Escape the winter chill by exploring five New England museums that offer more than just captivating art. From maritime treasures to immersive exhibits, these destinations offer something for everyone, whether you’re an art aficionado or just looking for a cozy way to pass a snowy day.

Peabody Essex Museum | Salem, MA

Born from the treasures East India Marine Society seafarers amassed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Salem’s Peabody Essex Museum has been called a “collection of collections.” So, cliché as it sounds, this museum really does offer something for everyone—including my 4-year-old daughter.

During our visit last January, she relished the backyard birds on display in The Pod, part of the family-friendly Dotty Brown Art & Nature Center, and the interactive “Salem Stories” exhibit, which traces the city’s journey from witch trials epicenter and global shipping mecca to the vibrant, multicultural hub it is today. The maritime art gallery was an unexpected hit, especially the “step inside to discover” alcoves: Enter, settle on a bench, and take in the highlighted artifact or artwork—such as a “calendar” stick notched by a castaway to mark the days he spent stranded—while listening to its origin story.

Another multigenerational favorite was the Carl and Iris Barrel Apfel Gallery of Fashion & Design, where we oohed and ahhed over mannequins done up in fabulous designer duds and chunky jewels. My daughter deemed them “fancy,” while I, a former fashion editor, fangirled over the late Iris Apfel’s sartorial significance.

We moved on to Anila Quayyum Agha’s All the Flowers Are for Me, craning our necks as we slowly strolled around the illuminated and suspended laser-cut steel cube. The sculpture cast intricate shadows against gallery walls that were painted yellow because Agha, as she put it, was “interested in bringing sunlight into the room.”

Also warming—at least in spirit—was the fireplace flickering with digital logs in the Sean M. Healey Family Gallery, where street sounds and music immerse visitors in the floor-to-ceiling wallpaper that once hung in Strathallan Castle in Scotland. A scavenger hunt encourages closer inspection of the 19 panels, depicting life and trade in Guangzhou, China. (Example: Can you find this mother trying to pull her mischievous child off of the rattan roof of their sampan?)

We didn’t finish the full hunt, nor did we make it to PEM’s famous Yin Yu Tang House. A late lunch (the kids ramen at Kokeshi) was calling. But we already have plans to return to explore the 16-bedroom home originally built in China during the Qing Dynasty, reconstructed in Salem, and installed on the PEM campus. Because that’s a hallmark of a truly great museum: There’s always something calling you back. pem.org

Farnsworth Art Museum | Rockland, ME

Jamie, Andrew, and N.C., oh my: There’s no name more associated with the Farnsworth Art Museum than Wyeth. Since its founding in 1948, the Rockland institution has been intertwined with the three-generation painting dynasty, and today it boasts a Wyeth Center and owns the Olson House in nearby Cushing, Maine, the setting for several of Andrew Wyeth’s most well-known paintings, including Christina’s World.

What’s more, the Farnsworth counts many Wyeth masterworks among the 15,000 or so items in its ever-expanding collection, which celebrates Maine’s outsize role in American art. (Also see: Winslow Homer’s seascapes, an aluminum LOVE sculpture by the late Vinalhaven resident Robert Indiana, and more.)

But the museum, which marked its 75th anniversary in 2023, isn’t stuck in the past. In a way, it’s a reflection of Rockland itself, which has seen a revitalization in recent years with cool restaurants and artisan shops putting down roots.

I first found proof of the Farnsworth’s forward-looking ethos in the mural flanking the entrance, You Showed Me Love. Portland-based artists and couple Rachel Gloria Adams and Ryan Adams—self-described “weird art kids”—emblazoned the museum’s facade with bright geometric patterns and stylized lettering that quotes the Frank Ocean song they heard on their first date.

Speaking of futuristic, the Farnsworth also has the second-largest collection of works by ahead-of-her-time sculptor Louise Nevelson. While the recent “Dawn to Dusk” exhibition featured the monochromatic scrap-wood constructions she’s known for, it also included early oil paintings, collages, and funky jewelry. Nevelson, who emigrated from Ukraine to Rockland in 1905, once called the Farnsworth “something that I had not expected in my wildest dreams to find in a town in Maine—that jewel that shines.”

Perhaps the most striking example of how the Farnsworth is looking ahead is “Momentum,” a new exhibition series that launched last year showcasing the next generation of Pine Tree State artists. Each year, the museum provides an artist with their first solo show, acquires an artwork for its permanent collection, and publishes a scholarly catalog. ​​First up was Harpswell’s Emilie Stark-Menneg, whose wildly colorful, tapestry-inspired acrylic paintings depict maidens and unicorns frolicking among flowers and fruit—a far cry from meditations on Maine’s rocky coastline or weathered fishermen.

All of this isn’t to say a Wyeth exhibit can’t be fresh, too. Last summer’s “Abstract Flash: Unseen Andrew Wyeth,” presenting never-before-seen works spanning six decades, floored Boston Globe art critic Murray Whyte. “It is nothing less than a thrill,” Whyte wrote, “both as vital connective tissue in the Modern American canon, and as a simple, indulgent pleasure of a great artist revealed in new layers.” He knows what I learned firsthand: The Farnsworth—and the town it calls home, for that matter—is full of surprises. farnsworthmuseum.org

Hood Museum of Art | Hanover, NH

Cloaked in white and surrounded by mountains and rivers, the Dartmouth College campus in late winter is a scene straight out of a snow globe. But the sleepy setting belies one of the country’s largest and most exciting university art collections.

Representing six continents, the Hood Museum of Art’s 65,000 holdings range from hulking, nearly 3,000-year-old stone reliefs from Assyria to one of Nick Cave’s sequin-and-mirror-bedecked Soundsuit sculptures. And with the 2019 debut of a dazzling renovation and expansion, the museum now has a fitting home for this world-class collection. Passersby can get a literal sneak peek of its treasures in the north facade’s imposing picture window, which often frames an important painting or sculpture. 

Because the Hood is manageable in size and not particularly crowded, it allows you the time and space to savor this worldly art buffet at your own pace. Docents are quick to answer questions or chat, but they’re also perfectly content to let museumgoers explore.

On my visit, I was a globetrotter. The temporary exhibit “Connecting Threads and Woven Stories” featured textiles from Southeast Asia—including a Thai wall hanging woven with jewel beetle wings (!)—while up on level two awaited new-to-me abstract paintings, all earth tones and arresting patterns, by contemporary indigenous Australian artists. I especially lingered over the works in “Homecoming: Domesticity and Kinship in Global African Art,” a show centering the role of women artists and feminine themes in African and African diaspora art. The oversize quilts were the stars, including the recent Hood acquisition It’s a Blue World by Bhasha Chakrabarti, tracing the history of the global indigo trade.

I ended my visit in the Engles Gallery, where the aforementioned picture window overlooks the college green. Also set up there: an opt-in art project inspired by Chakrabarti’s work, prompting participants to draw a cherished object on a brightly colored square and add it to a “quilt” on the wall. My eyes darted between the outside world in quiet afternoon shades of gray and the rainbow-paper tapestry before me, pulsing with life. And while I still had all of the rest of Hanover to explore, that would have to wait; I sat down and began to sketch. hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu

Southern Vermont Arts Center | Manchester, VT

It was snowing hard as we wound our way up the almost-mile-long driveway to the Southern Vermont Arts Center. Flecked with white in the waning afternoon light, the sculptures lining the road and dotting the fields appeared otherworldly. All was hushed, in contrast to the buzzing town center we’d just left, where tourists hunkered down in the charming inns and cozy farm-to-table cafés Manchester does so well.

But any illusion that we’d entered a frozen fairy-tale land melted away when we reached the busy parking lot. In fact, what we didn’t know yet was that we had found the beating heart of the southern Vermont arts community.  

Our first stop on the 100-acre-plus campus was the modern, many-gabled Wilson Museum. Opened in 2000, it hosts traveling exhibits as well as the center’s permanent collection showcasing works from artists active in the Southern Vermont Artists collaborative in the early 20th century. On the day we visited late last January, we were ushered into a bustling reception for two installations grappling with violence against women: Cat Del Buono’s Voices and Nayana LaFond’s Portraits in RED. It was tough, honest stuff, and all around me, people were literally leaning in. And once visitors left the gallery, they couldn’t stop talking about it, to each other and to Del Buono, who was on-site for the event.

That community feel extended across the sculpture-strewn green to the circa-1917 Yester House, home to the Southern Vermont Artists Inc. since 1950. In the annual SVAC Fall/Winter Member Exhibition, works by 300-plus member-artists from New England and New York in various media—from painting and photography to ceramics and fiber arts—filled the homey galleries, several bearing “sold” signs. Jessica Rhys’s oil paintings of owls accented with gold leaf and Barbara Ackerman’s abstract multimedia etchings especially caught my eye. To keep the conversation going, there are gathering spots throughout the historic house (think Oriental rugs, fireplaces, comfy chairs, and shelves piled with art books), as well as the upscale curATE café, open year-round. Because at SVAC, you can’t help feeling part of the area’s long-running artistic dialogue. It’s a sentiment underscored by the words on the official historic roadside marker near the entrance: “Hundreds of artists show and perform annually, and thousands attend programs, continuing the traditional search for creativity in the inspiring hills and small villages of southern Vermont.” svac.org

Florence Griswold Museum | Old Lyme, CT

Your first inkling that the Florence Griswold Museum is a New England art museum like no other is the short documentary you’ll see in the Visitor Lounge, introducing the artists who established the famed Lyme Art Colony at the turn of the 20th century. Until Florence Griswold’s death in 1937, her Georgian manse turned boardinghouse was ground zero for these American tonalists and Impressionists—and there’s history around every corner at the Flo Gris, as it’s affectionately known.

As I took in the wall panels painted by one-time guests Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf, and William Chadwick and wandered the mansion’s period-perfect rooms, I got a real sense of the lived experience of the painters and sculptors who found Miss Florence’s home to be, as Hassam called it, a “little excursion into Bohemia.” And I could see how they gleaned inspiration from the rural beauty of the Lower Connecticut River Valley—a beauty that the Old Lyme-Essex-Old Saybrook area, while brimming with inviting shops and artful attractions, still retains today.

With highlights from the museum’s vast collection now rotating through the modern Krieble Gallery also on campus, there are even more opportunities to get up close and personal with these important American artists. Don’t miss the glass case displaying Chadwick’s palette, Metcalf’s sketches and diary, and a paint box that belonged to miniaturist Lydia Longacre, a rare female colony member. Also on view are two “wiggle” sketches, from artists who played the raucous Wiggle Game in the nearby boardinghouse parlor—one artist would draw a number of squiggles on paper and dare the next artist to incorporate these flourishes into a finished sketch.

This idea of living history comes into sharp relief while strolling the half-mile Robert F. Schumann Artists’ Trail around the museum’s property. Although I didn’t catch Miss Florence’s prized gardens in bloom, I did spend time roaming the banks of the Lieutenant River. Not only did the Lyme Colony artists once paddle rowboats there, but they also found a muse: Everett Warner’s painting Winter on the Lieutenant River, for one, depicts tawny marsh grasses poking through patchy snow on the water’s edge.

The trail opened in 2019, one of the most recent additions to this preservationist’s dream, which also saw the donation of a 190-piece Connecticut art collection from the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company in 2001, and the opening of the undulating Krieble Gallery in 2002.

But back to the artists and their antics: The oft-quoted Hassam once stated that Griswold’s boardinghouse was just the place “for high thinking and low living.” So while I reveled in the art history all around me—I also found myself wishing the walls could talk. florencegriswoldmuseum.org 

The post Find Indoor Inspiration at These Five New England Museums appeared first on New England.

The fact that Katrina Kelley has a tattoo of a needle and thread snaking up the inside of her left forearm isn’t that surprising. She is, after all, the designer and sole seamstress behind the buzzy Newcastle, Maine–based Amphitrite Studio.

What is surprising is that she did the ink herself. “I got the tattoo machine as a gift for my 30th birthday,” says Kelley, 44, perched on a chair amid antiques and sewing equipment in her cozy home studio. “The focus on the art took away from the pain. It was a weird cancellation of properties, so it became just like drawing on myself.”

The more you get to know Kelley, however, this act of visceral self-expression starts to make sense. She has a relentless need to create, a need that drove her to launch Amphitrite Studio as an Etsy shop selling women’s linen clothing in 2012. Over time, Kelley shifted her focus to linen napkins, towels, tablecloths, and other home and kitchen textiles, a metamorphosis that became complete the December day in 2019 when restaurateur Erin French from the Lost Kitchen—yes, that Erin French—called to order aprons for her shop.

As luck had it, Kelley had been working on a café apron prototype. “I was like, Shut the front door,” she says, with a laugh. “They found me, called me, and wanted me to make something because they saw what I was trying to do … that was a big confidence-booster.”

Since then, the Amphitrite Studio aprons—long or short half aprons or full length with a cross-back in saturated earth and jewel tones—have become Kelley’s calling card. They’ve also helped put her on the map: The 2022 design book Remodelista in Maine included her studio in a who’s who of the state’s artisans. “The aprons are the biggest hit, but also the biggest pain to make,” Kelley says, explaining that they require her to switch between multiple sewing machines, plus iron between each step. Still, she says all this with a twinkle in her eye, as if she always knew her meandering path would lead her here.

Kelley grew up in the Catskills, the youngest of four children. Her parents were hippies turned Jehovah’s Witnesses. Her mother, Kathlyn, retained an artistic streak and a homegrown ethos, making the family’s clothes, leading craft time, and teaching Kelley to sew at age 4. “My nursery was her sewing room,” she says. “I like to think that’s where I got my start.”

When Kelley was 14, she relocated with her mom to southern Maine, where the family had often spent summer vacations. She did homeschool and then trained to be a hairdresser, working as a colorist and also as a florist in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, before moving to a cabin in Damariscotta, Maine, in 2005. There, Kelley landed a job at a natural pet food store, which is where she met her now-husband, Jeff, a customer, who encouraged Kelley to start her sewing business in 2012 and get her online associate degree in business.

The name Amphitrite—the goddess of the sea and the wife of Poseidon in Greek mythology—was a no-brainer from day one, she says. “I originally chose it for the strong feminine vibe with ties to the sea,” she says. “I’ve always been drawn to the sea. When I was a kid, I actually drowned and was out for over a minute at Old Orchard Beach…. Ever since then, I’ve had a healthy fear of the ocean that’s turned into a reverence for its strength.”

It’s no surprise, then, that Kelley counts nature among her inspirations. Her art is also shaped by loss—including the loss of her brother Kieth Napolitan, an accomplished Portsmouth chef who died from an overdose in 2014. “My grief threw me into making things that other chefs could use,” Kelley says. “It was this natural progression of, this is where my heart already is. I’m going to keep making more kitchen-inspired things.”

Kelley spends her days measuring, cutting, sewing, ironing, and packaging her wares for shipping. She creates fresh patterns when inspiration strikes, like the vintage-leaning apron with thinner ties she’s currently working on. Looking to repurpose the fabric scraps and elastic left over from making masks during the pandemic, she designed one of the newest additions to her line: linen dish covers that are not only stylish, but also a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic wrap.

And in warmer months, Kelley opens her showroom—a solar-powered camper parked in her Newcastle driveway—to visitors. That’s also where she styles and shoots photos for her website, newsletter, and social media.

Amphitrite Studio is truly a one-woman show, and Kelley says she wouldn’t want it any other way. “I’m sure you can tell by looking around that I’m not a simple person,” she says. “This is what I live and breathe. I have no idea how to be anything but creative.” amphitritestudio.com   

More Made in New England Textiles

Feather your nest with these New England–made textiles.

American Woolen Company

In 2014, American Woolen bought Warren Mills, the last U.S. mill capable of producing both woolen and worsted fabrics. Today, it not only sells these textiles to domestic designers, but also sews them into preppy throws. Stafford Springs, CT; americanwoolen.com

Anichini

Local craftspeople stitch fabrics from Portugal, Italy, Turkey, and other far-flung places into shower curtains, meditation pillows, and kitchen linens for this Green Mountain State company’s “Made in America” collection. Tunbridge, VT; anichini.com

Bates Mill Store/Maine Heritage Weavers

When the 151-year-old Bates Manufacturing Company shuttered in 2001, its former president, his daughter, and a few employees formed Maine Heritage Weavers to continue making the venerable manufacturer’s shabby-chic matelassé cotton bedspreads and coverlets. Monmouth, ME; batesmillstore.com 

Bristol Looms

Set a sunny table with Maya Cordeiro’s coordinating brightly colored placemats, table runners, and napkins. Beyond the dining room, her handwoven baby blankets are especially sweet. Bristol, RI; bristollooms.com

Matouk

One of the last vestiges of Fall River’s textile-making past, the Matouk factory turns out crisp sheets and plush towels favored by celebs, high-end interior designers, and luxury hotels the world over. Fall River, MA; matouk.com

The post Katrina Kelley’s Premium Kitchen Linens | Made in New England appeared first on New England.

Is there anything more relaxing than watching flurries seesaw to the ground as you lounge in a steamy outdoor hot tub?

At Wentworth by the Sea, the answer is yes: This snowy scene can be even more soothing if it’s bookended by a visit to the dry sauna and a Swedish massage in the Victorian hotel’s spa. There, you’ll settle onto a heated table that vibrates softly to classical music and is cushy in all the right spots. The extended foot rub? Pure heaven for soles that have been shoved into ski boots for months on end. Sixty minutes later, the technician will draw a cooling jade roller across your forehead and up and down your cheeks to cap off the transportive experience.

Indeed, your whole winter weekend stay at the Wentworth will feel this way—a world apart. Once you cross the bridge over the Piscataqua River, you’re on (New Castle) Island Time. This bit of New Hampshire’s smallest town starts to feel like your special place, just as it’s felt to visitors who return season after season, year after year. There’s no better spot to catch these escapist vibes than in front of the lobby fireplace, where the surrounding couch and chairs are never empty for long. There could be friends gossiping before lunch, or a child discussing the finer points of Harry Potter with her grandma. (See? Pure magic.)

Of course, this otherworldly feeling owes a lot to the 150-year-old inn’s setting. Set on a grassy hill above Little Harbor, the grand dame is especially pretty at night, with white lights outlining the hotel turrets. For a panorama of boats bobbing in the harbor and darting bufflehead ducks, book a two-bedroom Marina Suite: You’ll have your own personal fireplace kitty-corner to a wall of windows on the first floor, and if you leave the primary bedroom’s bathroom door open, you can even shower with water views. 

You’d be forgiven for staying put, braving the elements only to amble up the gravel path to the Wentworth’s main building for a dip in the indoor pool, a negroni in the cozy-chic lounge, or dinner at Salt (look for the seared bluefin tuna atop roasted potatoes and Castelvetrano olives, dotted with arugula puree). But if you’re bundled up and ready for action, it’s just a 10-minute drive to downtown Portsmouth’s shops, breweries, and art scene. You could also spend a sunny afternoon exploring New Castle’s historic sites—just follow the paved path out of the hotel’s parking lot and head east. It’s less than a mile to weather-beaten Fort Stark; a little farther on 1B is the Great Island Common, a seaside park with views of two lighthouses.

After checkout, you might notice a hot commodity. The sofa facing the lobby fireplace is open. Sit and feel the Wentworth’s spell drawing you back in—Why would you want to leave this place? Eventually, you’ll have to shoulder your luggage and trudge back to the salt-streaked sidewalks of wherever you live, to real life. But for now: five more minutes. —Courtney Hollands

Nightly rate for typical room option: $399 winter vs. $899 summer. opalcollection.com/wentworth

Wentworth by the Sea: Beyond the Lobby

BREAKFAST SPOT: If the candy-colored blooms at the café/flower shop Wild Valentine don’t cheer you, a cardamom-rose latte paired with a savory oat bowl surely will (try the chicken and mushroom with cashew butter, black sesame, and Parmesan—yum). Browse the shelves stocked with pottery and organic baby onesies, and take a little sunshine to go. Portsmouth; wildvalentine.co

NATURE OUTING: Have a Gatsby moment at the 330-acre Odiorne Point State Park as you glimpse Wentworth by the Sea from a whole different angle across the Piscataqua River. Dotted with graffiti-spangled bunkers and crumbling foundations from its past lives as a fort and a summer resort, Odiorne Point beckons to explorers on foot or snowshoes—bring your own or rent them from EMS in nearby Portsmouth. Rye; nhstateparks.org

RETAIL THERAPY: The beautifully curated housewares boutique Nahcotta is brimming with things you didn’tknow you needed, like hand-carved wood puzzles, neon pillar candles from Germany, and crystal-infused bath salts. It doubles as a gallery, too—one where you can buy the original paintings right off the wall, fulfilling the store’s mission to “make art accessible to anyone and everyone.” Portsmouth; nahcotta.com

DINING PICK: There’s no better place to be on a midwinter weekend morning than at The Wilder’s wraparound bar, tucking into a maple-pork-belly-studded poutine or a sizzling shakshuka. Or stop by later in the day for a Sneerwell (chai bourbon, sweet vermouth, black cardamom syrup, and whiskey-barrel aged bitters) to get a taste of how this homey gastropub is single-handedly upping Portsmouth’s craft-cocktail game. Portsmouth; wilderportsmouth.com

CULTURE HIT: The historic Music Hall may be the cultural hub of Portsmouth, but for a cozier, more intimate night out, take in a rising comedian or a string quartet at the 116-seat Music Hall Lounge on Congress Street (a reimagining of the Music Hall’s former Loft, it opened in July 2022). It’s like seeing a concert in your living room … if your living room had a bartender and a fireplace and served small plates. Portsmouth; themusichall.org

DON’T-MISS STOP: Shake off the cold and immerse yourself in the large-scale installations at the Museum of New Art (MONA), an ambitious art gallery that opened in Portsmouth’s c. 1905 YMCA building two years ago. It welcomes artists from around the world—including German painter Markus Linnenbrink, who painted an entire room at MONA in dizzying rainbow stripes—and hosts fun events such as dance parties and “drink and draws” (exactly what they sound like). Portsmouth; monaportsmouth.org

The post Coastal Winter Getaway | Wentworth by the Sea in New Castle, New Hampshire appeared first on New England.

Want to bring a cozy cabin vibe into your own living space? We asked Pam and Chris Daniele of Vermont-based Dirt and Glass for their expert cozy-making tips.

1. Lean into lamps. Choose low-wattage lamps for a soft glow. “We are not an overhead-light household,” Pam says with a laugh.

2. Grab a blanket—or three. Achieve that lived-in, well-loved look with throws in mismatched textures: wool, woven, quilted. “Blankets all the way,” Pam says. “Don’t be shy.”

3. Thrift and thrift alike. Weathered books, repurposed wooden crates, antique photos—all are welcome in the Danieles’ home. “They make a place feel so much more personal,” Chris says.

4. Maximize relaxation. Trade your coffee table for soft poufs where guests can put their feet up. Bonus: extra seating.

5. Go green. Live plants do double duty in small spaces: They contribute to cleaner air and they bring nature inside (especially essential in winter). 

6. Let it burn. No fireplace? No problem. Candles add similar natural warmth to a room—Pam prefers the “Cozy” scent from Aura Candles, while Chris opts for a maple tin candle. “It smells like pancakes,” he says.

The post 6 Expert Tips For Achieving a Perfect Cozy Cabin Vibe appeared first on New England.

I turned off a dirt road in Deering, New Hampshire, onto a narrow, rutted driveway. Just when I started wondering if I was in the right place, I spotted a sign tacked to a tree: Keep going. Sure enough, the thick forest soon gave way to a clearing, and a sweet little deep-gray cabin on a pond came into view.

Waving, Chris and Pam Daniele stepped into the yard to greet me. They had been editing the photos they’d shot of the one-bedroom house and grounds the previous evening—“We take advantage of dusk,” Chris explains, “so everything will be glowy.” Later, they planned to paddle kayaks onto the pond and photograph the cabin from the water.

It’s all in a day’s work for the Vermont husband and wife behind the video and photography outfit Dirt and Glass as well as Cabinpedia, an online directory of—you guessed it—wanderlust-inducing cabins. The Danieles have carved out a unique niche in the travel industry: Property owners around New England and beyond hire them to stay and take glamour shots and drone footage of their backwoods A-frames and remote cottages, and then post them on social media to boost rentals. The duo also creates branded content and campaigns for Long Trail Brewing Co., Marmot, Vail Resorts, and more.

“There’s this nesting quality to being in a small space,” Pam says. “I think people just like the simplicity that a small space demands, because you really can’t overcrowd it. It feels like you’re getting wrapped in a blanket.” That cozy feeling no doubt resonates with their 377K-and-counting Instagram followers. Indeed, in the seven years since launching the Dirt and Glass account, Chris and Pam have truly become #cabinlife influencers—and it all started with an impromptu barter.

Chris grew up in Chicopee, Massachusetts, shooting nightscapes and nature scenes with his mom’s 35mm film camera, but went on to study teleproduction and become a recording engineer and a music producer. Photography “stayed more of a hobby throughout my life, until I met Pam,” he says. Pam, also from Western Massachusetts, was a pastry chef—and they bonded instantly over their love of hiking and the outdoors.

In 2015, the couple stayed at an off-the-grid artist’s shed in East Meredith, New York. Chris, who carried his camera everywhere, had an idea. He offered the owner the photos he took there in exchange for a return visit. The owner agreed, and the couple continued with this model: bartering photos for free nights at cabins around the Northeast. And though Chris launched the Dirt and Glass Instagram account in 2016, it was a stay in the Catskills the following January that really set the Danieles’ dream career in motion. Not only did Chris shoot photos of the property, called the Black A-Frame, but they also encouraged the owner to start an Instagram account to drive rentals. It worked, generating word of mouth—and helped convince Chris to officially move his music career to the back burner.

“Our contemporaries on Instagram were posting from really great cabins, but completely gatekeeping the locations,” says Pam, who left her pastry chef gig in 2019 to focus on photography full-time. “And we were like, We don’t want to do that. Airbnb had really taken off, so we saw this opportunity to share the places and help people book their cabins—and it just came together so organically.” 

Today, interested property owners submit a form on the Dirt and Glass website, and the Danieles select only those places that line up with their style and point of view to photograph. “It has to fit a vibe; it has to feel cozy to us,” Chris says. Though the getaways range in square footage and amenities offered, “we lean more toward rustic and private,” Pam adds. “That’s what people want, to go to the woods and reconnect with nature.” The secluded Deering, New Hampshire, guesthouse I visited, for one, was renovated by the owner, an interior designer who lives nearby, and is outfitted with wide plank floors, a screened-in porch, an outdoor shower, and even an on-site honor-system antiques shop.

Chris and Pam both take photos and videos, mixing architectural and lifestyle shots—often with one or both of them in frame. They start a shoot by scouting the cabin: straightening artwork, exploring angles to take advantage of as much natural light as possible, and working around any space constraints. “Luckily, we’re both pretty good at contortion,” Pam says, with a laugh. “At any given moment, one of us is doing a very deep back bend.”

Over the years, they’ve settled into a schedule. The first two weeks of every month are for work travel and photographing rental properties—they’re excited to add more Appalachian and Western cabins to their roster—and the remaining weeks are for editing, personal projects, and trekking to their own rustic cabin in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. “We go up there as much as possible,” Pam says.

Constructed in 2019 with the help of micro-shelter aficionado and former HGTV host Derek “Deek” Diedricksen, their own 200-square-foot abode is ensconced in pine trees, a hilly, quarter-mile hike off the road. It’s further proof that when it comes to Pam and Chris, there is no Instagram-versus-reality debate. What you see on social media is what you get—in this case, a deck, a sleeping loft, and a huge front window that flips open, letting nature and the breeze in.

The couple christened the cabin “Borrowed Time,” after a trail sign they bought at the Brimfield Antique Flea Market and hung over the door. And while they’ve built a career out of encouraging travelers to book cozy cabins for a night, the Danieles are keeping this one all to themselves.   

Instagram: @dirtandglass

4 Notable Cozy Cabin Rentals

Here are four rental cabins that knocked the (wool) socks off Chris and Pam Daniele.

Cozy Rock Cabin | Freeport, ME

Modern amenities meet coastal Maine rusticity in this light-drenched 750-square-foot cabin named for the giant rock rising over its outdoor hot tub and firepit. Thoughtful touches include a lending library organized by color in the loft’s funky triangular shelves and a detailed guidebook with spot-on lobster roll recommendations. staycozycabin.com

Sunrise Cabin at Woolman Hill | Deerfield, MA

Featuring a wall crafted from oddly shaped refurbished windows, Sunrise is the most distinctive of the three cabins for rent at Woolman Hill, a 110-acre Quaker retreat center. Even though it’s minutes from downtown Greenfield, the cabin feels “so out there,” Pam says, owing, in part, to the outhouse and decidedly old-school feel—you call to reserve and pay by check or cash. woolmanhill.org

The Conscious Cabin | Conway, NH

Candles, plants, and twinkle lights add to the chill vibe of this renovated 1950s log cabin in the White Mountains, which boasts a stone fireplace and an outdoor shower and also hosts yoga retreats. Owner Cassouki Chouramanis “created the space to welcome in and invite peace into people’s lives,” Pam says. “It’s gorgeous.” theconsciouscabin.com

Stone City Treehouse | Hardwick, VT

A tree literally grows through the porch and roof of this solar-powered rental (slogan: “Be free in a tree”). The Danieles spent a mini-moon here after their 2018 wedding and were enchanted by the creekside location—and the sleeping loft. “It is so cozy and comfortable,” Chris says. “There’s a window where you can just lie there and look out at the woods.” stonecitytreehouse.com

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