What Makes Metro Design Build Different from Other Chicago Interior Design Firms

We’d love to share our founding story with you!

Tony Pino & Heather Fuchs, founders of Metro Design-build

Not everyone is lucky enough to be able to say they were born to do what they do, but for those of us at Metro Design Build, it never felt like a choice. Interior design is just part of who we are.

Tony’s dad was a union Ironworker who helped build some of Chicago’s landmarks, including the Hancock Center and Lincoln Park Zoo. Growing up, Tony would work summers with his dad as a day laborer, so you could say he was raised on construction.

Heather has been organizing and designing spaces around her for as long as she can remember. As a kid, she would organize her mom’s home, including pulling out all her Tupperware out of the cabinets and organizing all the containers and their lids. By the time she reached middle school, she was constantly making sketches, including one of the layout of her dream home.

Heather wanted to move to New York City to pursue a career in interior design, but her mom convinced her to move to Chicago instead because it was closer to Minnesota so her mom could drive over and visit her. It worked out because it was working at a Chicago interior design firm in that Heather met Tony.

While Heather and Tony loved their work, they were less thrilled with the way larger design firms ran their business, especially when it came to how they treated their clients. Heather designed hundreds of bathrooms for clients without ever setting foot in their homes, much less getting to know them as individuals. Clients were just a number to the firm, so they just wanted Heather to pick out some tile and colors for them and get them out of the office so they can move on to the next client and get the next paycheck.

In the meantime, Heather and Tony started Metro Design-Build as a side hustle to serve some friends who had reached out and wanted Heather and Tony to do some work for them. Heather and Tony thought they would only be doing one or two bathrooms a year as a favor to friends and family, but they established a business so they could have insurance in case anything went wrong while they were working at their friends’ houses. It also helped define the line between business and friendship.

When things finally came to a head between Heather and her boss and she decided she could not work for that person anymore, it was Tony’s idea for Heather to devote herself full time to Metro Design-Build instead of looking for another job. Tony offered to support her financially for six months while she tried to make the business work. At the end of those six months, Tony quit his job to work with her full time at Metro Design-Build.

Having experienced what they don’t want in an interior design firm, Heather and Tony were very intentional about building a business that reflected what they do want: a personal relationship with each and every one of their clients, and a space that supported its workers. People and relationships form the basis of their business, and that started with making sure they could provide health insurance and a matching 401(k) option for all their employees.

The priority on relationships is also why they are focused on staying a small business because that’s the key to their personal touch. While filling out a form on most websites just gets you an automated response, Heather makes sure she personally speaks with everyone who fills out their online form to make sure they’re a good fit before they start working together. If it turns out they’re not a good fit, Heather can refer them to someone who can provide what they need, so no one is ever turned away empty-handed.

If you’re ready to experience our personal touch first hand, you can start right here.