SUNNY DAYS AHEAD

What’s that saying—do what you love and you won’t work a day in your life? That’s exactly how Lake Barrington’s Lauren Hansen lives her life, turning a creative outlet into a profitable interior design business.

In March of 2020, just before the world shut down, Lauren and Trevor Hansen sold their Chicago condo on a whim.

“We had been looking for a house in the suburbs for a while,” Hansen explains. “I had seen this Barrington house on the market for a while and couldn’t figure out why no one was buying it.”

Once Hansen was able to convince her husband to finally list their city dwelling, they priced it high—in no real hurry to move. But the stars aligned for the Hansens to make the big move to Barrington and their condo sold in a week.

“I still can’t believe how it all came together,” she says. “We sold quickly and were able to close right before everything stopped because of COVID.”

Hansen went right to work making their new house feel like them.

“It was a little bit of a struggle in the beginning trying to pull the house together because nothing was open,” Hansen remembers. “With our condo being relatively small, we didn’t have much furniture to bring to this house. We needed a dining room table and a sectional for the living room. I found myself just buying things to fill the space and making do with it until I could make it better.”

One of the first rooms Hansen finished was the primary bedroom. It turned out so pretty that she decided to photograph it.

“It was actually my husband who encouraged me to start an Instagram account,” she says. “He thought the bedroom was so beautiful that I should share it. I was so against this because I’m not a showy person, but I thought it might help someone who is looking for inspiration for their own home.”

From there, @laurenashleyhansen was born. As Hansen completed projects around her home, she shared photos of those spaces on her account. She posted consistently and began to gain some momentum.

“I really didn’t know what I was doing at all, but it was fun, and I was making progress, and the people who followed me seemed to enjoy my content,” she says. “I decided to see what happened if I reached out to a brand about collaborating. My thought was if I could get brands I liked to share product with me, I could use them to furnish my house and write about them in return.”

Ruggable, a washable rug company, was the first company to take Hansen up on her offer.

“Ruggable sent me some rugs that I used in a few of my rooms,” Hansen explains. “They then used the pictures I took in some of their ad campaigns and that’s when my account really took off. It put me in front of a lot more people interested in the kind of content I was sharing.” Today @laurenashleyhansen has more than 164,000 followers on Instagram.

What some of Hansen’s followers may not realize is that in addition to being a digital content creator, she’s also a married mother of two, a Barrington Junior Women’s Club board member, and a part-time nurse in the transplant unit of a Chicago area hospital.

“My coworkers keep asking me when I’m going to quit my job as a nurse,” she says. “But I’ve worked with some of these people for almost 10 years. We’re a tight knit group—they’re like family. I’m not ready to leave them quite yet.”

But Hansen is learning that there are only so many hours in a day, and the demands for her time and talents are growing.

“A number of my followers have asked if I would help them design their homes,” she says. “They’re willing to pay me to help them do this.”

So just a little over a year ago, Lauren Hansen Home officially became an LLC.

“My followers have shared with me that when they tried to work with a traditional designer, they would be turned away because the project was too small, or the budget wasn’t big enough,” she says. “I’ve tried to make my in-person and e-design services more customizable where a client can pick and choose which rooms they need my help with and how they want to work with me. I can be involved as a little or as much as they need me.”

Hansen is able to offer in-person or e-design depending on the client’s needs. Using measurements and photos of the space, she then creates a floor plan that helps put everything to scale, so that she can accurately comment on furniture placement, sizing, etc. Hansen then fully sources the pieces that will bring the space to life through design boards.

“I try to do whatever works best for the client,” she adds. “It’s a work in progress for sure, and I’m learning something new every day. Some people ask me to source things only from retailers like Restoration Hardware, where others ask if I can find everything at Crate & Barrel [a Hansen favorite] or Target. It’s so much fun because no two projects are the same.”

In addition to growing as a designer, Hansen is evolving as a content creator.

“What I share on Instagram is authentic to the work that is happening at my house—often as it’s happening in my house,” she says with a laugh. “There are so many times when I’m half way through a project before I realize I’ve forgotten to film it.”

Hansen’s love for muted hues and neutral décor is often showcased in her beautifully lit photos.

“My photography skills have probably grown the most,” she says. “I now know how the sunlight will hit certain rooms at different times in the day. But one cloudy day can totally throw off my content-creating plans. And that’s when I remember I can try again tomorrow when the sun is shining again.”

To learn more about Lauren Ashley Hansen, visit her website at laurenashleyhansen.com or follow her on Instagram @laurenashleyhansen.