In interior design and life, Stacy Harshman doesn't pay much attention to the rules. The 51-year-old artist and entrepreneur moved to Vermont from New York City nine years ago, seeking a more grounded, peaceful life and a sense of community. Two business launches later, she's made her free-spirited mark on Wallingford, turning the small, rural town between Rutland and Manchester into a veritable design destination. In 2017, Harshman opened the Sparkle Barn and Bloom Room, a whimsical, treasure-filled gift shop and art installation, in a 19th-century dairy barn on Route 7. She bought another historic property in 2022, the former White Rocks Inn on 18 acres just down the road, and spent nearly a year transforming it into a boutique lodge she named Sparkle on the Rocks. Earlier this year, she began renting out the four-bedroom retreat, located a few miles from the White Rocks National Recreation Area, for overnight stays. The two venues serve different purposes but share an aesthetic: bold, maximalist and bursting with color. When picking out items for each space, Harshman said, she let her heart guide her more than her head. "When I am inspired, I get a feeling in my body that is very energized, tingly and warm," she explained. "If something doesn't feel good in my body, even if I really want it intellectually, I'm not going to get whatever it is." Wallingford is a long way from where Harshman grew up in central Illinois, on a farm surrounded by flat, seemingly endless cornfields. Driven by wanderlust, she lived in Spain, France, Costa Rica and Panama before settling in Manhattan in the early 2000s. There, Harshman pursued various creative endeavors: She recorded six folk and rock albums, imported and sold tribal rugs from her East Village apartment, and made unique glass lighting fixtures inspired by vintage cocktail swizzle sticks. She also conducted a social experiment in which she wore different-colored wigs around the city and gauged people's reactions, which she chronicled in her book Crowning Glory: An Experiment in Self-Discovery Through Disguise. With grandparents who owned an antique store and a mother who worked as an interior designer, Harshman always had a knack for selecting special items and decorating spaces. Having her own shop appealed to her "because I knew I could fill it with stuff that people would buy," she said. A couple of years after moving to…