Several of Bev Barclay’s custom throw pillows are piled on her living room sofa. The fabric and fashion designer/artist hand-paints decorative scrollwork or stylized floral designs on the silk or linen pillows. Photography by Brandon Sullivan

Bev Barclay MAKES A
STATEMENT WITH
BESpoke ACCENT PILLOWS





Bev Barclay learned early on that fashion makes a statement, but it was a chance encounter while wearing a statement piece that led her to a new stage in a diverse design career.

The Scottsdale resident hand-paints decorative scrollwork or stylized floral designs on custom silk and linen accent pillows suitable for Old World or Contemporary residences. Her pillows were created at the suggestion of Scott Hunter, co-owner of Compliments of Arizona, a Scottsdale home-furnishings boutique.

“Bev came in wearing a beautiful hand-painted scarf, and I asked her where she got it,” Hunter recalls. “She told me she had painted it, and I immediately asked if she could paint pillows.”   

Barclay hadn’t considered that possibility, but she created some samples and showed them to Hunter.

“He bought them all, and soon I was painting lots of pillows,” recalls the artist.

Her creations are yet another chapter in Barclay’s long career centered around fabrics and fashion. After majoring in fashion at Washington State University, she took a job with Malia International, a design and fabric house based in Honolulu. “We’d spend six months working on the design of fabrics and then develop clothing based on those fabrics,” states Barclay, who rose to assistant director of design and head art director in her eight years with the company.

A fleur-de-lis anchors scrollwork that defines a design titled Sorrento I on a taupe-hued pillow. The white neckroll features hand-painted sheer fabric, French seams and hand-tied knots.

After leaving Malia and moving to Scottsdale, Barclay managed the former UH..OH women’s boutique. When it closed, Barclay and a co-worker, Connie McCormick, decided to bring their sense of fashion to homes through a redesign firm. “We spruce up the home using what the owner already has as much as possible,” explains Barclay. “We also stage homes for resale or for builders selling a spec home.”

About the same time the interior redesign business was getting started, Barclay had an epiphany moment—a conversation with her mother. “My mom was saying she couldn’t find scarves to go with certain outfits,” Barclay recalls. “We found a wholesale source for plain scarves and I just started painting designs on them. I taught myself how to do things like apply the paint so it doesn’t bleed.” The scarves, which she also began wearing, led to the chance meeting with Scott Hunter while Barclay was shopping for a redesign client.