Let's Meet Regine Labossiere

I’m so jazzed to introduce everyone to the fabulous create behind The 256 Project Régine Labossière. We met in 2019 through Instagram when we both attended a dinner in NYC for our friend Racheal Jackson. Turns out we live pretty close to each other in New Jersey. She along with her husband Daniel, son Gus and sweet dog Molly live in what she has lovingly coined The Cozy Cottage. It’s a hashtag you can follow friends!

Régine welcome thanks so much for being here… can you share with the readers a bit about your family growing up: I grew up in suburban NJ with my parents, Gladys and Paul. My family is from Haiti and I still have quite a bit of family there as well as in the NY/NJ area and other parts of the country and world. Being raised first-generation American in a suburb definitely has a huge influence on everything, especially on my desire to go out, explore and travel, and also on the food I eat, languages I speak and understand and try to understand, and the elements of design that I’m open to and enjoy.

For as long as I can remember, I was designing spaces and writing. I used to write little novels that basically just my mom and a cousin would read but to me they were grand novels. I would so clearly describe what the heroines were wearing and what their bedrooms looked like. I just always loved fashion and home design, even before I really understood what all of that was. The writing aspect is what I based the start of my career on but my passions and side hustles have always straddled design of some sort as well as writing.

How did The Cozy Cottage become your home: We were living in New York City (Brooklyn, to be exact) and started looking in our current suburban area in October. We put an offer on a house and it wasn’t accepted and then decided to check out an open house one weekend in November. It was this very small house in a really nice neighborhood walking distance from the train (we knew it was walking distance because we didn’t have a car and had to walk to get there). The next morning we put in an offer and that afternoon, it was ours! This went a lot faster than we expected and was pretty seamless, considering we were first-time home buyers and were moving to an area we were unfamiliar with.

So since you were already absorbed in the world of design as a child - I have to ask - Did you decorate your bedroom growing up: Oh my gosh, YES I sure did. I mean, I designed my bedroom over and over again in my head. And then actually convinced my parents to let me paint it lilac. So for maybe 10 years or more until I left for college, my bedroom was this light purple color and half of the walls were covered in Will Smith tear-outs because I was obsessed with him.

But I basically can’t walk into a space without designing it in my head and imagining what it could look like and function as if I were to live in it, even if it’s an office space.

Where did you attended college and what did you study: I went to New York University and majored in journalism. What’s your day to day gig: I started out as a newspaper reporter and then switched to public relations after seven years and have been working at PR agencies ever since.

A really cool design element in your home is your entry door can you share the backstory: I participated in the Spring 2018 One Room Challenge. I designed this wallpaper on Photoshop, had it printed through Spoonflower and I installed it on my front door with lots of patience and beer! I still love the design 3 + years later. I was going for eye-catching and I believe I achieved it.

Oh Régine you most certainly did. It’s stunning and I had no idea you designed the wallpaper pattern yourself. You have many talents my friend!

How did you get into design and helping clients: I’ve always been visually oriented, I can understand something visually even if it’s not literally in front of me. I have no training in design, it’s just something I love, so I dabble in it in different ways. I work on the occasional DIY project (like our headboard and the media console) because I have ideas in my head for pieces of furniture and want specific measurements, which are all hard to find pre-made, and I just want to try it myself before I hire out for custom furniture. I am constantly designing something at The Cozy Cottage, like our kitchen renovation, which I am so excited about.

In the past I have worked with a folks to provide e-designs but I haven’t done that in a little while. I also make and sell clothing but working full-time and having a toddler means that some things need to go for the moment, so I’m focusing on DIYs when I can and fixing The Cozy Cottage to be the gem we envision it can be.

“I basically can’t walk into a space without designing it in my head”

— Régine Labossière

The Kitchen remodel is the largest project you’ve tackled at The Cozy Cottage it’s so exciting. I saw the dishwasher was delivered last week: YES! It's been six years dreaming and saving for something better and we're excited! I’ve been sharing the design on the blog. The biggest change is opening up a portion of the wall between the kitchen and living room and extending the countertop into the living room to create a seating area. Joining these two rooms will create a larger conversational space, and also bring more light into the kitchen. As I said I work in PR and MasterBrand Cabinets is one of my agency’s clients. I knew we were going to use their cabinetry - we went to our local Cabinets Direct USA and worked with kitchen designer Pamela Boone - The Cozy Cottage kitchen is complicated and Pamela was incredible - making many drawings while I worked on the final design.

Please tell us how your blog started: I have been writing my entire life and had a couple of other blogs that focused on subjects I really loved, but I started The 256 Project right after we bought our house in 2014. I saw an opportunity to share a journey of making our first house a home through renovation and design but also food. When I was a kid, my grandmother stayed with us for a couple of months when she was visiting from Haiti and hand wrote recipes in this notebook for my dad. He kept it and I decided that I would try out those recipes once we moved into the house, which you can follow along in the part of my blog called the Kreyol Kitchen. I am no chef so it’s a funny journey!

What’s your favorite space is in The Cozy Cottage and why: My favorite room is probably my son’s room because it gets the best light of any room in the house, and I designed it to be gender neutral by incorporating vibrant pinks, blues and greens that make me very happy to see. The room also has plenty of white space and incorporates light wood tones to balance out all that color. The room has already changed slightly and will continue to morph as he grows, but the natural light is beautiful no matter what.

In any given moment, my favorite room is where the natural light is, casting a sunlit glow and making beautiful shadows.

Molly coming down the stairs with the custom runner Régine designed and installed

Please share your design philosophy: I am kind of style agnostic in that I appreciate just about every architectural and interior design style and have a lot of respect and admiration for something when it’s done well, even if it isn’t my personal taste in that moment. I also really love neutral spaces that incorporate lots of texture and real and raw materials. But I mostly gravitate toward lots of color and pattern and something funky, something fun to look at, appreciate and talk about. That’s why throughout our home you’ll see lots of bold color and interesting pattern choices, like our hot yellow fireplace and our front door that is a dark coral on the exterior and the interior is covered in a wallpaper I designed, a base of bright blue covered in yellow and pink flowers. You’ll also see a lot of light and medium-toned woods and other neutrals throughout the house because I think it all needs to be balanced.

I also think that design needs to fit the building while also not being a museum. Our home was built in 1903 so any renovation we do will nod to a more classic era while injecting our design sensibilities and taste. For example, when we redid our downstairs powder and laundry room, we combined it into what I call the “beautility room,” because it’s so much prettier than a utility room. We chose a vintage-looking console sink, beadboard for wood paneling and penny tile, and kept the stained glass window that was there, all to look like it belonged in our old home. We had fun and went modern in other areas, like the very bold blue paint, a modern faucet, and a pocket door that I wallpapered in a bright yellow with a print of a skull blowing bubble gum. If there was any space in the house that really screamed “us,” it would be the beautility room design.

Can you share with us how Social Media/Instagram has impacted your brand? I use Instagram in the same way that I use my blog, to show what I’m interested in and am doing with the main focus being on our home and in design, all with the idea of representation. For a long time, it felt like design and DIYs and the popular crowd all looked, sounded and designed the same way and I just want to be a part of the increasing crowd showing that there is more to see, hear, listen to and feel when it comes to interiors and DIYs.

I have a hashtag #thecozycottage it would be great for everyone to follow along.

I love to share links to publications/sites where my readers can find you: My blog, I’ve had several spaces featured on Apartment Therapy, like our former flex guest room and sewing room, which now is Gus’ bedroom. I also was so honored to be included in interior designer Angela Belt’s annual Black Tastemakers series.

Régine thank you so very much for sharing your creative and inspiring self with us! If all goes well I will be seeing you this weekend and I am super psyched!

You can find Régine on her Blog, Instagram and Pinterest