Archives for October 2019

October 24, 2019

The Premiere Night Celebration!

In April of 2016, I received an email in my personal account from a programming executive with HGTV. Assuming the email was spam, I deleted it and moved on until a friend who had passed along our information to the network confirmed that it was, in fact, a real person emailing me. In responding to Carrie’s email that day, I had no idea the WILD trajectory our life would be taking.

Over the course of the past three and a half years, we have developed and then filmed eleven episodes of what is now “Fixer to Fabulous.” We have poured SO much of our hearts and our time and our energy into this show and could not be more proud of the work it has taken to create these 42 minutes of television for the next nine weeks.

Dave and I prayed long and hard about this opportunity every step of the way. We have not taken any of this lightly. We never, ever saw any of this coming and certainly did not seek out a television show for ourselves or our family. We have been diligently praying for discernment and trust that God will use all of this for His glory. We are grateful for the opportunity to, once again, follow Him on a wild, unexpected, unchartered adventure.

Two nights ago, we gathered with our friends, family, and our “Fixer to Fabulous” team at our little town’s swanky movie theater to watch our premiere episode together on the BIG SCREEN (really and truly — what is my life?!?!). It was a surreal, magical, blur of a night — a big, beautiful celebration of the culmination of years of hard work.

I promise to share photos and behind the scenes and sources from the home in the first episode soon. And, I will TRY my absolute hardest to respond to each of your comments on social media (I am reading every one! I just have a hard time responding). I’m OVERWHELMED by you guys. Your kind words of encouragement have been the sweetest and Dave and I just keep looking at one another and shaking our heads in awe.

THANK YOU to every one of you who watched, shared, recorded, and cheered us on. We are abundantly grateful and just want to point all of the glory and credit back to the Lord who opened the doors and gave us the abilities to do this work.

We hope you keep watching! Each of these homes and families is so fun and unique and, I can assure you, there will be many, many laughs each week!!

(I have SO many photos from the premiere party so, in order to not make this post twenty-five pages long, I’ll share an album on my facebook page. A BIG thank you to Samantha Daniels for being the photographer for the night!)

A great big, gigantic THANK YOU to everyone who made this amazing night happen: RIVR Media, Visit Bentonville, Mayor Stephanie Orman, Skylight Cinemas, Grand Savings Bank, Macon & Carson Distillery, Samantha Daniels, Alpha Lit NWA, A Spoonful Dessert Truck, Corrie Rusch, Kelsey Sigars, Roma d’Olivo, and Branches Mission Lab.

October 16, 2019

the berry cottage.

Over the past several years, Dave and I have had the amazing opportunity to physically move and restore a handful of homes that were otherwise slated for demolition. Our family’s farmhouse was our first experience moving an entire house about six years ago and we are still immensely grateful to live in this unique home with such a special story.

When we were asked last year if we could move another home in our town’s historic downtown area in order to prevent it from being torn down, we were absolutely up for the challenge. From the first time I visited the quaint cottage-style house, I could tell that it had been lovingly cared for for many years and it just felt like joy had been repeatedly seeped into the walls.

We met with the homeowners several times leading up to the move and all agreed to move the house to our berry farm outside of town. We weren’t sure how we would use the house but we knew we could eventually use it as a bridal space when we host a wedding at the farm or potentially as an AirBnB.

The day of the move was exciting and fairly uneventful until we had to tear down a neighbor’s fence in order to fit through the pasture. Small detail. It wouldn’t be memorable if there wasn’t a little creative problem-solving necessary. Am I right?! (Don’t worry, Dave rebuilt the fence).

We took our time restoring this sweet little house and had to be extremely budget conscious as this was going to be an investment property and we wanted it be beautiful but we didn’t have the luxury of pouring a lot of money into the project.

On the exterior, we extended the roofline in order to create a welcoming front porch. We also added a brick skirt (using local antique brick) and added french doors on the south side of the house. We also swapped out the front door with a vintage door that we had dipped and restored to its original hardwood finish. To complete the cottage look, Dave built the gorgeous cedar shutters and dreamy front porch swing. It was a cute house before but I think it’s now absolutely adorable!

The heart of the home – the kitchen – was small and dark and I knew we needed to open up the space in order to bring in natural light and allow for more people to gather in this important space. We were able to knock down a couple of walls, hide the header in the attic and expand the footprint of the kitchen to completely transform the space.

I LOVE how this kitchen turned out. The layout is incredibly simple and achieved everything I hoped for. I wanted the sink below the new wall of windows, overlooking the picturesque blueberry fields. And, I absolutely wanted the space to be light and bright, with warm wood tones throughout.

I knew we needed an island that felt like an old piece of furniture while maintaining the open and airy feel of the space. Dave built this beauty for me and did his presto-magic work to incorporate the cooktop INTO the island by hiding the gas and electric lines in one of the island’s hollow legs. This allowed us to keep an open island and not have a bulky range taking up a significant amount of space in this small kitchen.

We kept the black honed granite from our farmhouse kitchen when we remodeled and were able to repurpose it here in this space. This helped us stay on budget and also added to the cottage feel.

We added a small laundry room off the kitchen and went with a unique vintage door to create warmth and visual interest, especially since it’s right next to the pantry door.

I found the vintage green pendants at a flea market a few years ago and have held onto them until I found the perfect project – I was so excited to finally put them to use!

Of course, the adorable SMEG fridge completes the kitchen. It is, by far, the cutest refrigerator ever.

I’ll eventually share more of this project but I hope you enjoyed this tour of the cottage kitchen!

Source Guide

Pendant Lights | Vintage

Cabinetry | Morgan Millworks – Link

Kitchen Island // Custom by Dave Marrs

Refrigerator | Smeg – Link

Sconces | Kichler – Link

Cabinet Hardware | Top Knobs – Link & Link

Vintage art, crocks and dough bowls | Homestead Hardware – Link

October 7, 2019

My fall kitchen.

It’s October!! I don’t know about where you live, but here in NW Arkansas we are finally seeing the first glorious glimpses of vibrant color seeping into the leaves outside. It has felt like we live on the surface of the sun around here lately, so when a storm rolled in and the weather dipped, I decided it was absolutely time to throw open the windows and pull the sweaters out of storage and buy ALL.THE.PUMPKINS (not really…they cost a small fortune…so, a few strategically placed pumpkins, it is!).

I vote tacos and guac for Thanksgiving dinner this year! Who’s with me?

Since I made the official switch from light and bright to warm and moody for my fall kitchen, I thought I’d share a few images and tips with y’all as you start to incorporate autumn into your home.

My top tips for styling your home for fall:

Doesn’t everyone casually hang out on their kitchen table while laughing at something no one can see? Just me??
Also, I accidentally wore a sweater that matches the pumpkins on my table.

1. Choose a color palette.

For fall, I wanted a moody look that incorporated the natural colors of the season: varying shades of green, copper, peach, cream and natural wood tones. I removed my all-white dishes and clear glasses and replaced them with vintage green glassware and natural clay mugs. I incorporated a copper tray and plants in order to keep the palette consistent.

2. Bring the outside in.

I really love that nature provides so much beauty in this season. I don’t have any “fall decor” stored away in the attic, I prefer to utilize real things — pumpkins, pampas grass, greenery from a plant, etc. I always try to bring nature inside wherever I can and fall is the perfect season for this because everywhere I turn there is so much beauty!

3. Play with scale.

Open shelves can be tricky. I love the way they make the room feel more open and less stuffy…but they can be hard to style. I like to incorporate items of varying heights to ensure everything looks balanced and there is breathing room on the shelves. Don’t be afraid to use books to create height, stack various sized framed photos or botanicals, display cutting boards of different heights or incorporate trays for scale (to fill in a little white space while not making the shelf feel cluttered).

The pampas grass in the corner adds height and dimension from this angle.

4. Shop your home.

My friend, The Nester, has an awesome mantra about shopping your own home before you go out and purchase anything new. I absolutely agree with this concept! I snagged the plants off my entry table and grabbed books and vases from other spots around the house and moved them into the kitchen. This helped to create an entirely different look in this room without buying a thing (and caused me to get creative with what I used in the previous spots).

A small detail like taking out an amber candle and switching out my soap dispenser (both things I already had in the house) can make a big impact.

Lastly, can we all agree to never dress our babies in collared shirts regardless of the fact that the outfit matches the fall color palatte??! Because he looks entirely too grown up here and I cannot handle it. Onesies + footed pj’s forever, thank you very much!

Happy Fall, friends. Set out the pumpkins, style the shelves, and then leave it for the next two months and enjoy this gorgeous weather!

Photos by: Samantha Daniels