Merchant of the Month: June 2026

Andrea Harvey, owner of ASH Interiors and Design, has been working in the design industry for over 25 years. ASH's home base has been part of Ellicott City's Main Street since 2019. Andrea and her team specialize in interior design and construction for kitchens and baths. Stop by the brick-and-mortar store to shop for antiques sourced from France, Italy, and England, curated by Andrea. We appreciate ASH Interiors and Design for being a staple of Main Street for 7 years and counting!

Tell us about your business.

My name is Andrea, and I own ASH Interiors and Design. We have been in this industry since 1999, a lot of people don't realize that, so we are a construction forward design firm. I specify that because some people don't realize they think interior design, which can be anything from fabrics, furniture, window treatments, but it also can be construction, so we're on the construction side. Our focus is kitchen, bathrooms, we do renovations of basements, we work with builders, we work with remodelers. Our design partner is A Plus Services, and they do the majority of our construction projects, but we will partner with other builders and remodelers, but yeah, we do kitchen baths and interiors, and then we sprinkle some furniture on the side.

Our ideal project is definitely one that's going to be more construction focused. So, okay, that's renovating a kitchen, renovating a bathroom, finishing a basement, and then with that, we'll present. If it's a kitchen with an open family room, we'll do the family room furniture, but generally, if somebody calls and they say they just want a bedroom, we can do it, but we're gonna try to throw some construction. Can we do an accent wall? Can we change lighting?  Try to make it a little more involved than just furniture, and maybe like carpeting.

That’s why we did the office space this way. This fireplace didn't exist. I don't know if you remember what the space was prior, but it was a clothing store. It had this interesting bump out right there, and I didn't like it, so I was like, okay, well, let's try to make it look more purposeful. We built the fireplace and put it in here. We do this for clients all the time. We have an end of the year promo where we offer fireplaces for Christmas. Electric fireplace will ship it, or you'll do a design detail, but we can do them in like a week.

We reworked this space and the bathroom, so everything in here is an example of things that we can do. I always like to point out the before of this space, because it didn't look like this.

What problems does your business solve for customers?

We create spaces that they can't imagine. Oftentimes the first conversation somebody will say is, “I don't know if I can afford this,” or “I don't even know what to do,” or “I need this.” It’s always coming from this space of “I don't even know if this is possible.” What gets us really excited is when we're able to say, “you could totally do that,” and we work with them. I always say that our process is very personalized. So if we get a phone call that says, “how much do you cost?” I just generally say, “let's talk about the project first.” We don't do a one size fits all. Even when a client shows a picture of a project that we did before, we still like to tweak it so that it's more of their space.

What makes your business unique?

One of the main things is because we have the construction background, a lot of people don't realize that, so they get surprised. So, again, once I'll get a phone call, and it could be for furniture, and then as I'm talking to them, they're like, "Wait, I didn't know you did this,” and that's a good thing. It's exciting. Also, we source products, we source not only products for clients, but we source antiques. People are surprised about that. A lot of the stuff on the shelves in our office space is vintage from England. Everything that’s here is basically for sale, and so we can either sell it just right out, or we try to incorporate it into clients' projects. I source from France, Italy, and London. While I'm there, I try to find cool stuff, and I think about projects that are coming up.

Who is your ideal customer?

The ideal customer is one that actually lets us do our job. Not even in terms of budget now, of course. With everybody, there's a budget, of course. We've had clients where there was a very large budget but wouldn't let go and really let the process be the process. So the space didn't turn out the way it could have. We've had clients with very small budgets that are like, “I don't do this, like, just do it,” and those have been really great experiences. I think the big thing is you've got to build trust, but it's not just about trusting what we do, they have to trust they can let go and let the project happen. You see it happen on HGTV, that's not in real life. 99% of the clients don't want to let go, right? If they did, that would be our ideal client. As far as an ideal space, I love doing the entire house. We've done a couple of whole homes, and it's great because you can really tell the story of the family and everything. But I definitely love a kitchen, love a bathroom. Again, if you throw those in there, I'm generally really happy.

What has been your proudest milestone so far?

Oh gosh. Gosh, there's a few. I started in 1999 when there wasn’t an HGTV, there wasn't Instagram, there were not a lot of designers of color, so it was really important to me that our business reflected the fact that you can be a black designer, you could be a working designer. We’re one of the first businesses of color on Main Street; I had an office right across the street in 2019. Also, just being able to train and bring up new designers, that's always been a passion of mine, and to be able to give back. We have a nonprofit, Haven by ASH, and the outreach that we've been able to do, mainly because we’ve been around for a long time, that that's what I'm proud of. At some point I want to hand it off to somebody, because again it's been 25-26 years.

What challenges have you overcome as a business owner?

Oh gosh, there's always challenges. I feel like every year there's a different challenge. We made it through Covid, luckily, we were able to diversify. We started working with clients outside of the Maryland, DC, Northern Virginia area, that started during Covid, and since then we've been in 15 states and three countries.

We had a client that didn't pay us, they went out of business and didn't pay us. It was a lot of money, so that was tough trying to push through. I had a health crisis that put us on a complete halt for 2025, and basically the first two quarters of this year, but we're still standing.  The fact that we continue to push through and persevere and pivot when needed, that's what I'm proud of.

We’re a luxury service. There are so many things that are more important when there's government, there's political challenges, there's financial woes. People lose jobs, they've been furloughed, and so renovating your kitchen, your bathroom, or getting new furniture is not a priority when it comes to taking care of your family. Just having the grace and understanding that we are providing a service, and when the time is right the clients come.

How do you support or engage with your community?

We started Haven specifically to be able to support the population, we usually are more involved in the activities here on Main Street, we support other nonprofits, we also support other businesses. Whether it's hosting education, or even just having a pop-up for people saying, 'Hey, come in”. We've tried to parallel when there were things happening Main Street. Once we hosted a breakfast, and it was basically come in and ask your design questions. We have a partner with Jar Candles, and they're amazing. And we did a pop-up on a Saturday, and the founder is a political commentator. It was a big election happening, so we just had a lot of stuff happening here, just to kind of talk about it, to support the community.

What products or services are you most excited about right now?

We have a super exciting opportunity. I am officially the Director of Design and Build Outreach for this Association of Smart Home Technology. I'm super excited about adding that to our service, because no matter what people think, technology is not going anywhere. I want to be able to support people understanding how you can incorporate technology and design without it being obnoxious. It doesn't have to be TVs and speakers all over. Just being able to outreach on that and support that association, to make sure that our clients and other designers know how to incorporate that into their spaces.

If you're not being proactive in those conversations, then you're reacting to it. You want to always be forward thinking whether that's colors, whether that's design, you know what's coming, what's ahead.

I always joke and say when the client brings an idea to me, I'm like, “We're not doing that anymore.” I had a client once, she was so excited, and if she reads this, she'll know who she is. She had been planning her dream kitchen for like six years, and when she shared her idea with me it didn't really fit her house, I'll be honest. It came out beautifully, but it was just one of those things, it just wasn't her house. I told her, "You are officially the last kitchen I'm doing this color.” I actually stopped doing this color two years ago, but she had been holding on for six years because you're saving her money, right?

What's next for your business?

We got to get back on, get back, get our groove back from our rough start to 2026. We have some really great projects happening and coming up. I'm excited to support the growing smart home industry. I'm excited for my contractor. I'm looking for a designer, and just really kind of planning out the next five years. Again, I've been doing this for 25 years, so I would like to fall back and do more of a background and have a strong team in the front.

What do you want customers to feel when they work with you?

We want them to not only feel but know that we care about their project like it's our own, like we care about them like family. Our longest standing client is from 2002. We just did a little small project for her. We have one client where I did her house when I was 20, it was 20 years ago, I did again 10 years ago, another one like four years ago, and then a project for her son. I remembered him being in high school, which made me feel very old. I just completed a project for him, his wife, and children. The joke is that I'll do their son's house, who’s seven. We love that, and people know that we care. We build these relationships, and it continues.