Aug 21, 2017 By Jacob Calvin Meyer 3 min read

Lauren and Katie Trapuzzano believe the home should be a haven.

The sister-in-laws from Washington County are trying to do just that with their home furnishing business, Haven Design.

“A haven should be something that feels special and comfortable to an individual person,” said Lauren, who started Haven Design two years ago. “If somebody’s going to hire us to design their house, when we’re done, it better feel like a haven. If not, we probably failed.”

After operating the last two years solely online, Lauren and Katie opened a Haven Design boutique store in Uptown Mt. Lebanon about four weeks ago.

Lauren, 34 of Venetia, and Katie, 22 of Washington, wanted to expand the business to showcase furniture lines, along with text styles, jewelry and other accessories. The store’s location at 733 Washington Road was exactly what the pair envisioned, especially since they said home furnishing boutiques aren’t as prevalent in the South Hills as other parts of Pittsburgh.

“We were looking all over and when we found this spot, with all the foot traffic and the people that literally walk by, it was pretty perfect,” Katie said. “You’d have to travel an hour or so to find anything if you want it. Now everyone seems so excited because we’re right here. Everyone’s said they were in desperate need of a store like this.”

They’ve two have been close since Lauren started dating her husband, Katie’s brother, a little more than 10 years ago.

Prior to opening Haven Design, Lauren was a stay at home mom and Katie was a student at Washington & Jefferson College.

After Lauren started the company in 2015, Katie hopped on a few months later. Before graduating in May, Katie, a business major, would spend her free time working with Lauren.

While both Lauren and Katie acknowledged that opening the store is a risk, especially for Katie as a recent college graduate, they both determined it was worth pursuing.

“I would rather do something that I absolutely love and take the risk in that versus being unhappy doing something I might not ever love,” Katie said. “It’s my dream, and I’m so fortunate to be able to do this with Lauren.”

“It’s a risk. Luckily she was willing to take that risk with me,” Lauren added. “I couldn’t be doing it on my own. I needed Katie. I needed another person other than myself or else I couldn’t have taken it to the next level.”

While Haven Design will furnish for businesses, it is mainly residential. Haven Design will work within the customer’s budget to design a kitchen, a different room or an entire home, depending on the customer’s preference.

“We focus on bringing furniture that’s not big-box store style, but something unique and different and high quality at a fair price point,” Lauren said.

On Thursday nights after 5:30 p.m., the store hosts a Happy Hour collaboration, during which another small business owner will bring join Haven Design in offering specials. Lauren said the weekly event is meant for people to socialize, drink wine and, maybe, buy something in the store.

For the two women, opening the Haven Design store has been a dream come true.

“Growing up, we always wanted to have our own boutique of some sort whether it was fashion or clothing or whatever,” Katie said. “Putting stuff together and making something look beautiful meant so much to both of us. It was pretty perfect that this ended up working out how it did.”