PROFILE Fogler & Ketchum – JUNE 2007

By Joshua Bodwell

Photography Darren Setlow

In a home on a quiet street in Brunswick, there is a drapery workroom with a high and seemingly endless worktable; it is flanked by sewing machines and bundles of luxurious fabrics. This tucked-away shop of the Fogler & Ketchum Drapery Workroom may be one of the best-kept secrets in Maine’s world of interior design.

This high-end drapery business began in 1989 when Cathy Fogler opened her own retail interior-design business. When Fogler’s husband, Bruce Ketchum, joined the business 10 years later, the couple shifted their priorities to focus solely on custom, wholesale drapery. That simple decision took the couple out of the hectic and sometimes unpredictable world of retail and created time for them to do what they had always loved to do: make things with their hands.
Today, Fogler & Ketchum works almost exclusively in collaboration with interior designers, and the company has built a reputation as a full-service operation. The couple begins new projects with an on-site consultation, during which options for hardware, materials, and styles are presented. With a design in hand, it’s back to their well-organized workroom to cut, press, and sew. Finally, Fogler and Ketchum install nearly everything they produce, seeing the project through from start to finish. “It’s really gratifying for us to get out and actually put up our work,” Ketchum says.
In addition to window treatments, the couple creates pillows, cushions, and bedding to complement their custom draperies. “We make anything soft for the home,” Fogler laughs. The husband-and-wife team says that people often ask how they manage to work so closely together. Fogler says the couple is bound by a love of craft (and each other) and “a deep interest in the design process.” When the giant swaths of fabric are spread across the worktable, or the sewing machine is whirring through a particularly tricky stitch, they can become so engrossed in the task at hand that they al-most forget their spouse is even in the room. “The creative process is so self-absorbing,” Fogler says, “that we work very much within ourselves, even when we are working on the same project.”