Hoarding With Style: Sarah Blodgett’s art of collecting

There is something wonderfully disarming about walking into a space where nothing feels overly polished, overly planned or pulled from a catalog — a place where history lingers in the corners, where color is fearless, where the objects on the shelves have stories to tell and where, if you are lucky, a cat named Cinnamon may be supervising the entire operation.

That is the world of Sarah Blodgett.

Now part of the creative orbit inside Liz Macaire’s sprawling gallery in West Cornwall, Blodgett’s “Hoarding With Style,” tucked into the upstairs space, feels less like a shop and more like an unfolding conversation about aesthetics, storytelling and the art of living with things that matter.

Born in Manhattan, Blodgett spent weekends and much of her childhood in Gallatin, New York where her family owned a late-1700s farmhouse on a property that once housed an antique store, leaving the barns packed with treasures and forgotten finds.

“I was dusting off antiques instead of playing with toys as a child,” she said, laughing.

In sixth grade, she recruited friends to venture into an abandoned house, move things around, style found objects and create little vignettes while her mother supervised from a nearby chair. Looking back, it seems inevitable that Blodgett would eventually build a business rooted in collecting, storytelling and visual imagination.

Photography came first. Her father was a professional photographer in New York, and Blodgett followed him into the field, eventually building a career photographing wildlife, sports and portraits while simultaneously collecting antiques and pieces that fed her layered aesthetic.

For years, she joked about turning her passion into something larger. She trademarked the name “Hoarding With Style,” a process that took nearly two years. Once it finally came through, she laughed.

“Well, I guess I should use it.”

As photography rapidly changed in the age of cellphones and artificial intelligence, Blodgett began rethinking what creativity could look like moving forward.

“We also realized we had too much stuff,” she said. “So we started selling pieces on Facebook Marketplace.”

Only Blodgett could not help elevating even that process. Inside her Greek Revival home in West Cornwall, she created styled moments around the things she was selling. People responded not just to the objects, but to the feeling behind them.

Her philosophy is approachable, with affordability in mind. She believes homes should evolve slowly over time, layered with meaningful objects, history and personality rather than stripped down into sterile perfection.

“That’s what gives a home a soul,” she said.

Creativity runs throughout the family. Her husband, a German comedian and juggler, performs internationally, while their 22-year-old child, Badger, is heading to the Maryland Institute College of Art this fall. One of the couple’s four children in their blended family, Badger has even sold some of their own pieces through Sarah’s shop.

“My mom has been such a rock star at supporting me,” Badger said.

Working with clients, Blodgett describes herself as less decorator and more “creativity facilitator,” helping people uncover their own instincts through objects that already reflect who they are.

That is exactly what Sarah Blodgett does: She invites visitors not only to explore her journey, but perhaps to begin uncovering their own.

Hoarding With Style is located at 406 Goshen Turnpike, West Cornwall and is open Friday-Sunday 12 to 4 p.m. or by appointment.