An inside look at the many treasures to be found at Paula and Clayton Daher’s new store Mélange in Kennebunk.
This past fall, esteemed Boston designer Paula Daher and her son Clayton embarked on a new creative adventure in Kennebunk, when they opened Mélange (daherinteriordesign.com), a lifestyle store of curated finds from their global travels sourcing artisan goods for their interior design projects. “Mélange is a collection of things that I love. Whether I was at antique fairs in Paris or in the Medina or here in Maine, every piece had to have a story,” says Paula. Below are just some of the many unique things to discover on Mélange’s shelves and the stories that make them special.

1. The Dahers gut renovated an abandoned building that once housed the Market Day food store to create a space for Mélange. Careful consideration was given to the surrounding landscape, lovingly restored by the team at Gregory Lombardi Design, who also created a backyard that the Dahers plan to use for hosting warm-weather soirees.

2. Paula often sources pieces for her projects in France and Morocco, and items from both countries are displayed on this 17th-century Spanish table that she found at a fair in Paris. The table contains no nails and is held together by wooden dowels. On top sits two French vases and a terra cotta figure wrapped in beads found in the Medina in Marrakech.

3. A large wooden bowl on top of the table is from Indonesia and contains beads made by the Bedouin Indigenous tribe, whose members use the beads to adorn their tents. Beneath the table are wooden trays with inlay interiors, also from the Medina in Marrakech.

4. Mélange is the exclusive retail location and showroom for these light fixtures, created by Otis C. Baron of OCB Design out of Portland, Maine. Made from wood and paper with a durable and easy-to-clean coating, they can be completely customized.

5. Palm Beach-based designer Nicolette Mayer makes these Lucite trays available in four sizes, each featuring unique imagery on the inside. This particular photo is of a lifeguard. “These have been really popular. They’re fun, and the photography is really dramatic. I was really drawn to them,” says Paula.

6. This table showcases printed cotton napkins from Italy, little Moroccan bowls and small antiques found in France. Paula admittedly isn’t a cook but loves setting a table. She wanted people to be inspired by different tablescapes and purchase things guaranteed to make their own tables more unique.