An Interview with Laurel Lane: Award-winning Interior Designer and Innovator of Sherwin-Williams' Latest custom Color Line

Laurel Lane was 12 years old when her mother gave her a “fill in the blank” questionnaire to discuss her future plans. When the question arose about career, Lane had three goals in mind; become a ballerina, fashion model or an interior designer. After the first two goals fell through, Lane thought it would be in her best interest to pursue a career as an interior designer.  It’s not very common for a young girl to follow through with the dreams she had at age 12, but for Lane it certainly was her destiny.
 
“When I was a little girl my mother was the choir director at our church so I spent plenty of time with the organist, Ms. Lou,” recalls Lane. “When I was seven years old I drew Ms. Lou a cartoon strip with one square having the wrong way to set up a room and the second square having the correct way. Recently Ms. Lou presented the cartoon strip back to me. She had kept it throughout all of these years as she watched me fulfill my dream. It is framed in my office as a reminder of how my dream is now reality.”

Lane, owner of Laurel Lane Interiors in Garner, is living her ultimate dream as an interior designer – and a very
successful one at that. She became an interior designer after attending Randolph College’s Design School in Asheboro and started her own business in 1988. Catering to the home building industry, Lane started with flooring and wallpaper and worked up to full interior design. 

“Our company is very different from many interior design companies,” states Lane. “We do not start our work when the house is completed. Our company works with every single step in the life of the house from the planning and architecture of the home all the way to adding the fresh flowers on the dining room table.”

It is this kind of dedication that has Lane working on an average of ten to twenty Parade of Homes houses a year. “Our first year of working on Parade homes was in 1992,” recalls Lane.  “We worked with three different builders in the Lochmere subdivision in Cary. This year we are working with builders in multiple counties including Johnston, Wake, Durham, Orange, Chatham, and Franklin.”

Throughout the many years of working with new home construction, Lane has worked day in and out with paint colors.  While trying to match paint color to bedding in 2006, Lane mentioned an idea to Lisa Jenkins of Sherwin-Williams that would change her life.

“An idea came to me like turning on a light bulb,” explains Lane. “I made the suggestion to Lisa that there was a need for a custom color line for new home construction. To have a standard line of paint colors that would not only match bedding but coordinate with granite, gutters, garage doors and other commonly-used building materials would give builders and home buyers reassurance when making paint selections.”

Agreeing with Lane’s recommendation, Jenkins contacted the regional Sherwin-Williams representatives in the Triangle area who thought the idea was fantastic.  The idea went through the Sherwin-Williams Atlanta office and in time Lane was presented with an offer to develop a color palette for Sherwin-Williams entitled the The Laurel-Lane Custom Color Collection.
 
In 2007 the custom collection, consisting of twenty nine colors, including two metallic paints, was available on the Sherwin-Williams worldwide database.  

According to Lane, “Naming the collection was very interesting, I did not want to use anyone’s personal names in my collection so I had to come up with a more creative way to give character to the line. For example, I was working on naming a deep purple paint.  When my son was young he would come to me and say that he wanted ‘buckle berry’ (referring to Gerber Baby food’s Blueberry Buckle Dessert), which was his favorite purple dessert.  It became very clear to me that one accent color was destined to be named Buckle Berry!”

The Laurel-Lane Custom Color Collection has been very well received and sales have been very successful here in the Triangle and even on a nationwide basis.  “Reading the Sherwin-Williams Quarterly report was overwhelming,” states Lane. “It was very rewarding to see my line sold all over the country. To know that there are houses in Ohio all the way to California painted with colors from my collection is very humbling.”

The 2008 collection is currently underway. The palette will feature additional colors that coordinate with building materials such as stone, brick and shingles, as well as, new accent colors.  Though the 2008 collection has not been released, Lane revealed that the new palette will introduce “that hard-to-find pink that fits perfectly into every little girl’s room.”

Lane has also turned her talents to worthy causes. Having her father diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Lane knows the value of family time. After his death in 2000, Lane made it her goal to work with families in crisis. A few of her clients include families of children with multiple sclerosis, autism, and brain damage.  
 
“There is so much more to my job than being an interior designer,” states Lane. “When working with families in special circumstances I become a counselor and in some circumstances a psychologist. For example, when working with a family of an autistic child there are several design elements to consider that could affect the disease.  Although the mother’s favorite color was red, we did not want to paint the living room red as it is a stimulating color and would affect the child’s behavior. We chose mono-tone and neutral colors throughout the house.”

Her work has been nationally published in several magazines such as Designer Dreamhomes, At Home with Donald Gardner, Timeless magazine, and Builder/Architect.

Looking forward, Lane will continue to work with home builders out of her Garner location, work with Sherwin-Williams on future paint colors and plans to volunteer her services to benefit a local children’s hospital.

“I am really living a dream,” Lane says with a smile. “I am doing what I was destined to do, having fun and enjoying the end result.”

The Laurel-Lane Custom Color Collection is found exclusively in quality Sherwin-Williams' coatings and is available for purchase at any retail Sherwin Williams in the following colors for 2007:

LL001 - Osceola Bronze
LL002 - Cameo Lace
LL003 - Giallo
LL004 - Knot Yabb
LL005 - Sadie Bet Blue
LL006 - Royal Passion
LL007 - Cheesecake
LL008 - Cool Beans
LL009 - Almondoor
LL010 - Musket Brown
LL011 - Baltic Sage
LL012 - Crystal White
LL013 - Tropic Brown
LL014 - Verde Butterfly
LL015 - Parkstone Mountain
LL016 - Venetian Gold
LL017 - Southern Moss
LL018 - Talmadge Taupe
LL019 - Autumn Beige
LL020 - Candyam
LL021 - Lucky Charm
LL022 - September Rain
LL023 - Verde Fontaine
LL024 - Rosso
LL025 - Universal
LL026 - Antique Metal
LL027 - Metallic Pewter
LL028 - Buckle Berry
LL029 - Demore 

Photograpy credit

Photo of living room with fireplace courtesy of Matthew Scott

Photo of foyer courtesy of Laurel-Lane Interiors

Photo of kitchen courtesy of Eric Honeycutt