It’s an ideal sign when the place that may perform the interior design of your home or business makes its showroom good enough to live and work in.

Bona Wenger and her husband, Boyd (BG Interior Design’s silent business partner), moved into a former fitness studio on Alameda Avenue behind Sprouts Natural Foods and transformed the place into a relevant sampling of color, creativity and craftsmanship.

About a year ago, Wenger left an interior design firm in Incline Village to put up her own shingle because she wanted to share her talent and improve the community she cares about.

“I grew up on the South Shore, want to grow, and believe in the integrity of this place,” she said.

“Nothing really changed except for the overhead,” she said of opening her own business.

Along the way, Wenger has found a specialty in high-end clients requesting anything from furniture to a complete interior revamp of their home, but the business appeals to all types. Over 70 percent of the homeowners are part-time residents. The company, which juggles a dozen steady clients and four designers on the payroll, travels to jobs from Christmas Valley to Truckee.

But a prospective client could get an idea of what to do with a room in her 2,000-square-foot studio, which is lined with shelves of catalogs and fabric samples and filled with recycled materials used in the structure and the furniture.

“Furniture is my passion,” said Wenger, who sat relaxed and confident at a dining room table. The trained designer loves her job, and it shows.

“My mother always told me: ‘Do what you love, and the money will come.’”

The business has the capability of conducting computer-aided designs among other design work techniques and will build looks from traditional rustic and contemporary transitional.

What’s the common areas of improvement? Hands down Wenger listed kitchens and bathrooms as the rooms homeowners most often fix up.

What are the most common design flaws? Wenger responded that many people don’t consider the scale of the room, which includes the size in relation to the traffic flow of its occupants.

Then, there’s the overkill of one well-known material.

“People mix woods,” she said, referring to textures and colors.

Wenger doesn’t shy away from all sorts of design accents. In storage is a 62-inch moosehead wall trophy.

BG Interior Design performs custom work and pledges to stay within a variety of budgets characteristic of Lake Tahoe.

Designers offer to take people to home staging sites and provides free consultation at the prospects’ homes. The company also delves into window shades and drapery, flooring and area rugs, faux finishes, fine art consultation, product sourcing, color, delivery and installation.

BG Interior Design, which can be reached by appointment Sunday through Friday at (530) 725-0968, is located at 984 Alameda Ave.

For more information, visit www.bginteriordesign.com.

source : www.tahoedailytribune.com