The Beautiful Mistake

Excerpted from “From Bench to Build-Out,” the lead feature in the upcoming March 2026 edition of INSTORE.

MEREDITH LUSK, owner of Moonrise Jewelry in Cape Charles, VA, specializes in a unique niche: custom handcrafted jewelry fashioned from fish leather.

As she prepared to open her store in a century-old building in 2021, budget constraints became creative opportunities. “We didn’t have the budget to hire an interior designer,” Lusk says. “My staff and I designed the layout, office and studio to be both engaging and efficient. We planned and executed a complete renovation, designing, crafting, or customizing nearly all our displays and decor.”

While architect Wayne Anderson restored the exterior facade based on a 1920s photograph — including the original transom windows and canopy — Lusk’s team transformed the interior. The renovation uncovered architectural treasures: original restored pine floors and two brick fireplaces that anchor the space.

The focal point of the store, though, is an interactive swatch board showcasing 150 fish leather varieties. The fish “swim” across a hand-painted river spanning the entire back wall.

Lusk says that the swatch board was a matter of salvaging what could’ve been a disaster. She’d originally planned a completely different installation that required a specialty epoxy finish. Unfortunately, two days before the opening, an artisan’s equipment failure led to an unsightly mess in the form of huge, thick, glassy drips and streaks down the wall. It seemed there’d be no way to fix it other than taking the wall board down.

While brainstorming solutions, Lusk had what she describes as a little stroke of genius. She thought about creating artwork to be placed on top of the damage, covering the drips. The installation could also showcase the fish leather swatches customers peruse to choose colors for their custom jewelry. “People love that we have 150 colors of fish leather,” Lusk says. “We had kept them hidden behind the counter before that. I thought, why not put our most unique feature on display?”

Lusk had collaborated with local artist Abbi Custis, whose work was to be displayed in the store as interior design elements. They worked together to create the display to look like a river flowing vertically up the wall. To be able to take down the swatches to look at them and make the experience interactive, she made the display magnetic.

“I took painter’s tape and mocked up the shape I wanted,” she says. “Then I took butcher paper and did a cutout template, and a local carpenter who did some of the cabinetry took the template and cut it out of MDF board.”

PHOTO GALLERY MOONRISE JEWELRY (10 IMAGES)

She painted the board and covered it with magnetic plaster. “I took the whole thing outside, and Abbi and I painted it together to make it look like a river.”

Custis’ style was perfect for the piece because in her artistic process, she often pours paint, uses air guns and spray bottles, and likes metallic paints, gold and silver leaf and glitter. Altogether, her techniques create a vibrant abstract look.

Once that was dry, they poured epoxy resin on it and sealed it to make it clear and glossy. They adhered it to the wall. A local engraver laser cut fish shapes out of wood, spray painted them, added the fish leather to each of them and added magnets.

Now, Lusk can easily add more color samples, and when clients want to custom design something in blue, for example, she can pull out five different shades of blue to compare side by side.

“We were on a budget and a tight timeline,” she says. “That burst of creativity was born out of necessity, and it’s become an iconic part of the store.”

Other unique displays created by the Moonrise Jewelry team are grouped on the north wall of the store. These include fish leather bow ties displayed on dock poles, earrings displayed in portholes, and a rainbow-hued grid wall of their bestselling fish leather cuff bracelets.