Bethany Nelson is the woman behind Milkhaus Design, a line of home and fashion accessories she started two summers ago after taking a bunch of design classes and deciding that she should do what she loved: create beautiful, modern things.

Nelson is inspired by simple images, such as a crack in a sidewalk or a doodle she makes during a meeting, and she creates practical items that buck trends. She has made the perfect line of tea towels (doing everything from dying to sewing herself) and is going to be expanding her home line into storage buckets and pillows soon.

Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Nelson is often in Chicago for events and her line is carried at Neighborly in Ravenswood and Evelyn Jane in Downers Grove, as well as on her Etsy page.