Harmony Haus began back in 2008 and has always been based in Evanston, Illinois. I combined my lifelong experience as an artist with my knowledge of home improvement skills and tendencies towards being handy, both traits I picked up from my mother and decided to give it a go and strike out in a completely different field than the career path in the hospitality industry I had been on for the past decade.
Moving to Evanston from Chicago in 2007 had really helped my appreciation and awareness of the environment to flourish; living sustainably, being conscientious, and being aware of my carbon footprint. I was already an avid cyclist, having lived carless for many years, so I bought a trailer that hooked up to my bike and began pedaling my services to local residents. At this time there was an amazing store on Main Street just blocks from my house, Healthy Green Goods, and the owner carried truly environmentally friendly home goods. She carried a line of paint, Yolo Colorhouse as it was called back then (Colorhouse today) and I fell in love with the color palette, the mission of the paint company and I loved its non-toxic properties. I phoned Marnie, the owner of Healthy Green Goods, and asked her for a meeting as I wanted to talk to her about my plans of starting a paint company using Yolo Colorhouse exclusively. She was instrumental in helping me start my business, the very day we had our meeting, two ladies shopping overheard our conversation, took a business card, and called me later that day to schedule estimates. Marnie graciously displayed my handmade business cards next to the paint display so often times when people were picking up paint they just called me too. Everything magically fell into place, I could bike around town, buy paint down the street from my house while supporting small business and get to do something I loved doing every day!