BEAT

STICKING WITH IT

Interior design veteran Dala Al-Fuwaires launches temporary wallpaper company

Dala Al-Fuwaires has taken her interior design talents to product creation with the formation of Form Paper Co., a designer-quality peel and stick wallpaper company. Born in Kuwait and raised throughout the country in addition to Bahrain and the United Kingdom, Al-Fuwaires moved to the US in 2001 to attend Arizona State University’s interior design program. After more than a decade in the interior design industry and opening her commercial interior design firm House of Form five years ago, the entrepreneur used her time during the pandemic lockdown to fulfill her long-time passion of launching an American-made product. “The pandemic may have put me in a panic for a bit, but I tried to harness the short period of downtime to explore expanding my business into related fields that strengthen our entire brand and support the local economy,” says Al-Fuwaires, who launched her new wallpaper company in July 2021. Al-Fuwaires’ designs are edgy and bold, combining self-expression with art for customers to experiment in their spaces. She currently offers a variety of colorful graphic, geometric and floral prints. This year, she plans to create patterns that are geared toward children while collaborating with local artists and designers. Form Paper Co. (www.formpaperco.com) products are fully made in Arizona, environmentally conscious, and the company plants a tree for every product sold. “I love being a part of the fabric that contributes to our economic and cultural growth and look forward to seeing where the next 10 years take us,” Al-Fuwaires says. Given her global childhood, she hopes to show women, minorities, and immigrants that anything is imaginable. Al-Fuwaires regularly contributes to ASU’s interior design program by guest lecturing and mentoring interior design students and credits her father and her husband for believing in her. “I hope to be an expander for others by showing them that it is possible for us to carve a space out for our gifts and talents and rise to the top,” she says.

BY MANDY HOLMES / PHOTO BY CLAUDIA JOHNSTONE