After spending time on the East Coast and in Chicago, watercolor artist and Michigan native Kelly Ventura eventually made her way back to her home state. “I had a feeling we’d come back to Michigan when we started a family, which is exactly what happened,” she recalls. Today, Ventura runs her namesake brand and design business, Kelly Ventura Design, from a beautifully renovated space on Milford’s Main Street.
Nature, signature florals, and gestural patterns are at the core of Ventura’s work. She brings these whimsical themes to life through her beloved, painterly style and, along with her team which includes her sister — Jen Walker, the brand’s head of operations — they translate the designs to décor, fabrics, and wallpapers.
The brand’s most recent collection captures the natural, timeless, and playful aesthetic that Ventura’s clients know and love. She says it’s “just a touch of new, with many old favorites making their way to new substrates.” Fans will love that her best-selling wallpaper Thicket, Verte, and Farm Weeds have been introduced on a gorgeous linen fabric. These beloved patterns were inspired by a vintage Canadian agriculture book, “Farm Weeds,” that Ventura discovered many years ago at Detroit’s iconic landmark, John K. King Used and Rare Books. “I love that these weeds, sometimes labeled as a nuisance, have now turned into something beautiful,” the artist says. The collection also includes a new wallpaper pattern, Foliage, which Ventura notes is “bold, colorful, and has a painterly, textured look.”
Ventura’s own home, just a short jaunt from the downtown Milford design studio, showcases much of her own work. As the parents of three boys ages 10, 13, and 15, she says she and her husband strive to keep things comfortable, and notes that they’ve been able to be a little “less precious” and make bigger investments in how they want to use their home space as their boys have gotten older. Since moving into the home in 2014, the couple has made many revisions to make it their own.
Photo By John Stoffer
The key to bringing Ventura’s vision to life? Mood boards. “My husband is an engineer and we see things very differently,” she notes. “It was super helpful for me to print out mood boards, and bring actual materials home to live with before we made final decisions.”
Guests can see the new Foliage wallpaper in Ventura’s recently updated playroom, which now serves as a hangout spot/game room for the boys. Their “cozy room,” as the family calls it, features custom drapery in the new Thicket fabric, fabricated by Slipcovey in Royal Oak. In the dining room, Verte stands out in a custom linen Roman shade.
In addition to Ventura’s own line, her brand works with a number of retailers, collaborating on products for the home, gifts, stationery, and more. This includes a recent partnership with Sunbrella on The Sylvan Collection, which blends performance fabrics with Ventura’s nature-inspired artistry. The collection features six exclusive patterns, one of which Ventura selected for the sofa in her own living room. The pattern — Linden in Tyme — features delicate patterns of leaves and foliage. “We wanted to have something super durable in there,” Ventura says. “It’s a lovely reversible pattern and stands up to the everyday moments with kids and pets.”
Second-hand treasures are another staple you’ll find in Ventura’s home. “I have a storage unit full of sofas and chairs and ottomans,” she says. One of the ottomans was given new life with fresh upholstery (a geometric-patterned fabric called Pillar, in Olive, from her collaboration with Sunbrella that was inspired by the trunks of trees) and now serves as a centerpiece in the “cozy room.”
“My husband teases me that I buy a lot of furniture with no plan,” Ventura says, “but now he sees why I do it!”
MORE INFORMATION: kellyventura.com
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