98 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM wasn’t going to be a doctor,” she chuckles. Today, her artistic flourishes embellish walls, floors and furniture in private homes and restaurants across the Peninsula, San Francisco and the country. “Usually, my first question to clients is, ‘What’s the feeling that you want in this room?’” Caroline notes. Do they want to work hard here or unwind with a glass of wine? Would they like a bright space that makes them feel alive? Or, like Caroline, do they prefer a moodier space that draws them out of the ordinary? {home & design} words by JOHANNA HARLOW photography by CHRISTOPHER STARK DECORATIVE ART bouncing off the walls Conventionality and Caroline Lizarraga have no business being in the same room. “I don’t think I would recommend calling me to do a white wall,” quips the decorative painter. If, however, you dream of walls coated in a rippling cut-agate design or dripping in gold resin, you’re in luck. “I’m attracted to bolder, more dramatic, more moody things,” Caroline describes. “I love color. I love unexpectedness.” Walk into the painter’s own home and the first thing you’ll notice is the chandelier forged out of bike chains— followed by four-foot ostrich wall sconces. Make your way further down the rabbit hole and you’ll find that Caroline has painted a poem by Dante on the staircase steps and wrapped a misty treescape around the dining room (where a taxidermied white peacock named Higgins also resides). “It has a lot of soul,” reflects Caroline. “I want to be buried here, I love it!” As a kid, Caroline spent three months hand-beading a lampshade for her father’s birthday. “My dad said he kind of knew that I ABOVE: Caroline Lizarraga’s dining room.
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