Designing women all in the family: Welcome to the world of Babb & Mack
Dana Mackey, left, and Andrea Babb
Dana Mackey, left, and Andrea Babb
Many homeowners are prioritizing comfortable, fashionable, and functional workspaces in the home. This example showcases a terracotta tiled heated floor, lots of natural light and some special vintage pieces. (Photo by Kalie Berkey of Kalie Berkey Creative)
This project features a custom built-in family friendly bar (very popular right now), along with a set of twin custom-designed and -built bookcases, one with a library ladder. (Photo by Kalie Berkey of Kalie Berkey Creative)
This project features a custom built-in family friendly bar (very popular right now), along with a set of twin custom-designed and -built bookcases, one with a library ladder. (Photo by Kalie Berkey of Kalie Berkey Creative)
This project features a custom built-in family friendly bar (very popular right now), along with a set of twin custom-designed and -built bookcases, one with a library ladder. (Photo by Kalie Berkey of Kalie Berkey Creative)
This project features a custom built-in family friendly bar (very popular right now), along with a set of twin custom-designed and -built bookcases, one with a library ladder. (Photo by Kalie Berkey of Kalie Berkey Creative)
Kitchen refresh project by Babb & Mack Design: A kitchen refresh differs from a full-kitchen remodel as many of the more permanent fixtures – appliances, cabinets, overall layout – remain while finishes, fixtures and colors are updated. (Photo by Kalie Berkey of Kalie Berkey Creative)
Kitchen refresh project by Babb & Mack Design: A kitchen refresh differs from a full-kitchen remodel as many of the more permanent fixtures – appliances, cabinets, overall layout – remain while finishes, fixtures and colors are updated. (Photo by Kalie Berkey of Kalie Berkey Creative)
Kitchen refresh project by Babb & Mack Design: A kitchen refresh differs from a full-kitchen remodel as many of the more permanent fixtures – appliances, cabinets, overall layout – remain while finishes, fixtures and colors are updated. (Photo by Kalie Berkey of Kalie Berkey Creative)
Kitchen refresh project by Babb & Mack Design: A kitchen refresh differs from a full-kitchen remodel as many of the more permanent fixtures – appliances, cabinets, overall layout – remain while finishes, fixtures and colors are updated. (Photo by Kalie Berkey of Kalie Berkey Creative)
Dana and Andrea love to have fun in a powder room, using bold and surprising patterns, colors and art in these small spaces to bring that spark of joy to everyday living. (Photo by Kalie Berkey of Kalie Berkey Creative)
Dana and Andrea love to have fun in a powder room, using bold and surprising patterns, colors and art in these small spaces to bring that spark of joy to everyday living.
Dana and Andrea love to have fun in a powder room, using bold and surprising patterns, colors and art in these small spaces to bring that spark of joy to everyday living. (Photo by Kalie Berkey of Kalie Berkey Creative)
The past year has represented the proverbial rollercoaster ride for Mt. Lebanon interior designers Andrea Babb and Dana Mackey.
“We had two extremes: projects halting,” Andrea says, “and now we can’t answer inquiries quickly enough.”
She and Dana, who are related, went into business together as Babb & Mack Design in April 2019, about 11 months before the COVID-19 pandemic pretty much changed life as we knew it.
For Andrea, that meant a layoff from the full-time job she had for nearly a decade.
“I was planning to make the leap to full-time with Babb & Mack that same year,” she recalls. “It was sooner than I had anticipated, but I said, this is the time. I’m going to do it.”
The timing, though, didn’t look particularly optimal in the spring of 2020.
“Everybody was confused, not knowing what to expect. They didn’t know what was going to happen with their jobs, and so understandably, a lot was put on hold,” Andrea explains. “We kept staying busy when we could with the projects we had.”
A year later, Dana is happy to report:
“We’re scheduling into the summer right now.”
She attributes the change in Babb & Mack Design’s level of business to behavioral changes necessitated by COVID-19.
“People are spending all day, all night in their homes, but they’re also not spending money on traveling, on clothing, on restaurants,” she says. “And so they have both a value-added perspective to investing in their homes, and for those who weren’t financially impacted to a great extent, they have the capital that they would have otherwise been spending elsewhere.”
Of course, she and Andrea also have made pandemic-related changes to accommodate clients.
“We made a really interesting pivot,” Dana says. “You want to be on site and in the home and face-to-face with the client. We’ve really kept those going. We now go into homes very safely, utilizing social distancing and masking.”
Then there’s the virtual meeting option, which the designers have found to be effective from an additional technological standpoint.
“We can share our screen. We can begin to look at a floor plan, for example, with a client and make live changes to that floor plan as we’re sharing a screen. It’s been a really successful, valuable tool that we may not otherwise have been aware of,” Dana explains.
The aunt-and-niece business partners have different educational and professional backgrounds, with Dana teaching school for 11 years and Andrea earning her degree in interior architecture from Ohio University.
“We’ve each done kind of side projects, interior design projects, while having full-time jobs. I had a large one come up that I didn’t feel comfortable working on by myself, so I asked Dana,” Andrea recalls. “Similarly, she had a large one and asked me to team. People learned we were doing this, and we started getting jobs here and there.”
And so eventually, they decided to make it official with their own business.
“The two of us have very complementary skill sets. Andrea has a lot of the technical skills,” Dana says about her work with computer-aided drafting and design. “She won’t admit this, but she’s very artistic and very creative, and has great taste, too.”
Regarding Dana’s skills, she says one of her fortes is selecting finishes, helping to bring all the elements together to give the clients what they want. And from an interior design standpoint, that could be just about anything.
“We try to be very flexible,” Andrea says. “We can help you select one paint color for a room or one new piece of furniture. Or we can do a full-service buildout of an attic or a living room or a kitchen and bathroom. We really want our services to be accessible by everyone.”
A Peters Township native, Andrea now lives in Mt. Lebanon, where Dana grew up, and they both happen to reside on the same street.
“Because we don’t spend enough time together between work and family, now we’re neighbors, too,” Andrea jokes.
As far as being related, the two often have fun asking people to guess who’s the aunt and who’s the niece.
Spoiler alert!
“So Andrea is younger than me,” Dana reveals, “but she’s my aunt.”
And yes, Andrea confirms:
“That’s right. I’m the aunt.”
For more information, visit www.babbandmackdesign.com.