While I think that the best guiding light in life is trusting your own intuition, I’m always looking to others to show me what’s possible. When I was a child, Miss Piggy was my idol. Strong, ambitious, witty, fashionable and — though some may say it was just lipstick on a pig — she was beautiful. My mom even stitched an image of her that adorned my bedroom wall and read, “My beauty is my curse.” No, she wasn’t a traditional looker, but she held her own with confidence.

When I started dipping my brush into the DIY world, I discovered designer Dorothy Draper. And I might be the first person to compare her to a Muppet, but Draper seemed to march with certainty to her own beat, too. Though Draper died in 1969, five years before Miss Piggy’s snout ever graced American television sets, I am sure she’d have been a fan. They’re both what kids today would call “extra.”

Born into wealth in 1889 New York, Draper drew from a world of historic design styles that she had at her fingertips and unapologetically made her own. Her iconic style, which she coined “Modern Baroque,” features bold color, audacious mixing of loud patterns and plaster architectural flourishes rarely repeated today. Everything was over the top — and yet it worked.

Draper once pronounced, “I believe in doing the thing you feel is right. If it looks right, it is right.” Her trademark aesthetic prevailed because she trusted her intuition. Blazing a trail for others, she became the very first commercial interior designer. Her work can still be appreciated today at some elaborate and expansive hotels that remain almost exactly as she designed them.

Last year, I was invited as a media guest — among a couple hundred attendees total — to the Dorothy Draper Design Weekend held annually at The Greenbrier, the iconic resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, just a few hours north of Greensboro. Draper took on the design of The Greenbrier in 1946. And, in the late 1950s, “Mr. Color,” Carleton Varney, joined her company, became her protegé and eventually bought Dorothy Draper Design Co. in the late ’60s. He passed away in 2022, but his sons, Sebastian and Nicholas, are keeping the brand’s — and their father’s — legacy alive. In fact, the company celebrates its centennial anniversary this year.

As someone who had long admired Draper’s work, especially her iconic España chest, I was thrilled to take in her daring design with my own two eyes.

My guest room enveloped me in greens: minty walls, a tonal checkered carpet, a green-and-pink quilt featuring roses and — my favorite part — emerald Francie & Grover fabric, named after Carleton Varney’s dogs.

For the first official weekend event, I hopped on a shuttle over to the on-site upholstery workshop, where seamstresses and upholsterers worked on vintage hotel furnishings and whipped up draperies. Bolts upon bolts of fabric lined large tables as well as the walls, organized by color. High upon a shelf, I spied a tattered Easter Bunny head, once part of a costume. I asked one of the upholsterers about it and he said it had come to the shop years ago for repairs, but a new costume was ordered instead. So instead of ending up at the local dump, there sat the shell of a rabbit head, staring blankly at the workers. Draper did once say, “I always love a controversial item. It makes people talk.”

The rest of the weekend was a whirl of creative, hands-on activity. Rudy Saunders, the company’s design director, led a session on pattern mixing. The hotel’s florist taught an arrangement workshop. We toured the entire property. As someone who actually prefers warm neutrals, I was in awe of the on-site chapel, an archaic structure of white with rustic wooden beams, flooring and pews. Its spartan features allowed the vibrant stained-glass windows to, well, shine. Second to that, I was floored by — wait for it — the Victorian writing room. Dark, moody walls paired with a vibrant red carpet, a convex Federal mirror above an elaborately carved marble fireplace? A girl could write in there.

And North Carolina author Joy Callaway agrees. In fact, she was inspired by the hotel itself to pen The Grand Design, a historical-fictional novel about Draper’s life and work at The Greenbrier. Callaway, who has written several novels, both romance and historical fiction, gave a talk over the weekend about her book and what fuels her creativity. Like Draper did for so many decorators, Callaway did for me — I could catch a glimmer of my own future in her.

I don’t have a crystal ball to know what lies ahead, of course. But I can look to the trailblazers who have climbed to the summit, turned around and shone their torch on the path ahead for me and others. And I know, with certainty, that I can trust my inner voice. Like Draper — and with the confidence of a certain refined swine — I will keep doing the thing that I feel is right.