Giving back

View larger image Wendy Pieper sits on a teak table from Sri Lanka, the focal point in the living room of her Deer Rapids home near Strasburg. She uses mismatched furniture and an angled floor rug to add personality and interest to the room. Rich Cooley/Daily Recommend This Print This Get E-mail News Alerts Buy Photos/Page Reprints * Breaking News If local news is breaking and you know about it: * Call Us: 800-296-5137 * E-mail Us * Upload Your Photos View larger image Pieper stands in her upstairs bedroom loft. She ties together different pieces of furniture with circles, like the wagon wheels displayed on the fireplace mantle and the circle on the headboard of the bed. Rich Cooley/Daily View larger image Her bathroom features glass squares. Rich Cooley/Daily View larger image Pieper reconstituted an old hardware piece and uses it with framed black and white family photo in this space in her Deer Rapids home near Strasburg. Rich Cooley/Daily View larger image Pieper reconstituted an old hardware piece and uses it with framed black and white family photo in this space in her Deer Rapids home near Strasburg. Rich Cooley/Daily View larger image Pieper designed this wall of old black and white photos and framed them along a red wall inside her home. Rich Cooley/Daily

Home-based designer donates half of earnings to schools

By Laetitia Clayton -- lclayton@nvdaily.com

STRASBURG -- It can be hard to retire when you love what you do. So when Wendy Pieper decided to hang up her hat nearly three years ago, she didn't entirely give up her career in interior design. Instead, she started a home-based, design consulting business called Custom Quarters.

These days, Pieper can pick and choose when and how she works, and says she doesn't miss the regular commute to her job in Maryland from her Deer Rapids home. Plus, she donates half of what she earns from each job to the school lunch program where the client lives.

"I wanted to do this," she says of starting her own business. "I transitioned from what I love doing" and brought it here. "Also, it's extra money, but I didn't need it all."

Pieper says the rewards of her business have been twofold: "The client is excited about the new space we've created, and I want to give back to the community. The schools won and the people who asked for my help won."

Pieper charges a $50 per hour consulting fee, where she does a room-by-room assessment and provides the client with her written recommendations.

"I take the whole picture," she says. "The big picture, in total," such as not only what a client wants a space to look like, but also how they want to live.

"What's the function?" she says. "Do they want to take down walls? Put up a partition?"
Pieper says she also has a list of resources for purchasing materials or for work like carpentry and painting that she shares with her clients.

"Sometimes you can move stuff, instead of buying new," she says. "And I like eclectic stuff ... so old works with new. Using what you have is more fun than buying new."
Pieper says she prides herself on being able to work with a client, learning how they live and what their tastes are and going from there, as opposed to telling someone what they should do with a certain space.

"They really want to be in control about what they end up with, but they want another eye on it," she says. "And I find more people respect that approach, [and] the house is left with the stamp of the person who lives there."

Pieper's own house, which she and her husband, Steve, bought in 2004, serves as an example of her tastes. It's an original contemporary house on the river, with large, open spaces and windows that bring the outdoors inside in nearly every room.

To help her home blend in with its surroundings, Pieper uses natural elements, like a large teak table in the living room and a copper sink and glassed-in shower -- complete with embedded river rock -- in the cozy downstairs bathroom.

"It's part of what I like to do," she says. "Take the elements and put them in different rooms."

The teak table -- which Pieper found in Maryland, but is originally from Sri Lanka -- also serves as a focal point, or signature piece, for the room, she says. If possible, it's good to start with a piece like that, and build a room around it, she says.

"[You need] something that is a focal point that you can identify with and work around," she says. "And it can be anything."

Another subtle design feature in the living room is the rug, which Pieper has turned at an angle. She calls this a dynamic design feature.

"Most of my stuff is really an affordable solution to a problem," she says.

Another fairly affordable option is paint, Pieper says. "I like richer colors that have guts to them. Things can bounce off of richer colors."

But she adds that it's important to keep the colors complimentary throughout the house.
Lighting and greenery are two other easy fixes that can add ambiance to a space, Pieper says.

She likes chandeliers in places where they aren't expected to be (she has one in her bathroom), "and I recommend those all day long," she says. Also, small spotlights shining up and illuminating artwork hanging on a wall can add a dramatic touch, she says.

Greenery, whether it's real or artificial greenery that looks real, can work on several levels, Pieper says.

"Greenery does a lot," she says. "It adds a lot of warmth, deadens sound. It acts as a fabric."

Pieper says she also likes things that don't match, like using different pieces of bedroom furniture as opposed to buying a set.

"I don't like sets of anything," she says, but adds that the pieces need to be tied in together somehow. Repetitive shapes are one way to do this, Pieper says. For example, in her bedroom the bedspread has circles on it, there is a circle in the headboard and there are wagon wheels placed above the mantel of the fireplace.

"Shapes, it's a subtle thing, but it helps tie a room together," she says.

Pieper has a long and varied background in design, starting with fashion. She then moved on to interior design and the model home industry. When active adult communities started booming in the late '90s, Pieper says she saw an opportunity to design for that segment. Her last position was as vice president of the senior housing division for Builders Design, which has its headquarters in Gaithersburg, Md. Since moving to the area, Pieper has worked with Homewood senior housing in Strasburg, and has helped several local residents with redesigning their homes.

Pieper now works solely by word of mouth, and says she is always open to new design challenges.

"I like giving people thoughts and ideas," she says. "It's fun to have people dump on the table what their interests are. It's a challenge for me."

To contact Pieper, call 703-626-7865.