Liston Design Build 

Growing up in St. Charles, Mo., Andrea Liston-Jones had a nightly indoctrination into the world of interior design. “Being in a small family business, I always enjoyed the shop talk at the dinner table,” she recalls. “I would salivate over the projects my parents were working on, the homes and spaces they were designing and the fun trade magazines that would come to our house.”

Still, deciding to become a third-generation employee of Liston Design Build, which her grandfather founded in 1984, was a gradual process. “I knew I wanted to do some type of career that included creativity, a way to express myself, interact with people, and freedom —which is really what drew me to interior design,” she says about her decision to pursue a degree in Architectural Studies and Interior Design. After thinking about how to put her own spin on it, she decided the family business was where she wanted to be.

“We did an orange gas range — how cool is that? I had a client who wanted an orange range!”

Andrea, who joined the company in 2016 and is now Director of Design, acknowledges that the transition from second-generation to third-generation is often the hardest. “But in my shoes, that only drives my hunger to see our business succeed,” she says. “As a family business, we get to work and grow together, which builds our trust in each other and our bond.”

 Building trust with clients is also key, she says, because they “let you design without restrictions” — as evidenced by a recent kitchen project with a repeat client. “I truly felt like I got to express my personality through their space, which was a lot of fun. We did an orange gas range — how cool is that? I had a client who wanted an orange range!”

As for her own design preferences, Andrea says it’s Organic Modern: “I love clean lines, earthy vibes, wood tones mixed with marbles, neutral tones, with subtle earthy pops of color.”  She describes herself as “tenacious,” is married to her high-school sweetheart, has a Goldendoodle named Stanley, enjoys watching live music and sports — “and I eat, sleep, breathe remodeling and design.”