our team
monika
“Let’s collect some random things from the garage and turn them into functional furniture that’s also pretty!” is the attitude Monika brings to the (handcrafted) table. This sometimes leads to spectacular fails (do NOT bring up the dining room cabinet fiasco, she is still processing) but occasionally yields great success (like her sons’ bunk room that looks kinda like a boat, but in a really cool way, I swear!).
Monika can paint walls of all shapes, restore & refinish wood, traverse a flea market with the speed of a cheetah, overthink throw pillows, and patch any holes in the drywall that she accidentally made with a heavy shelf. She enjoys marzipan, using a miter saw, and changing the design in the middle of a project (but always for the better!).
Monika is interested in natural building techniques and the process of designing energy-efficient sustainable structures. She has participated in multiple hands-on workshops on cob, strawbale, cordwood, stone masonry, and timberframing. She is now transitioning to hosting and teaching and is excited to inspire others to get involved in the natural building movement.
kris
“Sounds weird. I’ll try it!” is Kris’s life motto, which (usually) leads her on interesting and exciting adventures, such as her most recent foray into home ownership and renovation with two of her best friends.
Kris fell into the marketing field totally accidentally while in college and, after nearly twenty years, has decided that maybe business isn’t so bad after all. Today, she is a marketing executive at Kimberly-Clark during the week, and Crane’s Landing’s head of marketing and business strategy on the weekends. (She also enjoys poring over design inspiration for hours with Monika!)
When she’s not knocking down walls in Three Rivers or slinging toilet paper at her day job, Kris is an illustrator, yogi and vintage-find collector in Chicago. She can’t wait to have a little slice of solace to share with the world.
nick
Nick can write an awesome website bio because he is a professional writer who also dabbles in dad jokes. But he’s currently making Very Important Phone Calls and daydreaming about benches, so Monika is writing this temporary filler paragraph for him. Because, formatting.