Lyn Peterson turned her love of home decoration into a business.
By: Bethany Cortale
Lyn Peterson, interior designer and author of "Real Life Decorating," turned her love of home decoration into a dream business.
However, Ms. Peterson isn’t interested in living in a "dream" house, and neither are most of the people with a serious interest in interior design, she believes.
"Many interior design television shows and magazines do not show signs of real life, like a television schedule (on a table). I want to be accessible to the woman with four kids and dirty socks on the floor," said Ms. Peterson, whose book includes advice on "real" rooms, such as the television room and the computer room, where people tend to spend most of their time.
"Women want to know more about decorating, they want words and content about real things. I wanted my book to be like a cookbook something that you could reuse again and again and again," Ms. Peterson said.
At 2 p.m. Saturday, Lyn Peterson will be sharing her skills and offering advice on home decorating as part of the Fall Home Show at Barnes & Noble at MarketFair in West Windsor.
Ms. Peterson’s love of interior design was evident as a young child. Her bedroom floor was constantly littered with drawings of rooms and floor plans, she recalled. Beginning around age 8, Ms. Peterson insisted that her mother not purchase anything for the house without consulting her first.
As a young adult, Ms. Peterson took her love of design to Paris where she spent a year studying art and culture at La Sorbonne. She later pursued interior design courses at Parsons School of Design in New York City.
Ms. Peterson’s marriage to Karl Friberg was a match made in heaven.
Mr. Friberg, who earned a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School, always wanted to own his own business. As newlyweds he and Ms. Peterson began shopping for their first home. In selecting fabrics, wallpaper, paint and furniture, they decided to start a decorating business of their own. And so began Motif Designs, which specializes in wallpaper and fabric prints. The firm is based in New Rochelle, N.Y.
"Wallcovering and fabric prints have a certain motif," said Ms. Peterson. "The word ‘motif’ is also broad enough to incorporate other things, so that is why I chose ‘motif’ as our business name."
Motif Designs was soon sought after by top designers such as Ralph Lauren, Paul Picasso, Pierre Deux, Beatrix Potter and Marimekko. Wallpaper Magazine credited Ms. Peterson with "putting wallpaper back in fashion."
Nevertheless, disappointed with what she saw in design magazines and the goods made available to consumers in retail stores, Ms. Peterson set out to invent her own designs. Her dissatisfaction with current trends eventually carried her into book publishing.
Ms. Peterson is very grateful for her full life. When asked for her advice for those trying to enter her field, Ms. Peterson stressed experience.
"Work for a company," she said, " any company. The learning curve is too steep not to. I had to learn by trial and error."
Ms. Peterson believes that those who are interested in interior design should go to school, but if they can get experience in lieu of school, that’s even better. "You may have to start from the ground up, but it’s important to be familiar with the ins and outs of the business. That is something you can only obtain from experience," she said.
When asked what she most enjoys about her work, Ms. Peterson chose helping a client to get set up. Many of Motif’s clients are those moving into their first or second homes, mainly in the New York metropolitan area.
She least enjoys helping those who have too much and think they need still more.
"We live in a disposable society," said Ms. Peterson, a resident of New Rochelle, N.Y. In her book she talks about clients who want to get rid of everything and buy only the newest and latest styles.
"There’s always an ‘accessory du jour,’ " said Ms. Peterson, "but I have been a decorator long enough to know that the newest ‘anything’ is soon eclipsed by something newer."
In addition to her appearance at Barnes & Noble, Ms. Peterson is scheduled to appear on ABC-TV’s "Eyewitness News" from 7-9 a.m. Sunday.
Barnes & Noble is located at 3535 Route 1 South in West Windsor. For more information about Ms. Peterson’s special in-store lecture, call (609) 716-1570. "Lyn Peterson’s Real Life Decorating" is published by Creative Homeowner (Upper Saddle River, N.J.), ISBN 1-58011-028-2.
For more information about Motif Designs, call (800) 431-2424 or e-mail [email protected]

