-on experiences continue to support and enhance Elle’s creative vision, allowing function and form to coexist in her signature fabrics.
The Sea…
A Nantucket resident who spent her childhood summers on Block Island (Rhode Island) with the family’s Egg Harbor cabin cruiser, Elle treasures the seaside lifestyle, as do her clients. “People resonate with those memories, and what I did was to take that experience for me and wrap it up in a textile and resin shells that speak in concert with the ocean. My fabrics conjure up emotions for people that are both personal and reflective in nature,” she says.
Recognition…
Elle is a seven-time consecutive winner of the Window Fashions Envision Award Design Competition at the International Window Coverings Expo, and she received the National Envision Award from the industry publication Window Fashions in 2004. This honor solidified her status as a leader in window treatment design. Just recently, in 2007, she was honored by Cape Cod Life magazine as one of 400 people who make a difference on the Cape & Islands, and she has been voted the Inquirer and Mirror’s “Best Interior Designer” for three consecutive years beginning in 2004.
Her associations include 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 she is a Lutron certified motorized window shading professional.
