The Scoop: Ashley Haynes, Business Owner

There are few humans that continuously impress me with their humble drive and ambition; Ashley Haynes happens to be one of them. Starting any new business is grueling, uncertain work, and doing it while designing the space yourself is overwhelming. As designers we are a piece of a much larger puzzle in the development of a new space. So when someone — without design or construction background — takes on project management, vendor coordination, design direction, permitting, and sourcing funding all at once, we are impressed.

And that’s Ashley in a nut-shell: a go-getter who dreamed up and created Learning Leaf, an imaginative space for kids to learn and grow, all admits the uncertainty of a pandemic. We sat down with Ashley to learn how she tackled uncharted territory in the hopes of giving other new business owners with ‘do it yourself mentalities’ some lessons learned and guidance.

Let’s dive in…

Q: How did you get involved in child care?

A: My grandparents and parents have child care centers. I grew up helping out and spending time in each of them.

Q: What inspired you to start your own childcare business?

A: I was working as an analyst at a diamond company in NYC while finishing a software engineering program with Oxford, and felt burned out. A customer of the diamond company came in one day and I started chatting with her. She told me she owned child care centers in Canada and seemed so relaxed and happy; her revelation made me realize how much I missed home and being around a more loving environment with children. I left NYC about two months later and came back to DC to learn the business operations side of child care from my mom.

Q: Share your vision for Learning Leaf, what makes it special?

A: I spent a few years evolving my vision for LL. I knew I wanted it to be more imaginative than most of the other centers I’ve seen. Child care centers usually incorporate a lot of generic classroom styles with lots of primary colors and plastic toys, all of which I hate. Children are more intellectually sophisticated, than many adults realize, and I wanted the classrooms and the environment to reflect that. I also came across the Reggio Emilia curriculum in my research and the classroom appearance plays a major role in shaping their approach to teaching: no plastic toys, lots of natural woods, and colors that imbue a sense of warmth and home to the child. I decided that while I loved the naturalistic, back-to-basics approach of the Reggio Emilia aesthetic, I wanted to add a little more excitement without taking away from the emphasis on home and nature.

Q: How did you turn your vision into the actual interior design?

A: I came across a company called Imagination Dental Studios about five years ago and was marveled by their three dimensional, scenic, nature-scaped design concepts; basically, they create unique spaces for pediatric dental offices that look like mini forests or oceans for children so that they aren’t afraid to go to the dentist. I thought to myself, why the hell don’t child care centers do the same? When I called for a quote I had to laugh because it was more than most houses. The same was true for child care furniture companies.

I didn’t realize how insanely expensive it is to outfit an entire child care center. My budget was too small for what they were asking and I realized I needed to improvise and started looking for more affordable options. I’ve always been obsessed with De Gournay wallpaper and took inspiration from their “Magical Menagerie” wallpaper. I decided to try to mimic it with a 3-D scene for a classroom (with a similar but cheaper wallpaper mural). I then decided I wanted each classroom to have a different theme that incorporated leaves and nature, so that as the LL children got older, they would venture into a classroom with a new theme and be excited about their age transition.

Q: Where did you source inspiration?

Q: With no prior design experience, how did you jump in and navigate all the unknowns?

A: I didn’t have any primary experience with anything other than working in the office of my mom’s center for a few years. I was a complete novice to the buildout/renovation world and the LL space required an entire gut renovation (it used to be an Insurance Agency). I found a local architecture firm, iStudio Architects and construction company, Broughton Construction, and worked very closely with them for about a year to bring the vision to life. I came to weekly meetings with story-boards and design concepts ready to go (because they had been living in my head for a few years already). Nothing is ever as you expect it to be; but, Broughton Construction was such an unbelievably incredible company. They held my hand throughout the entire process; but, also never made a move without checking that everything was exactly the way I wanted it. I also watched a lot of Youtube videos that explained a lot of construction and engineering terms and processes so that I would know what everyone was talking about.

Q: If you knew what you know now, what would you have done differently?

A: Oh man, everything. Of course I wish I knew Covid-19 was on the way. Kristen, you know the drama Covid caused with delayed and missing shipments. Nightmare! Thank you for helping me! I lucked out with the construction company being incredible; however, I wish I knew how expensive buildout was going to be.

I initially underestimated the construction budget by half and had to spend time coming up with more funding.
Square footage on paper versus real life are two very different things. I overestimated how large the classrooms were going to be.
Commercial plumbing, HVAC, and electrical work is meticulous and requires a lot of planning and engineering. I had no idea what they did was so hard. I want to give a proper shoutout to the subcontractors. No one should ever dismiss the value of the work those guys put in.

Q: Any tips for other business owners looking to design their own spaces?

Come up with your own extremely clear vision and budget. Draw it/ and or make vision boards.
Be extremely organized about what you find. Make spreadsheets. Do not not veer away from the budget. If you find something and it’s too expensive, there are likely more affordable alternatives somewhere out there on the internet.
Take inspiration from others, but make sure to make it your own. Know that it will never come out exactly as you envision but aim to come close.
Work with Kristen Ford to help you execute it, duh.

Q: Any Advice for parents looking to create a magical room / space for their kids?

A: Ask your child what they love! Don’t be boring and do try to avoid cartoonish decals and design. Remember that children are sophisticated, therefore, try to create an imaginative space that reflects their creative interests and their intelligence. Create special areas in their rooms: a cozy reading nook, an area just for imaginative play, an area for art and design, etc.

Q: Why does design matter in a childcare center? Is it all about this kids or the parents too?

A: Both! Of course it’s mostly about the children; however, the parents matter too. Child care spaces are for families. I created areas for adults that feel like a mini reprieve from the classrooms i.e., the teacher/nursing lounge, director’s office, reception area, and coffee bar where parents can gather and chat. The classrooms needed to feel like magical safe havens for the children; but, the adults need a little of that, too. Classroom design is important because it’s where children spend the majority of their days and the classroom serves as a second teacher.

Q: What’s your favorite part of the space?

A: It changes every day! Some days it’s the Jungle Room, other days it’s the Ocean Room, right now it’s the Dinosaur room that my friend Erika dubbed “The Land Before Time”, so I think I’ll stick with calling it “The Land Before Time” room. That one is my favorite right now.

Interested in seeing the real life translation of Ashley’s vision? Check out images of Learning Leaf below. And now I will leave you to fall deep for this daycare as I continue my attempt to get Ashley to open a Los Angeles Branch.

Learning Leaf Daycare — Photo Credits: iStudio Architects