If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine the plethora communicated through a book.
In search of joyful ideas for their new home in Nichols Hills, Dale and Mary Walker gravitated toward Susanna Salk’s book, Decorate Fearlessly: Using Whimsy, Confidence and a Dash of Surprise to Create Deeply Personal Spaces. Their newly constructed home, built by European Dekor, provided a blank canvas to dream and create.
“The house was full of windows and light, which was perfect because we wanted a colorful, bright house—a happy house,” said Mary Walker.
Decorate Fearlessly jump-started the Walkers’ design journey with Hannah Sutter and Kellie Schwartz of Hannah Sutter Interiors. Mary Walker had marked favorite pages for them, and one of the images showed a room of framed images hung floor-to-ceiling. To mimic that aesthetic in the office, the designers selected “Le Grand Tour” wallpaper by Schumacher x Johnson Hartig.
“We pulled the paper as the background canvas, and then we layered in bold velvet blue drapes, and the red sofa,” said Sutter, adding that wallpaper often inspires other elements in a room.
The office design helped establish the home’s overall tone: bold patterns, bright colors, layered textures and unexpected details.
“We kept trying to push it a little bit more and more, and they loved it,” said Schwartz. “So, things we wouldn’t normally do … I’d show them an option, and it was very much, ‘More is more.’”
A golden-hued, custom Gracie wallpaper wraps around the stairwell in the entry. The paper pulls in reds, greens and blues, establishing a sophisticated, primary-color palette that was frequently referenced as they designed the surrounding living room, kitchen and dining room.
“We had the largest board in our office where we kept putting up materials to make sure that they still coordinated with everything,” Sutter recalled.
“We literally had so many different options pinned up,” Schwartz added. “We would stare at it to make sure it all went together, and it didn’t feel like there was a disconnect.”
The home is happily saturated in color. The dining room draperies boast bright orange Rubelli silk, which complements the room’s soft, dusty blues.
The media room upstairs mixes aubergine, teal and sage green with a ceiling wallpaper that resembles a draped fabric, providing a cozy, theatrical effect.
Showcasing wallpaper on the ceiling—or “fifth wall,” as designers call it—can be both playful and beneficial. First, it draws the eyes up to the light fixtures (which in this case are stellar). Second, the ceiling naturally provides an easy start-stop point for wallpaper placement. Sometimes, new open-concept homes with shared walls and minimal trimwork can be tricky to paper. Most importantly, said Schwartz, “a wallpapered ceiling provides a way to add color and texture—and they definitely wanted that layered, colorful, maximalist look.”
The Hannah Sutter Interiors team took the “fearless” notion from the photobook and ran with it. Today, daring designs dazzle the Walker home. Each room makes a delightfully bold impression.
“I wanted to see what could be accomplished by turning a designer loose on the interior environment,” Dale Walker said. “Of course, we approved each step, but the concepts were original to Hannah and her staff. We are thrilled with how it turned out.”
