Meet Fayetteville interior designer Lisa Faye Medina

In the tight-knit community surrounding Fort Bragg, where military families face unique challenges of frequent moves, deployments and life’s unexpected turns, the concept of “home” takes on profound meaning.

For Lisa Faye Medina, interior designer behind Wildfire Restoration and a military spouse, creating beautiful, functional spaces isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about healing, hope and helping families find their footing in a never-changing world.

Roots in service and craftsmanship

Lisa’s journey into interior design began long before she launched Wildfire Restoration four years ago. Growing up with a father who owned a painting company, she learned the value of hands-on craftsmanship and attention to detail. Her mother, meanwhile, taught her how to make any space, no matter how modest, feel welcoming and warm.

“My mother had this incredible ability to take our simple home and make it feel like a sanctuary,” Lisa recalls. “She showed me that creating a beautiful space isn’t about having the most expensive things, it’s about understanding what makes people feel comfortable and loved.”

These early lessons proved invaluable when Lisa married Anthony, a special operations service member at Fort Bragg, and began the nomadic life familiar to military families. With four children now aged 17 to 26, the Medinas have experienced firsthand the challenges of creating stability and comfort in temporary spaces.

“As a military spouse, you become an expert at making a house feel like home quickly,” Lisa explains. “You learn to work with what you have and make every space functional for your family’s needs.”

From necessity to calling

What started as a personal skill born from necessity gradually evolved into something more. Lisa began sharing her design projects on social media, showcasing how she transformed military housing and their various homes throughout Anthony’s career. The response was immediate and enthusiastic.

“I wasn’t trying to start a business,” she admits. “I was just sharing what I was doing with our own spaces. But other military spouses started reaching out, asking for help with their homes.”

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. The COVID-19 pandemic struck just as Lisa began to consider formalizing her design services, and suddenly, families everywhere were spending unprecedented amounts of time in their homes. The importance of functional, beautiful living spaces became crystal clear.

“The pandemic really highlighted how crucial our home environment is to our wellbeing,” Lisa notes. “People realized that their spaces needed to work harder; they needed to be offices, schools, gyms and sanctuaries all at once.”

Building a family business

Despite his demanding role in special operations, Anthony became an integral part of Wildfire Restoration’s success. His contracting background and practical skills perfectly complement Lisa’s design vision.

“Anthony is my support system in every sense,” Lisa says. “He helps coordinate subcontractors, runs errands, and handles the practical side of projects. We’ve learned to work together despite the occasional stress that comes with mixing business and marriage.”

The family approach extends beyond just Lisa and Anthony. Their network includes other family members who contribute various skills, creating a true family enterprise that reflects the collaborative spirit often found in military communities.

This collaborative spirit has also fostered meaningful partnerships with local businesses with similar values. Geovany Vanegas, from Arana Stone, another family-owned and -operated business in Fayetteville, has become one of Lisa’s trusted partners for custom stonework projects.

What sets Lisa apart, according to Geovany, is how she makes everyone feel like part of the creative process.

“Lisa involves her whole family in projects, which adds such a personal touch,” he said. “When working on her designs, we feel included in something bigger than just a transaction. It’s a true collaboration between two family businesses that understand each other’s values.”

Geovany appreciates Lisa’s thorough approach, noting that her detailed explanations and visual aids help his team fully understand her vision.

“Working with Lisa is both challenging and rewarding,” he said. “Her attention to detail pushes us to be more creative and precise in our work.

“She doesn’t just tell us what she wants, she shows us,” Geovany said. “Whether it’s specific table legs or detailed cabinet designs, Lisa’s creativity makes every project unique. We’ve learned to expect the unexpected with her projects, and that’s made us better craftsmen.”

The partnership has been mutually beneficial, with Geovany noting Lisa’s growing social media influence of over a combined 18,000 followers across Instagram, Facebook and TikTok has brought positive attention to local businesses like Arana Stone.

“We’re hopeful for many more projects together,” he said. “Lisa’s reach through platforms like Pinterest and her partnerships with major brands helps showcase what local businesses can accomplish when we work together.”

As a company that offers military discounts, Arana Stone particularly values working with Lisa and serving the Fort Bragg community.

“We understand the military families here, and working with Lisa helps us better serve that community with the quality craftsmanship they deserve,” Geovany adds.

Healing through design

Perhaps no project illustrates the deeper impact of Lisa’s work better than her collaboration with Nairilys Delgado, a fellow military spouse who lost her husband in 2020 and found herself struggling to make her house feel like home for herself and her children.

The two women had connected nearly 10 years earlier through a fitness accountability group on Facebook, but their professional relationship began in 2022, when Nairilys was considering selling her home and starting fresh elsewhere.

“I was in a really dark place,” Nairilys explains. “The house felt heavy with memories, and I didn’t know how to move forward. Lisa listened to my story and helped me see that I didn’t need to leave, I needed to transform the space into something that honored my husband’s memory while creating new possibilities for my family.”

The project involved converting her late husband’s man cave into a healing space where her children could play while staying connected to their father’s memory. Lisa’s attention to detail, including preserving and displaying the husband’s wrestling belts, showed an understanding that good design goes beyond aesthetics to touch the heart.

“Lisa and her family worked with their hearts,” Nairilys reflects. “When Anthony noticed a small leak in my ceiling and fixed it without being asked, I knew I was working with people who truly cared about making my house a home.”

The ripple effect

Lisa’s work with military families has created a ripple effect throughout the Fort Bragg community. Her approach, which emphasizes timeless design elements with interchangeable finishing touches, particularly resonates with military families who know they may need to adapt their spaces frequently.

“Military families face unique challenges,” Lisa explains. “We move frequently, we have limited budgets, and we need spaces that can adapt to changing needs. My goal is to create designs that are both beautiful and practical, spaces that can evolve with families as their circumstances change.”

This philosophy has served her well as Wildfire Restoration has grown from serving local military families to gaining national recognition through partnerships with major brands like Pinterest, Wayfair and Kingston Brass. Her work has been featured in Better Homes & Gardens, showcasing a Fort Bragg dining room transformation that converted the space into a functional home gym.

Medina’s home renovation journey 

While Lisa’s passion for client renovations is undeniable, client work had to take a pause after undertaking her own 1972 Vanstory Hills home’s renovation. The Medina family bought their home in August 2021, and immediately launched into an ambitious whole-house renovation that would transform every corner of their space.

“As soon as we got the keys, we ripped out the old carpet and had the original floors refinished,” Lisa explains.

The project quickly expanded to include replacing all mismatched baseboards throughout the house, painting the entire interior from floor to ceiling, and addressing major infrastructure needs like replacing the old water heater with a tankless system and updating the electrical in the living room and kitchen.

To create better flow between spaces, she opened up three cased openings and removed four doors that had previously divided the living areas, achieving the open feel they desired while maintaining distinct, cozy spaces. The living room required extensive work after a leak behind the fireplace, leading to new drywall installation and updated trim work that completely transformed the space’s character.

The most ambitious phase involved three complete demolitions where the kitchen, powder room and mudroom/laundry room were stripped down to the studs, allowing Lisa to rebuild and rework every inch of these essential spaces from the ground up.

The renovation extended beyond the interior with exterior improvements including fresh paint on shutters, updated white trim, and new lighting in the backyard and front of the home. Countless finishing touches followed, from leveling kitchen flooring and updating floor vents to removing wallpaper, installing new bathroom faucets, adding a needed exhaust fan, and installing new pull-down attic stairs. 

Looking forward

As Lisa nears completion of her own ambitious home renovation project, she’s preparing to resume taking on client projects with a deeper understanding of what home truly means.

“Every project teaches me something new about how people live and what they need from their spaces,” she says. “Working with military families has shown me that the most important element in any design isn’t a particular style or trend, it’s understanding the people who will live in that space and what will make them feel most at home.”

For families like the Medinas and Delgados, home isn’t just a place; it’s a foundation for healing, growth and hope. Through Wildfire Restoration, Lisa continues to help military families create those foundations, one thoughtfully designed room at a time.

“In the military community, we understand that home isn’t about the building, it’s about the people inside it and how the space supports their lives,” Lisa concludes. “That’s what drives everything I do. I want to help families create spaces where they can thrive, no matter what challenges they’re facing.”

As Lisa puts the finishing touches on her family’s Vanstory Hills home and prepares to take on new clients, her vision extends far beyond individual projects. She’s building a legacy that proves military spouses can transform personal challenges into professional success while lifting their entire community.

Through Wildfire Restoration, she’s not just designing beautiful spaces; she’s creating a model for how passion, persistence, and an understanding of what truly matters can turn a house into a home, a skill into a business, and a military spouse’s journey into an inspiration for families everywhere.

Read CityView Magazine’s “The Military Issue” July 2025 e-edition here.