Meet Ali Hyde: Interior Designer

While the window display at 18 W. Burlington Ave. is Hyde's first for the village, she carries a professional resumé that suggests she is not only up to the project, but likely overqualified.

A Kentucky native, Hyde earned her B.A. in interior design at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, finishing her studies with a stint at King's College in London.

After working several years in Nashville and Chicago for the contract furniture division of Herman Miller, Hyde set aside her career to become a stay-at-home mom in La Grange, where she has lived since 2003.

Hyde began her own design business in 2008 when, at the invitation of friends, she participated in the renovation of a home on Waiola Avenue, owned by Marty and Marcy Dunne. The home was included in that year's Pillars House Tour, and will be one of three homes to host a  this June.

In 2009, Hyde helped renovate a second home for that year's house tour.

Both of the tour homes were extensively featured in a book titled, Frank Fontana's Dirty Little Secrets of Design, published last November. Fontana is the host of one of HGTV's longest-running home-makeover shows, and Pillars is his adopted charity.

"Over half the book is my stuff, but my name is not in it anywhere," Hyde lamented. "He forgot to mention me."

However, Hyde did appear with Fontana at his book-signing at  in La Grange and an event at the Merchandise Mart, and will join him again at this summer's Pillars parties.

Read our article on the plan to make use of more vacant storefront windows in La Grange .