Original article published on Tap into Coral Springs on December 12, 2023 by Leon Fooksman.
CORAL SPRINGS, FL – It was at a dental chair that Susan Connor’s life trajectory changed from a local dental hygienist to a jet-setting designer of multi-million dollar homes across the country.
The transformation happened over three decades, but it started with a simple conversation with a patient from Coral Springs she was treating.
Her patient was an interior designer, and by the time the visit ended, Connor was dazzled by the idea of creating model homes with beautiful colors, furniture, flooring, window coverings, and lighting that a typical family could enjoy.
Within weeks, the mother of two formed a new firm, P&H Interiors Inc., with her former patient, and was ready for a new career.
“That’s how it happened,” Connor said last week in her opulent office in Coral Springs.
Connor, who has a natural ability to see things others don’t, built her company (she went to become the sole owner in 2006) by first designing models in homes in Coral Springs and then progressing to a higher level of design of custom-homes, club houses, and country clubs across the country, she said.
P&H Interiors’ meteoric rise took place as the company was based in Coral Springs with Connor building a team of 30 employees who live locally and give back to local causes.
One of those philanthropic projects was deeply personal to Connor.
In 2021, an accident took the life of her son Kevin, an organic farm owner in Luray, Va.
Wanting to honor him led Connor to support efforts to expand a community garden in Coral Springs.
A client of P&H Interiors, Levitetz Family Foundation, donated $112,000 to build a pavilion at the garden next to Dr. Steven G. Paul Dog Park at 2915 Sportsplex Drive.
A respite from the sun and a place for educational programs, the pavilion opened a few months ago with a plaque remembering Kevin hanging on the wall.
“I could feel my son’s presence there,” she said.
Former Coral Springs Mayor Roy Gold, who is involved with the garden, got to know Connor during that time.
Using her design skills, she helped plan the project.
“She’s got a humble spirit with an exceptional heart,” he said.
Growing Up Around Construction
A native of Albany, NY, Connor grew up in an Italian family with eight children, in which her parents raised her to be a housewife, she said.
She remembers her family building a major apartment complex that required Connor and her relatives to work on site for years.
“It was great exposure to the construction process which has benefited me throughout my career,” she said.
She met and later married her high school sweetheart, Kevin, and they moved to Pompano Beach when she was 20.
There, she became a dental hygienist while she and Kevin renovated and built custom homes.
“This again enhanced my knowledge of the construction process and that’s when I realized I have a gift from God – a natural design talent,” she said.
After leaving dentistry and starting P&H Interiors in Coral Springs, Connor stayed in the city, for good reason.
Her first clients were builders in the late 1980s, constructing new neighborhoods across Coral Springs. Her focus was to design model homes.
Hundreds of those homeowners went on to hire Connor to design their homes.
From there, she got jobs designing larger homes in Parkland, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale and elsewhere.
“We quickly built a reputation for our work,” she said.
Building the “Magic”
As the projects continued to get larger and P&H won awards and made the covers of glossy magazines, Connor said she maintained the same goal: always exceed expectations with what she calls “a powerful force of creativity, productivity and vision.”
Through it all, Connor kept her base in Coral Springs, eventually buying a two-story building at 475 Ramblewood Drive across from Ramblewood Middle School.
That’s where “the magic happens,” she said of her staff.
To keep her team producing and working collaboratively, yoga instructors, fitness coaches, and other wellness specialists visit the office regularly to encourage a “life-balance” for the staff, Connor said.
Gold, the former Coral Springs mayor, described Connor’s rise from her humble roots in Coral Springs to mixing with some of the nation’s wealthiest people as reaching the “American dream.”
“She’s created a team of excellence,” he said.
Connor said she has no plans for slowing down any time soon.
She wants her firm to keep growing while giving back even more to the Coral Springs community.
“I’m grateful to our team and to this community for supporting us on this great journey,” she said.