My early life & history
Nancy Hartman, founder of Nancy Designs, grew up in Paris, France and came to South Africa during high school. Nancy attended Rhodes University and later became a French and English teacher.
But, she clearly couldn’t settle down. Nancy tried marketing in an advertising agency amongst a few other things, but was always decorating her own home, buying homes, renovating them and then selling them.
Ultimately in 2012, a friend asked Nancy to do some décor in her home and encouraged her to go further by setting up a business. Nancy worked consistently from then onwards, purely getting work through word of mouth and has enjoyed working on some super projects with great clients!
Nancy, primarily works with the contractor, Sephus Le Roux, who owns Symbol Projects. Sephus is a man with integrity and a builder with a great eye for design, which makes their partnership work to their client’s benefit.
Nancy prefers doing residential projects, however she has done office projects too. She is passionate about lodge design and would love to expand her portfolio in that area.
My style
Nancy’s style is classical to a point, as those are great foundations to work from. Mixing old furniture or antiques with modern pieces is her passion as there is history with a promise of the exciting future ahead.
Pair this with clever design and honest materials such as linen, leather, stone and wood for example and you will always have an exciting room.
“My primary influences are light, French design, African influences and classic clean lines.”
A room does need the client’s personality and Nancy likes to include that, using the client’s décor items and art that they collected over time. When collecting their brief, she tries to get to know them as closely as possible, asking the most pertinent of questions.
What do I do?
I do renovations, design of gardens and houses, have the plans drawn and submitted to council, and project manage with the builder. I specify, source and supply every house fitting, décor item and furniture. I have the curtains made, carpets fitted, wallpaper hung. I organise for security, wifi, TV installations etc. I have even moved clients into their home right down to buying their cutlery and dishes whilst they are away! They came back and literally hung up their clothes.
