It might seem intuitive that as a decorator I would take design risks, right?

I mean “no risk, no reward.” “Try nothing, gain nothing.” “Go big or go home.”

Except in my case, its usually someone else’s home.

All these things make it almost easier to stay on the safe side and give my clients a design that I know they will like because it looks better than what they had. But I know I can do more and by showing them something they had never thought of, I may just get that moment of ‘wow’ that every designer longs to see when a client sees their finished space.

This was where I found myself one day when I met a client to look at her already lovely poolhouse. It was a beautiful canvas. The colors and finishes they chose were top notch, but yet something was missing. The personality that reflected my client’s fun, silly, kind, elegant family wasn’t there and my client wanted ME to bring that in.

Sometimes I can get away with just adding a new color on the wall, but I really liked the current color so that was out.

Wallpaper can be a GAME CHANGER when trying to add character to a room, but the space wasn’t right for wallpaper either.

I needed to dig a little deeper into my creative mind for this project and then I it hit me! I knew where we could add something dramatic that would bring in tons of character without taking away from the already lovely space.

There was a spance of wall above the kitchen cabinets that was blank. It was one of the first things you saw when you walked in. I knew what I wanted to do. A vertical woodwall with natural stained planks that would stretch from one side of the wall to the other and all the way up to the ceiling. I pitched it to the client. She loved the idea and told me to go for it!

Success!!!

Well, not quite actually.

Finding the right planks that matched my vision took a lot of work (not to mention calls and texts to my dad, brother and carpenter) and a scary moment when the hardware store lost my entire order the night before install. Luckily we were able to locate them after some resourceful investigating.

All ready to go on installation day. No worries or fears at all ; )

Installation day had come and I was READY.

Not. I was NOT ready.

As my skilled carpenter began gluing AND nailing the boards to the wall, I started to panic. What if this was totally the wrong idea? What if it looked terrible and they wanted to take it down but the wall behind the planks was basically screwed up from the nail holes and glue?!? Why didn’t I play it safe and just put a pretty, giant “GROCERIES” sign up instead???? AHHHHH!!!

I decided to slide away into the next room, take a deep breath and give myself a pep-talk.

I reminded myself that following my gut had led to beautiful work before. When I feel strongly about something (as I did with this wood wall) it had always been the right choice.

I was done panicking and was now falling in love with the vertical plank wood wall. Talk about a roller coaster of emotions on this one!

I decided to trust myself. Trust my processes and trust that the client had full faith in me and I should too.

And you know what? It turned out STUNNING. Absolutely gorgeous!

It was a huge WOW.

It made the room look bigger, the ceiling look taller and it complimented and elevated the beautiful finishes that were already there. Best of all, the client loves it - even to this day she’ll tell me so! I was able to prove to myself that risks in design often lead to great reward.

And how sweet that reward can be.