Tanya Smith-Shiflett, CKBD, of Unique Kitchens and Baths in Halethorpe, MD has always had a passion for designing kitchens and bathrooms. Even as she was working in pharmaceutical sales, Smith-Shiflett was designing kitchens for her husband’s construction company part time. In 2017 she decided to retire from her full-time job, taking a leap at age 50 to open her own kitchen design studio. She describes that decision as the highlight of her professional life.
Since that time, she has partnered with designers such as Lauren Liess of the HGTV show “Best House on the Block” and Alison Giese, a Virginia-based designer. Smith-Shiflett recently completed a kitchen for another HGTV show, “Restored by the Fords,” at Leanne Ford’s California home.
Unique Kitchens and Baths has grown quickly in the past three years and is opening its second location in Great Falls, VA, and finalizing a Nashville, TN location in 2021.
The designer believes that a kitchen is what brings a family together and that it is truly the heart of the home. The fact that her husband is a builder and a cabinet maker helps her form a vision around the ideas of designers and clients and make those visions a reality, she states.
