Today we’d like to introduce you to Heike Burleigh.
Hi Heike, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Some of my earliest memories are of being about seven years old and following my father around his workshop in the basement of our home in Germany. He was a master carpenter, and I was his little shadow. Depending on the project, you’d find me holding a paintbrush, trying my hand with a saw, or standing beside him with the big wallpaper brush. I didn’t know it then, but those hours with my dad planted the seeds for what would eventually become Serendipity Designs.
When I immigrated to the United States in 1992, I quickly discovered how much my surroundings affected the way I felt in a space. My first home seemed to be covered in darkness — dark paneling, hunter-green kitchen cabinets and chocolate-brown carpet. Coming from Germany, I craved light and color, so I started changing things.
Years later, during a difficult divorce, painting became something entirely different for me. I volunteered to paint room after room at my church, including its daycare and grade school, often using $3-a-gallon “oops” paint I found at the Goodwill store. It was inexpensive, it was creative, and without realizing it at first, it became therapy.
From there, creating beautiful spaces simply became part of my life. I decorated and redecorated every rental I lived in. Friends began asking, “Can you do this at my house?” One project led to another — walls, murals, decorative and faux finishes, decorating — and eventually I fell in love with furniture painting long before painted furniture became the trend it later did.
That passion eventually grew into an interior renovation business with a partner. We handled virtually everything inside a home; the two things I personally drew the line at were electrical and plumbing. When that partnership ended, my business evolved again, and I began concentrating almost exclusively on kitchen cabinetry.
Cabinet refinishing became my specialty and remains a major part of Serendipity Designs today. But after years of specializing, I realized something was missing. The artist in me had been bottled up for too long.
So I’ve begun bringing her back.
Today, Serendipity Designs is evolving once again — combining the craftsmanship I learned at my father’s side, decades of hands-on experience, my eye for color and design, and the decorative artistry that started this journey in the first place. Whether I’m transforming cabinetry, creating a specialty finish, restoring a piece with history, or helping a client see possibilities they hadn’t considered, I’m ultimately doing the same thing I’ve been doing since I was a little girl in Germany:
Taking what is already there and seeing what it could become.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road — although some of the hardest parts of the journey have probably taught me the most.
I’ve had to start over more than once, both personally and professionally. After my first divorce, when my children were still young, I started a housecleaning business that allowed me to drop them off at Head Start or school, clean houses during the day, and pick them up afterward. At the same time, I was regularly traveling between Alabama and Atlanta working with Catholic Social Services to navigate my immigration status. Even with donated legal assistance, remaining legally in the country cost thousands of dollars I didn’t really have. I learned very early that sometimes you simply do whatever needs to be done and keep moving forward.
Years later, the end of a business partnership left me starting over again. We had just signed a large kitchen renovation, but the advance was gone. I had no vehicle, virtually no tools of my own and a client who was expecting her kitchen to be completed.
I swallowed my pride and told her the truth. I asked whether she would trust me to complete the project on my own and allow me an additional advance so I could purchase the essential tools I needed. Friends drove me 45 minutes each way to the job and picked me up again at the end of the day.
I finished her kitchen.
That experience changed the direction of my business. As I moved more deeply into cabinet refinishing, I became determined to understand not just how to make cabinetry look beautiful, but the technical reasons behind every step. I invested in professional education, joined a specialized cabinet-refinishing training group, tested countless coatings, products and processes, and eventually developed the system I use today. In a wonderful full-circle moment, I later became a moderator in that same professional group, helping other refinishers learn the craft.
Interestingly, COVID wasn’t a setback for Serendipity Designs. It was the period when I moved into cabinet refinishing full time. People were suddenly spending much more time at home, travel had stopped, and homeowners began investing that money into the spaces around them. My business grew tremendously. At times I was booked six months in advance with a waiting list.
Cabinetry became my bread and butter, and for a long time it needed to be. When you’re responsible for supporting yourself, practicality sometimes has to take priority over creativity.
Today, one of my challenges is almost the opposite of where I started: learning to make room again for the artist while maintaining the successful business I worked so hard to build.
I’ve also learned to respect my own limitations. The physical side of this work isn’t the same for me today as it was years ago, so I schedule projects accordingly. Something may take me a little longer, but I would rather give myself the time to do it correctly, finish with work I’m proud to put my name on, and still have enough left in me for the next project.
If there’s a common thread through all of those challenges, it’s probably this: I’ve learned that starting over doesn’t mean starting from nothing. You carry everything you’ve learned with you.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a decorative artisan and design consultant specializing in transforming existing spaces and furnishings through color, finish and thoughtful design.
Through Serendipity Designs, my work has evolved over the years from furniture painting, murals and decorative finishes to interior renovations and, eventually, specialized cabinet refinishing. Cabinetry became the bread and butter of my business, but I’ve never considered myself simply a cabinet painter.
What I really love is transformation — looking at something that already exists and seeing what it could become. That might mean refinishing a kitchen, restoring an old piece of furniture, creating a custom decorative finish, helping a client choose the right colors, or finding a creative solution that makes an entire room feel different.
These days, I’m intentionally bringing more of that creative work back into Serendipity Designs. I still love cabinetry, but I’m giving the artist in me a little more room to play again.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I love the moment when a client finally sees what I’ve been seeing in my head all along. Taking something dated, worn or simply no longer loved and giving it new life never gets old.
I love color, texture, beautiful finishes, old furniture with a story, solving design problems and figuring out how to make something work instead of automatically replacing it. I’m happiest when a project gives me room to be creative and still requires me to get my hands dirty.
I also genuinely enjoy the technical side of my craft. I’m always experimenting with products, coatings, tools and techniques and asking, “How can I make this better?” I’m probably never going to stop learning.
What don’t I like? Cutting corners. “Good enough” when I know it could be better. And trends simply for the sake of following trends. I’d much rather create something that feels right for the person and the home than something that looks exactly like everyone else’s.
And sanding. I’m allowed to say sanding, right? There is a LOT of sanding. 😂
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serendipitydesigns2013
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/serendipitydesigns2013
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/serendipitydesigns
