Sewickley interior designer Betsy Wentz pens book about making a house a home

Betsy Wentz recalled sitting on the floor of the carriage house of her Edgeworth home as a little girl sorting through colorful swatches.

Her mother was an interior designer and the space was filled wall to wall with fabric and wallpaper samples.

“My mom was an incredible teacher, a visionary and a huge influence on who I am and what I do today,” said Wentz, owner of Betsy Wentz Interior Design. “She taught me how to mix patterns, be unafraid of color, and most importantly, how to communicate and develop relationships with clients. ‘You have to discover something your client loves. Design is about finding the happy,’ she would tell me.”

Seeing that joy from clients is what inspires and energizes her, Wentz said, surrounded by walls of fabric and wallpaper samples as she sat on a couch in her Sewickley showroom. Wentz captured some of the happiness she’s created for clients in the book “Design Happy: Colorful Homes For The Modern Family.”

”It’s a collection of my favorite most recent projects, but the book is dedicated to my mom, Kay Wiegand, who passed away during the process of writing the book,” Wentz said. “She taught me everything I know.”

It has 12 chapters detailing homes she’s brought to life. Wentz has no formal design training but said learning from her mother was the best guidance she could have had.

After earning a master’s degree in counseling psychology and practicing for several years, she made the decision to transition to interior design and partnered with her mom in 2001.

Wentz established her design firm and what was then known as the Studio B showroom in 2011. She rented office space in Sewickley, and rebranded the company name to Betsy Wentz Interior Design. She purchased and renovated the current location in 2016, adding a showroom space for furniture, rugs and accessories.

Business is thriving. She said she thought during the 2020 pandemic that things might slow down but she discovered people wanted to redecorate and spruce up their homes because they were quarantining and in the house all the time.

They also wanted to create offices for working from home, she said.

Wentz said there were some delays with materials during the pandemic, such as wood and metals, and sometimes the a room would be finished but furniture hadn’t arrived because there were issues with not having people to drive the trucks. There was a shortage of feathers for pillows.

Technology has enhanced a way to show a client how a design will look using a computer program called SketchUp. “Having the ability to show clients what the design will look like with the aid of 3D modeling for a broad range of drawing and design applications has been a game changer,” Wentz said. “It allows us to showcase the design ahead of time, and gives the homeowner the confidence to go for it.”

A former behavioral psychologist, Wentz said her understanding of people fuels her passion as an interior designer. She focuses on the personalities of each client, striving to find a unique story of design that’s a reflection of the person or family who lives in the home, she said.

“Good design is all about form and function and finding the right balance,” said Wentz.

Her Sewickley home was showcased by interior decorating magazine House Beautiful in July 2020, showing how color can add to the decor.

“Color is my thing,” she said. “Embrace color. Take a risk in a small way. Don’t be afraid to express yourself. If you like something, buy it. If you buy something you love, you’ll find a place for it, my mom always told me. Make it yours.”

Wentz has worked on projects all over the country from new construction to vintage homes. She said she loves reimaging an older home, because it is like helping to finish what someone else has started.

“It is such a privilege,” she said. “You figure it out like a puzzle. You preserve the history and give it a new shell.”

“This business is about earning a client’s trust,” Wentz said. “My clients become friends. It’s such a happy environment. I love to meet people in person and enjoy being on this journey with them. I help them personalize their home. I like to get to know them, know what they like. Sometimes it’s about compromising and sometimes I will say something like ‘trust me,’ if I feel strongly about something.”

One of the projects in the book called Moss Trail is a midcentury modern home. It was done in two phases on the first floor. Wentz said initially the owners were reluctant to use color, but she incorporated deep teal and charcoal tribal-pattern wallpaper in the living room, which has mercury glass globes hanging from the 20-foot ceiling.

A floating wood staircase has each step wrapped with wool carpet in a deep shade of pine. In the nursery, Wentz used a gender neutral jungle-themed mural with a starry blue sky to offset the asymmetrical vaulted ceiling. The Fox Chapel home owned by Katie Boutros and her husband took a year to update, including their daughter’s nursery. Boutros, an advisor and partner at Engel & Volkers brokerage firm, said she has recommended Wentz to at least 10 friends.

“She helped us get out of our comfort zone and we love what she did,” Boutros said. ”We always want to host people now. We are so proud of our home. She is amazing. She is one of those people who you start as her client and you become her friend.”

The last house Wentz had worked on with her mother was the Rose Lane project. It needed an update.

The formal living room was one of the last rooms the two designed, she said.

“It felt really special because so much of what we do is building on what has been done before,” Wentz said. “Rose Lane is a project that we had worked on together years before, and it felt good to preserve pieces, and breathe new life into other areas. It was so nostalgic to be there.”

Standing in that room most likely reminded her of that little girl in the carriage house surrounded by colorful fabrics and wallpapers.

Betsy Wentz Interior Design is located at 428 Walnut St., Sewickley. The book is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Details: 412-741-4445 or showroom@betsywentz.com