Mom turns DIY project into flourishing business with location in Munster
Meg Piercy says MegMade was a “happy accident” during a difficult time of her life.
Her furniture company started off as a do-it-yourself project about 12 years ago.
To save money before the arrival of her first son, she turned a dresser into a changing table. Piercy and her husband sold that first dresser on Craigslist in less than a day.
“I realized I found it therapeutic, and Joe and I started painting dressers in our living room every night after our son went to bed,” Piercy said of her husband.
Eventually, customers were picking up dressers daily, so they opened a storefront in Chicago.
They chose MegMade for the name because Joe Piercy kept saying to customers “Meg made that, Meg made this.” A customer noticed and said “you say ‘Meg made’ a lot. Why don’t you just name this all MegMade?”
A week later they signed a lease on an 800-square-feet warehouse in Chicago.
The two met on a blind date in 2008 and were engaged six weeks later.
“It’s amazing being able to work so seamlessly with your spouse, and we’re grateful to be able to work on this dream as a team,” she said.
After the pandemic hit, the couple wanted a change, so they moved from Chicago to Northwest Indiana. They now have three sons, ages 11, 8 and 4.
Opening a store close to home just made sense; so, in March, they did just that in Munster.
“When the opportunity came about, we thought it was the perfect location to open up a second showroom,” she said. “There are limited furniture options around, and we wanted to make a lasting impact on NWI.”
It helps that the Munster location is 5 minutes from their home in Schererville.
“We have the freedom of being our own bosses, setting our own schedules and being with the kids so much, it would be hard to go back,” Piercy said.
The couple also successfully launched their show “Renovation Goldmine” on HGTV, which aired in April 2022.
They renovated 16 houses in nine months — a whirlwind, Piercy said. In the show, the couple brings new life to treasures already in their clients’ homes. Their motto is “find the gold.”
That motto goes back all the way to that first repurposed dresser they found in an alley.
“To say the rest was history is an understatement because that moment lit a fire inside us that is still burning strong,” Piercy said.
She said the show took about four years to develop. All eight episodes are now on Discovery+.
Piercy’s parents moved from Kansas City where Meg was raised to help with the kids during filming. Now they live a few blocks away.
“We love what we do, and being able to have family that is so on board makes it that much more exciting when you get to celebrate milestones of the business with them,” she said.
One of the bigger milestones came when MegMade officially celebrated the Munster store’s grand opening at 9610 N. Centennial Drive.
“I think we opened during a tricky time,” she said referring to a snowstorm that welcomed them to town.
But Piercy said she isn’t afraid to fail — a trait that comes in handy.
“We call ourselves high-end hustlers,” Piercy said. “We secretly love the challenge.”
Nicole Tirapelli, of Nantucket, Massachusetts, has been working with Piercy for three years. They are working on their second project together.
“We are very creative, and bouncing design ideas back and forth always creates the perfect room,” Tirapelli said of her relationship with Piercy.
Piercy is also always thinking about what comes next. She and Joe plan to build the MegMade brand nationally. And there’s always the possibility of appearing on television again. But Piercy’s relationship with her husband is the glue that keeps them moving forward.
“It’s really special that my husband and I both handle the stress well,” she said. “It makes us stronger. He’s always the one who’s trusted what we were doing was meant to be.”
Read more stories from the current issue of Northwest Indiana Business Magazine.
