Heart & Hammer Homes
Maine Chapter

To say Hannah Guilford is “a natural” when it comes to kitchen and bath design isn’t an exaggeration. Cody, her husband and partner in Fryeburg, Maine-based Heart & Hammer Homes, calls her a “force of nature” (she prefers “determined”), as she runs the show, having completed almost 80 kitchen and bath remodels in just three years. Her strategy? Having a passion that matches her client’s. “To design for a client is not much different than polishing stone to create a counter, for the roots of the design are already planted,” she says. “I just need to urge them which direction to grow.”

“To design for a client is not much different than polishing stone to create a counter, for the roots of the design are already planted. I just need to urge them which direction to grow.”

What began as a general contracting business “with just one of me to manage a dozen projects,” expanded in 2021 into a Heart & Hammer Homes kitchen and bath showroom, employing additional designers. As for her own preferred aesthetic, Hannah says she is constantly inspired by “the nature of stone polished into a surface, clay molded into brick, wood cut and planed into trim and cabinetry.” She aspires to blend them along with both modern and historic elements. “I sometimes get lost down the rabbit hole of ideas and need to get pulled back for fresh air,” she says. A recent favorite is a basement, kitchen and bath remodel because it was a reveal of four large and well-thought-out spaces. “I designed a secret “Harry Potter Cupboard” under the stairs for the kids and it was a huge hit!”

Asked how she and Cody achieve a work-life balance, she quips, “We don’t…Just kidding, kinda!” before admitting they do manage to take off Sundays and a half day on Saturdays. Hannah, who grew up on a farm, was an avid crafter as a child — “I had sheep and rabbits and would make my own yarn, or felted soaps, and you could often find me at a craft fair with my items for sale” — and these days still enjoys making soy candles when she’s not spending time with her two dogs and two cats. But what intrigues her most is flipping houses: “I have a passion for purchasing old beat-up houses that need some love and making them beautiful again.”