Imaginer, Creative Artist, Collaborator, Product Designer

Antidote for bland interiors – for almost 20 years, Sarah Gayle Carter has been a spirited innovator in America’s fast changing culture of design. Sarah Gayle Carter’s range is broad, her vision clear, home furnishings her arena.

Carter’s aesthetic is grounded in well-mannered, neoclassical form and line. From there she lifts off into the atmosphere of things imagined and sophisticated color play. Her work has been described as feminine, whimsical, exciting, and contemporary.

Carter says simply, “I have a great time taking classic forms and pulling them together in unexpected ways.”

Thanks to Carter’s expressive aesthetic and a level of design artistry that appeals to an wide range of customers, her following is far-reaching. She has been an innovative yet pragmatic design partner to leading American companies including Tiffany &Co., Friedman Brothers, Peel &Company. Her signature products include custom
rugs, furniture case goods and occasionals, mirrors, porcelain, scarves, clocks, and silverware.

A career in design began for the Richmond, VA, native following studies in art, design, and language at Hollins College and Virginia Commonwealth University. Carter’s first professional design projects included swimwear, hand-painted tile, and china plates.

Soon, her growing love of historic patterns inspired Carter to translate their motifs into handmade wool rugs. In 1995 she opened Sarah Gayle Carter™ Design Studio to produce a core line of custom rugs for the interior design and architectural markets.

Since that time, Carter has expanded into the home furnishings and accessories markets.She conceived a modern case goods program for Century Furniture, and at the April 2006 International Home Furnishings Market in High Point launched Atelier by Councill, a complete line of fine residential case goods with Council Furniture to address upscale customers’ desire for originality and fine detail.

2007 marked the beginning of a new direction altogether - paintings in oil. Carter had always meant to turn her hand and eye to the canvas,but never seemed to find time.“After many years of working in a medium that requires very controlled expression, I decided to just plunge in, and have had a great time with the looseness and freedom of this most traditional of all art forms. Very liberating!” As a lark, she did a few high-spirited, expressionistic, dog portraits making good use of her years of working with color, the results, dubbed by Carter “Color Dogs”, have a funky, off beat freshness that manage to convey not only the likeness, but also the personality of her animal subjects. “Color Dog” commissions are keeping her very busy, as she also continues to work on other evolving subject matter. “I have no idea where this is going!”“

"While I enjoy and appreciate the collaborative nature of product design,” says Carter, “I am thrilled to have found an outlet for another form of artistic expression. That said, those who know me will recognize my thumbprint on not only every product I design, but also every painting”. Whether Tiffany plate, fine furniture, or oils on canvas, my focus is on clean compositions with a certain lightness of mood, and handling that reflects the joy I find in creating and living with beautiful things ”.