“It kind of snowballed and grew and grew, and that’s why the project quadrupled in scope,” said Nakamoto of the home, which she decorated for a former elementary school teacher and her fiance, an impact investor, and their three pets. “I took it on because the client was so amazing and fun and fantastic, and she would just allow me to do anything.”
By “anything,” Nakamoto means a custom squiggly handrail that may or may not be up to code, a custard-colored rug that looks like a puddle waterfalling down the staircase, very swirly wallpaper and a bespoke bookcase with moveable shelves.
For any designer, the ambitious renovation would be a massive, multicolored feather in their cap, but for Nakamoto, it’s perhaps even bigger than that. The home symbolizes a big step in a yearslong journey of struggling with mental illness, transitioning from a career in tech to a new one in design and searching for something to feed her creative soul.