Red, Neutral, And Blue

Wanda Horton designs a home that’s equal parts his and hers.

- Kristen Wile

Real estate agent david Huss was meeting with a homeowner several years ago, hoping to be the man’s listing agent, when he noticed the home’s design. It stood out to him as well decorated and elegant, even though it wasn’t quite in his style. So two years ago, when looking for an interior designer to help redesign his own home, he emailed the homeowner to find out who had done it. 

The designer, Wanda Horton, came to david and Vonda Huss’s Ballantyne house to talk over what they were looking for. The couple had hired a designer to help with their kitchen, but they were unhappy with the experience. With david’s job in real estate and Vonda’s position in human resources, they didn’t have time to manage the project, but found themselves doing just that. They also felt as though the design wasn’t quite theirs.

“(That designer) was good at bringing ideas, but she wasn’t listening to what we told her. So she’s bringing the wrong ideas,” david says. “With Wanda, she hit it—she knew what we were after.”

In that first meeting with Wanda, the Husses could tell Horton was different. She asked the right questions about how they would use the rooms. She showed them shapes and colors and asked them which were their favorites, gathering information on their preferences.

“My first impression was that she was different than any other designer I’d worked with—and I’d worried she wouldn’t be,” Vonda says. “She was incredibly organized.”