wellington | designer
Elizabeth Fountain Brings Her Clients A Lifelong Passion For Interior Design By Julie Unger
Design has always been a passion for Elizabeth Fountain, owner of Elizabeth Fountain Interiors in West Palm Beach. “I’ve been doing it my entire life. I remember as a little girl, there was a store in the town I grew up in,” Fountain recalled, adding that she would frequent the store with a friend. “We would purchase all of this stuff, we’d come back to our homes, and I would decorate both of our rooms. I’d decorate her bedroom, I’d decorate my bedroom, and in six months’ time, we’d completely redo everything.” Later, in college, Fountain was the go-to decorator for her friends’ apartments. “It never occurred to me to do this for a living,” she said. “In college, I majored in international business.” When her husband suggested she pursue decorating as a business, Foun-
tain wasn’t sure what to do. She had a successful career as a professional speaker focusing on communications that took her around the world. She didn’t have any decorating credentials. However, one day Fountain had someone from a consignment store come to her home to look at some furniture she wanted to sell. “She came over to the house to look at what we had, and she said, ‘Who did your house?’ I said ‘I did.’ She said, ‘Are you a designer?’ and I said ‘No.’ She said, ‘Well you ought to be.’” With so many people telling her the same thing, maybe there was some truth to it, Fountain thought. At the time, Fountain and her husband, a general contractor, had just
moved to Florida. When she visited a friend who had also just moved, she noticed that the friend had barely unpacked. “I went back a month later and ofwellington the magazine | february 2017
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