Designer Betsy Wentz is known for bringing main character energy into living spaces. But when previous clients asked her to steer the design of their new vacation home in the Pennsylvania mountains, they already had a heroine in mind.
Cambria design shown: Inverness Everleigh™
A huge Mersuka Dopazo abstract painting would anchor the home’s design, with the rest of their extensive art collection playing a major role. They wanted something sophisticated yet family friendly, designed for play and open windows and relaxation. And they wanted a mural—or several. Wentz had breathed life and personality into their historic Pittsburgh residence, and they fully entrusted her with guiding this project, too.
Everyone would spread out in the 4,000-square-foot Betsy Wentz Interior Design studio for hours, laying out samples and paint chips and discussing their preferences. Developing collaborative moodboards is creative and fun, but it’s work—considering how color, pattern, and the family’s collected pieces could layer up into the perfect balance of bold, bespoke character and livability. It’s an essential part of a home design process that Wentz likens to going to the gym.
Bold wallpaper on the powder room walls and ceiling is perfect for a room Wentz says they wanted to be “crazy fun.” Cambria design shown: Whitehall®
“Color is a dangerous thing, and it takes practice. We push the limit but also keep it in check so it looks sophisticated and not like a circus,” says Wentz. “You’re pushing clients a little bit, daring them to do a few things that they’re a little bit afraid of but also excited about.”
A Mersuka Dopazo abstract painting creates instant drama and visual separation between the living and dining rooms.
At the main entrance of the home, visitors are greeted by a cool lilypad mural, with an immediate view of the Dopazo in the main living space. It’s situated on a freestanding floating wall with a heavily textured, deep blue Phillip Jeffries wallpaper. It creates instant drama and visual separation between the living and dining rooms. Floor-to-ceiling, clerestory-style windows flank both sides of those spaces, bringing in abundant natural light and seasonality. The opposite side of the blue wall is, then, the only spot to hang a television. Wentz’s team designed freestanding pedestals that are placed along the walls of windows, with sculptures that are museum puttied down to guard against mishaps from the family’s younger—and furrier—members.
Showstopping color choices, like Benjamin Moore’s Martha’s Vineyard on the walls and ceiling of this bedroom, become surprisingly neutral, pulling art and accent pieces together.
The kitchen is sleek with Cambria Inverness Everleigh countertops that bookend a large island in symmetrical waterfalls. The quartz surface also flows up a generous backsplash behind the cooktop. These design decisions were intentional in terms of looks and practicality. Cambria quartz surfaces are easy to clean, standing up to simmering spaghetti and pool water splashes alike.
The primary bathroom promotes long soaks with a great view. Cambria design shown: Minnesota Snow™* (*Gensler product design consultant)
In the primary bathroom, an extra-thick vanity top made of Cambria’s Minnesota Snow design creates drama on mid-century-ish base cabinets that appear to float. A vintage rug, rounded Arteriors Home lighting, and greenery play off the stunning mountain view over a Kallista soaking tub. It’s also fun to note that the entire house was arranged to underscore the vista just outside.
Pattern play in the lower level is enlivened by a bold quartz design that has striking waves of cobalt and gray across the countertops and backsplash of the basement bar. “That became a showpiece and a destination,” says Wentz. The bar is balanced by a huge mural in blues and yellows along with patterned soft seating on the opposite side of the room. A wood dining table, clear light fixtures, and metallic accents create subtle moments in between.
The homeowners fell in love with Cambria’s Inverness Bristol Bay™ with its delicate debossed veins that add subtle texture to the design’s stormy blue waves.
The design and detail options possible with Cambria are a major selling point to Wentz, who deploys alternative slab thicknesses, edge profiles, finishes, or less-traditional uses of stone to add visual interest to her rooms. “It’s not cookie-cutter,” she says. “If everything is just that three-quarter inch with a beveled edge, it’s kind of boring. It’s so important to have all the choices that we do with quartz.”
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