“I had no idea what I wanted to do when I graduated,” admits Kelly Ventura of her art degree from the University of Michigan. An early concentration in oil painting soon branched into classes in book and printmaking, figure drawing, textiles and other mediums. Little did she know how much they would come in handy years later, says Ventura, now president of Kelly Ventura Design (kellyventura.com), a Milford home decor business based on her love for, and expressions of, the natural world. “I just knew I wanted to do something tactile and creative,” she explains.
The results of that creativity can now be found in homes across the country as well as in the 1927 Milford home Ventura currently shares with her husband, three boys ages 15, 13 and 10 and a 7-year-old rescue dog named Greta. Cozy and welcoming, the approximately 2,600-square-foot home serves as an incubator where Ventura tries out new ideas and showcases her serene style as well as a visual record of her many designs.
A tour reveals the wealth of her creativity. “Linden” is featured on the living room sofa and “Knoll” on chairs (both purchased on Marketplace and recovered, Ventura points out proudly). Walls in the nearby reading room (once the playroom) are papered in a bold green paper called “Foliage,” scheduled to be released next month; the chair is upholstered in “Pillar” and the pillow in “Marsh,” with an original art piece by the same name on the nearby wall. Draperies in the family room – better known by Ventura’s boys as “the cozy room,” she says — are in a design known as “Thicket.” Many fabrics are from her new line with Sunbrella.
Inspiration, she says, is found in a variety of places, from the flowers in her backyard to the wave patterns on the beach at a family getaway in northern Michigan. “I am definitely an observer and admirer of nature,” she says. “I am intrigued by colors, texture and quirky little details and am always collecting things and snapping photos to use as inspiration back in the studio.”
Building a brand
Ventura started in medical illustration but switched to painting. After graduation, Elizabeth Dow, a fellow UM grad, offered her an internship working for her wallpaper design company in New York. “It was super high end,” she remembers. “That summer she was working on a hand-painted wallpaper for Madonna’s bedroom. It was that custom.”
She eventually decided “that big of a city just wasn’t for me,” and applied for a job as a design assistant for Emma Gardner, a rug designer in Litchfield, Connecticut. “I did whatever they needed,” she remembers of those early days. “It was my first introduction into surface design. I would watch her draw and then put her designs into the computer and see how things progressed from design to end product.”
She was hooked. She missed home and moved back to Michigan in 2004, teaching herself to use the software program Illustrator and began building a portfolio. “I sent my resume everywhere,” she remembers. Eventually, she was hired by Sears and Kohls to design housewares and tabletop items. In 2005, she moved to Chicago to take a job with Tag, a lifestyle brand known for well-designed, stylish and affordable home products. There, she designed holiday and seasonal dinnerware and tablecloths. “I still have so many friends from the company,” she says, crediting the job for inspiring her current business. “That foundation gave me confidence.”
In 2010, she moved back to Michigan again, and continued to work remotely. In 2011, she was laid off — an event that encouraged her to launch her business and ultimately led to where she is today.
Wonderful watercolors
In 2012, she started experimenting with watercolors. At the time, she and her husband had two small children “and oil paint was not something I wanted to have around,” she remembers with a laugh. “Watercolors were easy to work with and to tuck away.”
She submitted her designs to Crate & Barrel and, in her first big project, was hired to do a series of watercolor vegetables. “They sold really well,” she remembers. That led to a holiday dinnerware and to projects with Land of Nod, their subsidiary for children. In 2014, she exhibited her work at a surface design and art licensing marketplace in New York and at a stationery show, which led to work with IKEA, John Lewis department stores and Windham fabrics. She has also collaborated with Anthropologie and Target.
Making a life in Milford
That same year, she and her husband bought their current house in Milford. “We wanted a walkable community,” she explains. Milford “is quaint and still feels like a small town, with a great sense of community.”
Since then, they have been fixing up the house as time, energy and money allow. When they purchased it, the living room sported dark green walls, sponge painting and a wallpaper border of lions and peacocks; Ventura repainted it in Farrow & Ball’s Old White and added a gallery wall over the fireplace after seeing the idea on a trip to California.
A 2006 addition completed before they had purchased the home had added a bonus room over the garage, and it proved perfect for Kelly’s studio while the kids were small. She launched her first branded wallpaper line in 2018. “I had always wanted something more fully transformative,” she says of the shift. “Before that I was designing a lot of smaller things. I wanted to have a larger impact.”
Eventually, however, the company and the kids grew, and in 2019 she moved to a historic downtown studio space. “It’s two minutes away,” she says. “I can walk to work.” Her process starts with an original painting, which is then translated into a pattern, and eventually, to product, whether wallpaper, upholstery fabric, stationery or Christmas ornament. Her sister, Jen Walker, also works for the company.
Inspiration, she says, comes from nature and its palette. Her “look,” she says, is heavily botanical, with lots of natural elements. “I love color, but I love moodier tones, very natural, with a lot of movement.” When she’s not working, she collects chairs and is a fan of shopping Facebook Marketplace for secondhand quality brands such as Baker and Lee Industries. “There’s so much life left in those pieces,” she says. “They’re more unique, more custom.” Her favorite purchase, she says, are two slipper chairs she purchased for just $25. “The bones were so good,” she says.
She also enjoys shopping for botanicals and vintage books at John King Books in downtown Detroit. She dreams of the day when she will have more free time and can have a cutting garden. “I’d love to be a gardener — and will be as soon as we’re not always driving to soccer practice,” she says with a laugh.
She enjoys seeing interior designers around the country post how they use her products. “I love sharing my creativity,” she says. Her designs “take on their own creative life, and I love that. I’ve leaned into interiors. Every time I get tagged in a designer’s new installation it just blows my mind.”
Looking forward
She recently launched Sylvan, her first performance fabric collection, with Sunbrella. From playful geometrics to soft botanicals, the Sylvan Collection includes six patterns inspired by and designed to bring the rhythms of nature into homes. Each started as a hand-painted watercolor — her signature touch — before being translated into fabric.
On the horizon, she says, are designs for rugs, another line for Sunbrella, and a series of wallpaper murals. She’s looking forward to teaching a watercolor retreat in Greece next spring and one in France the year after. Despite being unsure initially where her degree and career would take her, she is pleased with the results. “I’m really happy and content with where things are,” she says. “I’d like to push the boundaries with wallpaper and textiles but have no desire to be a big company. My work/life balance is really great.”
