Cachet Demaine Adams recently had a moment that took her breath away.
From her plush green sofa, she caught the mirror’s reflection through her Harrisburg home. She saw the colors surrounding her—vibrant, lush greens and oranges—within her curated living room. The happy faces and chatter of her family—her husband, son and daughter. That reflection triggered a flashback. She realized she was seeing her childhood wish come true.
“I realized I had everything I had ever wanted in life,” Adams says. “A home that I’m comfortable in, the family I always wanted, a career I enjoy. Sometimes life gets in the way—our refrigerator just needed to be replaced. There is always something distracting me from realizing life is beautiful. But in that moment, I realized how beautiful life is, and I was very thankful.”
That reflection of “home” is something she tries to capture, create and personalize for every one of her interior design clients, through Cachet Demaine Interiors.
“Home is such an important place,” Adams says. “It’s not just about making things look pretty—it’s making your space function the way you need it to. It should be a reflection of yourself.”
Susquehanna Style was honored to spend an afternoon getting to know the talented, warm and welcoming interior designer and woman behind Cachet Demaine Interiors. She generously shared a few of her style and design tips—which are intertwined with her life and career journey. With a name like Cachet, it seems as though she was destined for a life filled with style.
Introducing Cachet
When we say something “has cachet,” we’re saying it has prestige and style.
“Demaine” translated through Anglo-French, refers to the ownership of land surrounding a home. It later evolved to “domain” in English.
For Adams, “Demaine” is a family name, passed down through generations and branches of her family, given to every firstborn female. Not only is it her middle name, but she shares it with her mother, great-grandmother and several great-aunts, as well as her daughter.
Put together, Cachet Demaine has more than a nice ring to it—it has deep meaning.
“So my name, loosely translated, means ‘a home with style,’ which makes me feel like I’m walking into my purpose,” Adams says.
Born and raised in Harrisburg, Adams has always had a creative side. She was voted “most creative” within her class at Harrisburg High. During her college years at Rutgers University, “I had the best dorm room,” she recalls, adding, “and that was pre-IG and Pinterest.”
She’s always had an eye for style. During those college years, Adams developed a side hustle, buying and selling vintage clothing to put herself through school. She still remembers her first sale—a pair of green vintage pumps she discovered at Harrisburg’s Goodwill store. She paid $2 and sold them for $40.
Following college, realizing she was homesick, Adams returned to Harrisburg to launch two very different career paths.
First, she became an employee of the commonwealth, a path that continues to unfold today, almost 17 years later. Adams works within the Department of Health’s Division of Tobacco Prevention and Control. It’s a position that’s very personal to Adams, as she lost her great-grandmother to lung cancer.
Adams also had a vision for a vintage clothing store, a continuation of her side hustle. She lived out her entrepreneurial dream for several years, in partnership with her cousin, as the pair opened and operated Pampered Peacock Vintage—“clothing for the fashionably late.”
The business closed a decade later, but a whole new world was opening for Adams, thanks to her transferable skills. Administrative and customer service skills. Lots of alteration and sewing experience. Budgeting, business and financial skills.
By that time, she was also a mother of two young children, and she realized she needed to keep a creative outlet in her life. All of her skills were pointing to interior design.
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Trusting Her Eye
“I began taking classes, enmeshing myself in interior design,” Adams says. Family members were some of her first customers, utilizing her flair for design and style in their homes.
Two big breaks came her way—having her work featured in HGTV Magazine and being selected as a 2021 Style Spotter at the prestigious interior design gathering High Point Market. It was “validation amongst peers” to trust her eye for style.
Today, her portfolio includes homes throughout the Susquehanna Valley, as well as in Atlanta, Orlando and beyond.
She was also commissioned by Young Professionals of Color – Greater Harrisburg to design a room within their historic Shipoke property, Hurston Manor. The end result is a multifunctional great room and meeting space that reflects the culture of the organization.
Art-inspired Interior Design
“Eclectic, art-inspired interior design” is how Adams describes her sensibility at Cachet Demaine Interiors. Artwork is often her starting point or inspiration.
One of her clients, in fact, regularly thanks Adams for her artistic choices. While renovating an Airbnb property, one of the pieces Adams proposed, an abstract work of art, included the figure of a Black woman.
“She was hesitant [to include it], even though she herself was a Black woman,” Adams recalls. “She didn’t want people to not rent the space if they didn’t feel comfortable seeing the art.”
Counseling her, Adams told her, “You have a responsibility. How are we going to be comfortable seeing Black art in regular everyday life? As a woman who happens to be Black and owns this property, if you don’t provide it, who will?”
Needless to say, Adams made her case. The woman agreed to include the art in her Airbnb, and the rest is history.
“She sends feedback from her guests all the time,” Adams says. “People from all backgrounds compliment the art, because you just don’t see it everywhere.”
Within Adams’ own home, art pays homage to Black culture. A large mask she purchased at the city’s Nyeusi Gallery. A vintage book illustration of Josephine Baker. Showcased in a shadow box, handcarved wooden hair picks she discovered during a trip to a South African market.
“When I was young, I don’t recall seeing any art like that,” Adams says. “We’re a Black family, and I want my kids to grow up seeing themselves reflected in art.”
Curtains also add an artistic element to Adams’ home. She likens the bold floral design to “a big oversized watercolor painting” and calls them a “must-have.”
But the main driving force behind the home’s color palette and design is the living room’s plush green sofa.
“I always wanted and envisioned a green sofa in my home,” says Adams with a smile.
It’s hard for her to choose a favorite color, but she finally admitted, “Maybe green is my favorite color,” pointing to her home’s olive-green woodwork and trim.
“Olive is very peaceful to me,” she says. “It’s our default color outside, so it’s like a neutral. But I’m not opposed to other colors—whatever colors bring you joy.”
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She enjoys mixing patterns and textures, describing them as ways to warm up a space.
“And red is like lipstick—every room needs a touch,” she says.
While her home might be described by some as maximalist, reflecting today’s design trend of eclectic colors, patterns and textures, Adams doesn’t necessarily believe in being trendy. Rather, she says her home reflects her love of life, of being alive, filled with joy.
She enjoys getting to know clients and designing homes they too will love living in.
“As long as you like something, it won’t go out of style. Homes should reflect the person—not the designer,” Adams says.
And personalization is something homeowners want today more than ever.
“Since the pandemic, people started paying more attention to their home spaces. People are wanting to incorporate specialty rooms that are tailored to their needs—a gym, a reading nook,” Adams says. “People are looking at their homes in new and unconventional ways, and I welcome those projects that challenge me to look at a space in a new way.”
She’s currently accepting clients for 2024—homes, Airbnbs, and she dreams of designing “a funky little restaurant” one day.
But for now, just like that moment of reflection, Adams is content and thankful. She continues to balance her family life with two careers—her ongoing position with the state, as well as Cachet Demaine Interiors.
You could say she’s living life, by design.
“I’m very much aware the profession I decided to get into is a First World profession,” Adams says. “If it is a privilege you can afford yourself—to have someone come in, get to know you and your needs, your aesthetics, and put all that together, to have an enjoyable living experience—to me, it’s a very sound investment in your health, your mental well-being and your family life. I enjoy doing that for others because I love people and want things to be the best they can be.”
Cachet Demaine Interiors
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