By Madoline Markham Koonce
The year 2022 opened a dark chapter in Dana Wolter’s life. She received a diagnosis no one wants to hear: Stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She was in excruciating pain from a tumor on her spine. During treatment, her immune system was wiped out, she faced complications and she was hospitalized multiple times.
As she was coming out of treatment, Wolter didn’t know what her future held. But in those uncertain moments, rays of light shone into her darkness. Gibbs Smith, a publisher she had heard great things about, reached out to her about publishing a coffee table book featuring her work as an interior designer.
The news, for her, was an opportunity of a lifetime, something that had been on her bucket list as a designer for years, so even in what seemed like terrible timing, she said yes to the book.
Two and a half years later, that book, titled The Elegance and Comfort of Home, is out in the world. Its 254 pages feature Wolter’s life work: beautiful images of kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms and other spaces that make a house a home. But as you read the words that open and close the book, you realize the contrast in light and darkness in the interiors images is also symbolic of the journey Wolter, who is now healthy, was on as she worked on the book and designed some of the projects on its pages.
“In my work when I have small spaces, I tend to make them cozy and often will envelop them in a dark color,” Wolter says. “When an entire house is light and airy, it can feel like it needs a little more substance. I like having these dark pockets of smaller rooms. It helps ground the house.”
As Tom Maciag, the creative director of the book, first pointed out to her while it was in process, those contrasts also feel like a metaphor. “Life is a beautiful thing, but sometimes it’s hard and messy and dark,” Wolter says.
Spending weeks at a time in her home during her cancer journey also reinforced design principals Wolter had been practicing for years. “My home became my refuge, and it was a wonderful reminder of how important my surroundings were for me to heal and rest,” Wolter wrote in the book.
Her experience with cancer reaffirmed how she’s always strived to make spaces as warm, inviting, livable and functional as they are beautiful as you see throughout the eight homes in her book. “I appreciate fine things, I curate a home, but at the end of the day I want our clients to enjoy it and to be comfortable in it and for the home to make a great backdrop to make memories with their family and friends,” Wolter says.
Wolter also attributes her knack for finding function in a room to growing up in a family of five children; after all, she’s always asking her clients how they can better utilize a space so they will spend more time in it. “Anyone from a large family can tell you it is loud and chaotic,” she says. “It was a very loving childhood, but there were a lot of us and a lot going on at one time. It’s made me practical with my interior design.”
For example, for clients Wolter’s firm often uses neutral solid fabrics on larger upholstery pieces so it can be a mainstay for many years to come, while the client can always change smaller items like pillows.
Overall, Wolter hopes that the book, which opens with a Mountain Brook renovation and sprinkles in three Florida vacation home projects—two of them in Alys Beach—showcases how timeless design with classic natural materials like iron, marble and wax wood can last over time and not age as easily as more trendy design elements.
Aesthetically, Wolter also wanted the book to feel on brand with her interiors firm: “neutral classic with a little edge,” as she describes it. You can see that look in the font and layout choices throughout the book, starting with the white spine you can see from afar. “We use a lot of coffee table books in our decor to style and layer,” Wolter says. “I like for a spine to catch your eye but not to keep it.”
The book’s design incorporates solid white pages and solid black pages mixed in with the images, further reinforcing its theme of light and dark. But there are far more light pages than dark ones.
“…If you are going through a tough time, I want you to know that light is on the other side,” Wolter wrote in the closing pages of the book. “Light finds its way back into your life,
as it did for me.”
The Elegance and Comfort of Home can be purchased locally at A’mano in Mountain Brook Village, Leaf & Petal at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Snoozy’s in Crestline Village and
Barnes & Noble, or it can be ordered through danawolterinteriors.com or on Amazon.
