Taking a look around Eva Niewiadomski’s two-bedroom Andersonville condo, you might find it hard to believe she was ever an accountant. It doesn’t seem fitting, a corporate number cruncher living in this bright, whimsical environment, much less creating it. But that’s where Niewiadomski, who’s worked in finance and also as a brand manager for the Quaker Oats Company, would tell you you’re wrong.
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“Who wrote the rule saying that beige and cream are business colors?” she asks. Niewiadomski took it upon herself to rewrite that rule at Quaker, starting with her cubicle, which she decorated with Chinese lanterns and toys. (“People loved meeting at my desk.”) She then turned two corridors into “innovation hallways”—covered floor to ceiling in retro-fabric panels with bold prints, the spaces became walk-in bulletin boards where anyone could post ideas—and put together a “creativity room.” In 2002 she struck out on her own to found Catalyst Ranch, a event space designed to help suits brainstorm better.
“On the wall to the right of the window are four painted ceramic plates from Portugal that I purchased on a trip. Hanging from the ceiling are two incense burners. The ceramic one is from Greece, the bronze one is a vintage piece I found in Bohemia. The light fixture is a vintage piece from the 30s that I purchased at an outdoor antique market. My dad rewired & repainted it for me.”
“Those are actually decorative tin placemats used under plates when setting a table. They come in multiple sizes. I purchased them in Oaxaca, Mexico, on a trip there several years back. They have patterns along the edges that have been hammered into the tin. To me they looked like tin versions of old-fashioned doilies and I thought they would make a cool pattern mounted on a wall or a door. I just nailed them in the center with fancy finishing nails.”
