How a local maker is redefining what wallpaper can say about identity and home

When Keisha Jordan couldn’t find a wallpaper that felt like her, she decided to make her own.

That’s how Complex Flavors was born. Jordan, who was born and raised in Chicago, started the wallpaper company in 2015 while she was still living there. Five years ago, she traded the Windy City for Kansas City, but her designs remain steeped in her Chicago roots.

“I work in a very stressful environment in advertising, and I wanted to come home to a place where I feel at ease,” she says. Living with lupus also heightened her sensitivity to her surroundings. “Certain colors and certain things really bothered me.” 

When she couldn’t find the wallpapers she was looking for on the market, Jordan took matters into her own hands. She initially dabbled in textiles before discovering that the same digital files that make printed fabrics could be transformed into wallpaper. A serendipitous social media connection with a friend launching an interior design business in New York sparked a collaboration, and Complex Flavors took off from there.

Today, Jordan describes her aesthetic and philosophy as “urban opulence”—where grit meets grandeur. “It is that urban grit, but it also has a little bit of charm and beauty to it,” she says, citing her Dandelions of Washington Park design as an example. “It’s in the city, but it’s a beautiful park with beautiful flowers.” Her wallpapers lean toward dark, moody, jewel tone palettes that feel both contemporary and universal.

Running the business is no small feat. Jordan designs every pattern, handles customer service, manages social media, maintains the website and coordinates pop-ups—all while holding down her full-time advertising job. Her hustle has paid off. Complex Flavors won the 2025 Luminary Arts & Creative Small Business Award and several Chamber awards, among other accolades. And despite the rising demand for her products, Jordan remains intentionally old-school in her process. “Everything starts with a sketch in my sketchbook,” she says.

Jordan’s own apartment serves as both home and showroom, a sanctuary that embodies her design and philosophy. Her living room, where she likes to host, is filled with plants and softened by rich textures and colors, including a plush velvet green chair she settles into for movie nights. “It’s definitely a place of empowerment,” Jordan says. “When people come over, they feel comfortable and at ease.”

Her bedroom is covered with artwork celebrating women, sisterhood and connectivity, Jordan says. “That is my personal zone, my sacred space,” she says of her bedroom. “I feel that vibe with the warmth of my sisters. I don’t have a sister. I am a sister. There’s a connective femininity and love from that. I think that’s what makes that room special to me.”

But the guest bathroom is where Jordan really shows off. Covered in her bold Paradise Blindness wallpaper, the cozy space makes a big statement and holds special significance: It was where Jordan first tested her product on her own walls. It’s become a conversation starter, a bold declaration in an otherwise ordinary apartment space.

Ultimately, Jordan has a clear vision for what visitors should sense when they enter her home. “I want people to know that this is the home of a very confident, very strong, proud Black woman,” she says. “They see the color. They see the joy in my spirit.” complexflavorslife.com  

GO: The inaugural Complex Flavors Home + Life Haus Party, taking place the first week of February at Triune, gathers Kansas City designers and cultural voices to talk about Black home culture and the personal stories that shape how we live, decorate and gather.

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