by Dawn Carroll
Designer, Cumar Marble & Granite
Executive Director, Over My Shoulder Foundation
The Over My Shoulder Foundation is a nonprofit that focuses on encouraging and producing unique mentoring projects, and the upcoming “Home for the Holidays” event (co-conceived and co-sponsored by Cumar Marble & Granite) offered the perfect opportunity to do just that.
Boston Design Week invited celebrated Boston talent—Paula Daher, Eric Roseff, and Gerald Pomeroy—to do something they’re probably not used to doing: step (slightly) out of the spotlight. These top designers were asked to support and mentor three burgeoning designers in the conception of three holiday-themed home spaces in the gorgeous Neiman Marcus store at Copley Square, Boston.
This was no small feat. The schedule was aggressive, and the standards extremely high. The mentees—Virginia Seherr-Thos with Daher Interior Design; Evie Hickey with Eric Roseff Design; and Lauren Cozzi with Gerald Pomeroy—were challenged to create a beautiful home display area in one of the most luxurious department stores in the country. It’s a dream come true for anyone in the design world (including me) but for these up-and-coming designers it was also a daunting task.
Luckily, there were talented and careful mentors at the helm. Working with each team in my capacity as a Cumar stone designer, we transformed three blank spaces into amazing rooms that feature stunning contemporary and classic styles. Deadlines were met and refined tastes were satisfied because everyone adopted the mentoring mission of OMSF, wholly embraced by Cumar as well, of “Designing the Next Generation.”
When you mentor someone, you act as a good steward for our industry, for our society, and for future generations. But you also get something that’s totally mind-blowing in return, something that offers a lifetime of satisfaction: the euphoria that comes from having an impact in another person’s life.
Cumar Marble & Granite and the Over My Shoulder Foundation would like to thank everyone who made “Home for the Holidays” possible! We look forward to sharing more of the mentorship stories that blossomed from this fantastic project.
The grand opening event takes place on Wednesday, October 8. If you’re a member of the media and are interested in attending, please contact Annette Goubeaux at Neiman Marcus ([email protected], 617-585-6008).
