IT’S BLOOD, SWEAT AND CHAIRS.

Sarah Vaile Design is based in Chicago with projects all across the country.

You may wonder what sets our firm apart from the rest?

Each member of our highly skilled 5-person staff offers over a decade of experience in their given specialty.

And yet Sarah always remains at the helm overseeing each and every project with passion and fortitude.

THE TEAM

SARAH VAILE * PRINCIPAL

Sarah Vaile Firm Principal

Sarah established the firm in 2008 (almost accidentally) at the outset of her masters program with Parson’s The New School and an internship under Celerie Kemble. Sarah found herself attracting clients faster than anticipated and ended up leaving Parsons several months early to “go pro”.

After several years of learning on the fly alongside the industry giants in New York City, Sarah brought her firm to Old Town in Chicago where the office has been based ever since.

Sarah attributes her fast rise among Chicago’s elite to her dear friend and design mentor Meg Holladay who introduced Sarah to the community while finding herself fully occupied filming her own design shows with HGTV.

But even then, success can be fleeting. An early partnership with Sarah’s sister Melissa has helped the firm steadily grow for nearly 16 years with an orderly yin to Sarah’s creative yang.

In 2017, Sarah and Melissa brought Lindsay Baker into the fold, who went on to prove herself to be the ultimate classic visionary partner to Sarah.

 

Melissa Dragues
Firm Partner
Lead Project Coordinator

Melissa is the balancing act to the creativity who oversees all that happens in the back of the house.

By managing ordering and implementation, Melissa ensures that all creative ideas are achieved on time and in budget.

Melissa Dragues
Lindsay Baker

LINDSAY BAKER
FIRM PARTNER
LEAD DESIGNER

Lindsay serves as the firm’s active visionary. Known within the firm as The Sourcerer, if Lindsay can’t find your dream furniture piece or fabric, it probably doesn’t exist.

With over five years at SVD and a decade of experience in the field at renowned design firms Allesandra Branca and Boston-based Heather Wells, Lindsay brings both an incredibly fine tuned design eye and an arsenal of design knowledge.

Andrea Markulis
Senior Design Manager

If she comes, you will build it.

Andrea heads up interior architecture and construction. She serves as the client’s design advocate conveying the firm’s visions to the build team through technical drawing and construction management.

With nearly a decade of experience on the build side, Andrea speaks the language that allow the firm’s vision to cross over seamlessly into execution.

Katie Hill

Katie Hill
Design Manager

Every design is only as good as its implementation.

Katie serves as the team’s linchpin who takes all great ideas and brings them to reality. With a sophisticated grasp of all technical details, Katie helps give life to the lofty ideas.

Katie has developed an impressive knowledge of all things design with nearly a decade of experience at esteemed firms such as Kara Mann.