Meet the husband-and-wife team behind Rusticator.
Email Laura. She’s a real person, with a real email address, who really likes to talk shop, especially when it comes to her shop.
RUSTICATOR IS THE SHOP-CHILD of interior designer Laura Keeler Pierce and her husband, Vassar.
In addition to being the creator and owner of Rusticator, Laura is the founder and CEO of the Boston-based interior design firm Keeler & Co.
Growing up in a family that was constantly on the move, each new location meant a totally unique home and an ingrained love for spatial relationships, the construction process, and furnishings with personality. It’s a passion she inherited from her mom, Helen, who is actively involved in Rusticator.
“Rusticator,” Laura says, “is the result of a lifetime surrounded by sawdust and custom draperies.”
For Vassar, who serves as Rusticator’s chief financial officer, sense of place has always been important, especially when it comes to Mount Desert Island. His family has deep roots here, after all. His great great great grandfather was Charles W. Eliot, the famous Harvard College president who helped found Acadia National Park. Growing up in Dover, Massachusetts, Vassar spent nearly every summer on MDI at his family’s ancestral summer cottage, the Coffeepot.
Henry
The Designer Dog
Laura has a Certificate in Interior Design from Rhode Island School of Design, a BA in Art and Art History from Colby College, plus years of experience working in the fine arts and event planning.
Vassar is the Chief Operating Officer of Keeler & Co. and holds a BA in Business from Bucknell University as well as an MBA from Boston University. Formerly, Vassar worked in professional fundraising at various educational institutions.
When they’re not behind the counter at Rusticator, or at their winter home in Boston, the happy couple can be found on top of a mountain with their golden retrievers, Henry and Emma, or volunteering for their favorite charitable organization, Friends of Acadia.