To-The-Trade S2E28 Designing a Life You Love with Meredith Huck

Show Summary:

In this lively episode, Laurie Laizure and Nile Johnson welcome Connecticut designer Meredith Huck, the upbeat force behind House of Huck. Meredith recounts her dramatic pivot from thirteen years of high-stakes software sales, where every month felt like sprinting toward a fresh quota, to a design career that finally allows her to own the clock and be present for her three young children. She explains that she had long treated decorating as a “passion project,” but a pivotal moment in 2022 convinced her to trade President’s Club dashboards for sample books. Within two months of opening her studio, she had already surpassed the modest first-year target she once thought was ambitious, and she quickly discovered she would never return to corporate life. 

Meredith speaks candidly about early missteps like charging just $4000 to furnish a 4,000-square-foot home and how those “underpaid internships” sharpened her flat-fee model. Today, she screens prospects rigorously for kindness, trust, and aesthetic fit, even turning work away when the vibe feels off. Her favorite stage is the final reveal, especially when clients are so thrilled they cry. She peppers the conversation with practical tactics: QR-coded spec sheets that update live on-site, obsessive attention to grout lines and countertop edges, and a devotion to texture, think leathered stone, reed-detailed hardware, and subtly dimensional wallpapers that elevate her “coastal casual, livable luxury” palette beyond beige. 

Outside the studio, Meredith finds balance in sunset walks along the beach near her home, savoring homemade cookies and the custom “House of Huck” ice cream flavor a grateful client named in her honor. As she plans a major renovation of her own house and dreams of designing a Nantucket vacation home from scratch, her story offers both hard-won business lessons and a reminder that the real luxury of entrepreneurship is the freedom to “make your soul shine” on your own terms.