35 | business
Designer wants clients to be at home with their choices
Mary Ann Hart Beardman
photography by joel lerner
■ by kevin beese Mary Ann Hart Beardman wants to help people feel at home. She wants those building a home to bring the blueprints to her shop to make sure the architect — when designing the family room — left room for the TV. She wants to help people reupholster a favorite chair rather than discard it. And she wants to make sure homeowners avoid saying the five dreaded words of interior design — “Why did I buy that?” Beardman has been in the interior design industry for 25 years, the last dozen as owner or co-owner of Bailey & Hart Interiors in Lake Forest. She said serving the individual client is what has made her business successful. “We have something for everybody,” Beardman said. “I feel we can help everybody who comes in. We will work with each customer to customize a plan for what they want.” Beardman and a business partner started the interior design firm, using their maiden names for the company moniker. When her business partner moved, Beardman bought her out but kept the “Bailey & Hart” name on the door. The six-person firm’s business is centered in Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, Glenview and Chicago, but it has also designed the interiors of homes in Florida, Michigan and Arizona. One client, with homes in four different states, has had Bailey & Hart handle the interior design for each residence.
“If we get the floor plans, we never have to be in a place,” Beardman said. She said livable space is important to homeowners these days. “Things (in homes) are not as formal as they used to be,” Beardman said. “But a lot of older people still want to keep elegance, and we can decorate for that. People will move into Lake Forest Place (a local retirement community) and want to have the interior design done.” Sara Trausch, store manager as well as a designer, said staff will put in the time to make sure clients are happy with their home’s interior. “It can be a long process,” Trausch said. Beardman said that unlike some designers, Bailey & Hart will work with customers to tweak interior design plans or redo them entirely if it is not what the customer wants. Designers will give the customer their thoughts, but Beardman noted that it is the customer who has to be satisfied with the project upon completion. Beardman said one misconception out there is that interior designers are only for upper-income individuals and that they only deal with topend furniture. “We can work with anybody’s budget,” she said. “No job is too small; no job is too big.” Keeping people from cringing when they walk into a room in their own home is what keeps Beardman and her staff doing what they do. “We don’t want them to make a mistake,” Beardman said. ■
New Consumer Awareness Hotline Helps North Shore Home Sellers Pocket Thousands of Additional Dollars When Selling Their Homes Winnetka – A new consumer awareness hotline gives North Shore home sellers a behindthe-scenes peek at the most common mistakes that people make when selling their homes, and shares tips on simple, inexpensive things to do that make homes sell for thousands of additional dollars. “Some home sellers over-invest in expensive improvements that don’t significantly increase the value of their home,” said Anne West of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, “while other sellers fail to do the simple things that cost almost no money, yet always make homes sell for thousands of dollars more.” West became so frustrated with seeing sellers make the same mistakes over and over again that she launched the Consumer Awareness Hotline as a community service. “It’s really nice to see that people are calling and getting benefit from the hotline,” said West. “We get calls from people thanking us for the tips.” You can access West’s Consumer Awareness Hotline by calling 1-888-881-4309, ext. 15 to listen to a free recorded message or visit NorthShoreHomeOwner.com. *No content provided on NorthShoreHomeOwner.com is provided by Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.