Award-Winning Surface Pattern Designer for Wallpaper & Interiors | Garden Tapestry Win
- mairinkareli
- Nov 23, 2025
- 5 min read
How I "an Award-Winning Surface Pattern Designer" (for the SEO y'all), Built “Garden Tapestry” for Wallpaper & Interiors — and Then Won an International Contest I Once Dreamed About
There’s a moment in every creative journey when something clicks—quietly at first, like a single acorn hitting the forest floor—and then suddenly, unmistakably, like a whole tree shaking loose.
For me, that moment came in the shape of a digital woodland: waterfalls, mossy cliffs, twisting branches, little green worlds tucked inside bigger green worlds. It became my Garden Tapestry design—an entire ecosystem rendered on repeat.
And then it became something else entirely:the winning design out of 1,046 entries in Spoonflower’s international Garden Tapestry Design Challenge.First place. 282 votes.Me, stunned, delighted, grateful beyond language.
This tiny video is just a glimpse behind the curtain—my process, my layers, the way a design begins as chaos and coalesces into something that feels like a spell you can walk into.
But the whole story? That’s bigger.
Designing From Lake Tahoe: Where My Work Truly Starts
I create from my studio in Lake Tahoe, California—one of those places where the natural world refuses to be quiet. Even the shadows on the pine needles insist on being breathtaking.
Every day out here, I’m reminded that the world is full of pattern:the venation of leaves the spiraling of pinecones, the rhythm of wind on water as it plays in the sun, the way waterfalls lace themselves into the rock.
My design work is fueled by that devotion. I make wallpaper, fabrics, and home decor that articulate the astounding beauty of the natural world, woven together with my lifelong love of ornate historical patterns—Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts, Art Deco, illuminated manuscripts, medieval borders, Klimt, Mucha, William Morris, Owen Jones, Macintosh, and the many unnamed hands who shaped the decorative arts.
In another life, I wanted to be an architect. Now, I build worlds on paper and cloth instead.
Why This Win Matters So Much
Winning this contest isn’t just about the vote tally—though trust me, my inner 14-year-old weirdo introvert artist witch girl was in delighted disbelief when I saw the final count.
It’s about something deeper:
I’ve spent my life believing that beauty belongs to all of us, that the ordinary surfaces of our lives: walls, textiles, objects, deserve meaning and magic. That the places we inhabit should make us feel validated, inspired, held.
Ornate decorative detail, the thing I love most, isn't exactly celebrated in academic fine art spaces. I was told my compositions didn’t land on a single focal point. But pattern design? Pattern design welcomed me home.
It turns out the way my eye travels—the way my mind organizes visual information—isn’t a flaw. It’s a gift in repeat design.
The #1 placement feels like confirmation of that truth.
The Journey That Brought Me Here
A little timeline, because every triumph has a long backstory:
I graduated with a BFA in Fine Art from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2003.
Worked in import stores, became a retail buyer, ran two businesses selling my art, worked as a production artist.
I learned print manufacturing from the inside out.
I fell in love with decorative arts all over again.
I took immersion twice.
I retooled my entire portfolio.
I started pitching my work to licensing partners.
I made collection after collection.
I realized my obsession with historical pattern, nature’s geometry, and botanical illustration wasn’t just an interest—it was my design language.
And yes, my studio assistants Elfstan and Guthwine supervise all of it. Badly. Adorably. they think they are very helpful.
Interior Design Experience
But one of the turning points in my creative journey came from an unexpected place:I designed a wildly successful Airbnb whose interior sparked delighted comments from hundreds of guests.It turns out that creating spaces—not just images—taught me something profound about my own design language. Guests responded, over and over, to the exact qualities I now pour into my wallpaper and textiles:
They called the space “One of the best-designed Airbnbs I’ve ever stayed in. Everything was peaceful and pristine.” They loved the “beautifully decorated and well-thought-out” environment.One guest wrote, “Everything was so expertly put together and peaceful… it was evident that Mairin put a lot of work into this adorable place.”
“One of the very best AirBnBs ever… everything is intentional and thoughtful.”
“The pictures do not convey how beautiful this property is!”
“I will be taking inspiration for our guest house.”
“It felt like a home… the design touches made such a difference.”
“Like an oasis… so charming and private.”
The Avalon, my air bnb, with the first wallmural (available here) I ever designed These weren’t one-off comments, they became a chorus. Hundreds of guests noticed the thoughtful composition, the color palette, the textures, the atmospheric details, and the way the space made them feel.
And somewhere in those reviews, I realized something true and a little bit life-changing:
I wasn’t just someone who loved beautiful patterns. I was someone who could shape a whole environment.I could design spaces that soothed and inspired people, that made them feel seen, held, restored.This interior-design instinct naturally expanded into my work as a surface designer—wallpaper, upholstery fabric, murals, art prints, and home decor. If I could shape an entire guest suite, why not entire walls, entire rooms, entire worlds?
Surface pattern design finally gave me a place where everything I care about could coexist:wild nature + historical ornament + storytelling + structure + joy + maximalism + meaning.
Garden Tapestry: Why It Resonated
Julia Cameron says in The Artist's Way:
. As we are creative beings, our lives become our work of art. The integrated life is a love letter back to the universe".
I love to think about my life and work being a love letter back to the beauty of the world, my celebration of it. This design is a love letter: to deep forests to moss-thick fairy circles to waterfalls that sound like a thousand tiny bells to the belief that nature, in all her unruly architecture, is the greatest designer we have.
Garden Tapestry is dense, moody, romantic, and unapologetically maximalist. It’s also deeply personal—an attempt to create a landscape someone could live inside, not just look at.
And from the voter response, I think people felt that. They didn’t just see a pattern. They saw a world.
What Winning Means for My Work Going Forward
This contest win is part milestone, part compass.
It tells me: Keep going. Keep building the ornate, the botanical, the historical, the magical. Keep making livable art. Keep insisting that beauty belongs on everything.
It reinforces my mission—and my brand, Mairin Kareli Design: to make the ordinary surfaces of our lives extraordinary. To bring meaning, personality, wildness, history, and joy into your home. To design for the people who are bold, moody, nature-obsessed, history-loving, maximalist at heart. To be the artist who says,“If you need something stunning and soulful that makes you smile every day, I’ve got you.”
Thank You
To everyone who voted—to everyone who has supported my work, bought a wallpaper sample, shared a post, encouraged me, or simply said, “This makes me happy”—thank you. You made me an award winning surface pattern designer and I couldn't be more grateful.
This win belongs to all of us.
And now? Back to the studio.There are forests to build, tapestries to weave, and many more worlds to design.
