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Belle Escape was founded by Donna Jensen-Madier, who developed a love for vintage and distressed French-style furniture while living and working in France. The idea for Belle Escape came after moving back to the U.S. when she was decorating the family's new beachfront getaway on the Carolina Coast. She wanted to blend colorful beach furnishings with painted and distressed white vintage French furniture to create the feel of a dreamy escape.
While colorful, factory-painted pieces were widely available locally, the hand-painted and distressed vintage pieces she sought were hard to find. Rather than buy the me-too furnishings that were readily available, she ventured out to High Point, NC, the premier furniture showroom hub in the U.S. Enthralled with the gorgeous pieces found there, she embarked upon a mission to make these finds available to homeowners everywhere, with 24/7 online access and free door-front delivery.
“Creating an escape home should be a pleasurable experience, not a painful one,” says Jensen-Madier. “With Belle Escape, home owners can relax in the comfort of their own home while browsing items that would normally require hours of driving and walking over many months. With just a few clicks, they can purchase their dream furnishings and have them delivered directly to their home.”
In the summer of 2008, Belle Escape was launched with just over a hundred items, primarily for beach cottage and French country-style escapes. But Jensen-Madier soon realized that many of Belle Escape’s customers also wanted to create an oasis within their primary residence – a place to easily escape to without having to travel. This led her to expand the line to include home furnishings that would create a dreamy effect in primary residences as well. Today, Belle Escape has nearly 1,000 items aimed at transforming any home into a beautiful oasis, whether the style is French country, vintage French, old world chateau, Tuscan, rustic retreat or coastal cottage.
Belle Escape sells directly to homeowners, designers, architects and speciality retailers in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean.
About the Owner
Donna Jensen-Madier is a serial entrepreneur who has started multiple small businesses and worked in corporate marketing positions in the U.S. and France. She currently lives in Northern California with her husband, a native of France, and their two lovely daughters. |
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