Delafield company makes custom wall coverings for Kalahari Resort

Imaginethat, a Delafield company, recently completed 120 custom-made African print wall coverings for the Kalahari Kondominiums at the Kalahari Waterpark Resort in Wisconsin Dells.
Kalahari president Todd Nelson said Imaginethat took a photograph of a painting on the wall in the presidential suite at the Kalahari and reproduced the artwork on wallpaper to cover a 9-foot by 8-foot wide wall in the living room of each condominium unit.
"It turned out really cool," Nelson said. "It’s really neat."
Diane Bahl, Kalahari’s decorator and designer, said she also is happy with the new wall coverings.
"We added authentic character to the condominiums with a product that was all our own," Bahl said.
Imaginethat creates custom wall coverings for its customers.
"In the home, office space, board room, it creates an identity for something unique and different for wherever we place it," said Imaginethat owner Randy Peters.
When Imaginethat was founded in 1999 as a wallpaper company, one of the main challenges it faced was being ahead of its time, Peters said.
"Most customers at the time didn’t understand doing digitally customed wall coverings," Peters said. "They were used to looking through big books and never finding exactly what they were searching for."
Also, Peters said, many customers didn’t have enough imagination.
"We have tried to get customers to understand what wall coverings can do for them," Peters said. "We can take any image, reproduce it and do something totally custom."
The average price for a custom covering for a wall is $450 to $500, Peters said. While that price is more expensive than picking wallpaper from a book, it enables customers to use the image that best suits them, and it compares very well to high-end wall paper, such as Ralph Lauren, Peters said.
Plus, Imaginethat wallpaper is high quality, Peters said.
"We are very unique in our process because we use an oil-based ink, which has a much better longevity," he said.
In 2003, Imaginethat branched outside of wallpaper and now has the capability to etch onto marble, glass, wood, acrylic and some metals.
Peters said Imaginethat takes pride in getting the job done quickly.
"We can turn the project around and have it ready in a three- to five-day period of time," Peters said. "If a customer had a muralist come in, it might take 15 to 20 days."
Peters said the Kalahari was one of his company’s best projects.
Imaginethat also was featured on the show, "While You Were Out," where the company helped to create an image of a Canadian hockey rink by using pictures taken at the Mullet Ice Center in Oconomowoc.
"In September, we will be opening a state-of-the-art 4,000 square-foot art gallery in Delafield," Peters said.
Peters also expects Imaginethat to branch outside of the state.
"We have done work in Las Vegas and Ohio," Peters said. "We are becoming nationally known."
August 20, 2004, Small Business Times, Milwaukee, WI