Wayne Hilton of Wayne Hilton Design is no stranger to extraordinary techniques when designing a home – in many of the rooms he has created, faux painting can be found. Now, Wayne is expanding that technique to one-of-a-kind custom designed wallpaper - something unique to the area, and new to decorators across the nation. The concept is simple, easily changeable and adaptive to any room.

When creating wallpaper or fabric, Wayne starts with an idea, looking at colors, surroundings, décor elements and desired outcomes – like in the room he recently created in the desert for this
Ventanas photo shoot.

“I was inspired by the desert when coming up with the design,” Wayne says of the room built in the desert below Dripping Springs in an effort to show how a room can be transformed by the surroundings and inclusion of wallpaper and fabric. “The colors in the surroundings made a real difference and I wanted to complement them.”

What Wayne got was a room rich with browns and greens – custom designed wallpaper covering walls in swerves of greens with a shadow affect, and upholstery fabric flowing with a yellowish tint and geometric designs that highlighted the rustic desert terrain. From conception to completion, the room becomes an extension of the surroundings.

With colors in hand and an idea, Wayne begins sketching the room, selecting the strongest elements and adding colors. Once he has a design sketch, he sends it to Michael Bailey of Seasons Design, a graphic designer who was once a Las Cruces local but now resides in Aspen, Colorado. Michael scans the sketches and the color outline, then works in PhotoShop on a final design. The design Michael creates becomes several different versions of Wayne’s concept.

“The collaboration is a great part of the design work,” Wayne says. “There are several different angles that can be brought in when you collaborate.”

Alex South, Wayne’s design assistant, joins in on the collaboration – many times making the project more doable. “She is a good sounding board for me. So many times I shoot for the moon and she is able to bring it all into reality for me,” he says.

The three designers also create a design that is easily changeable – once a design is complete, it is saved on file so it can be used again and again. The design can also be scaled to fit anything from a wall to a tissue box and reproduced in various colors.

“They have something specific to their own project. Their décor is completely unique,” Wayne says of his clients, which includes Brigid’s Cross Pub in Picacho Hills.