We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Melanie Pruiett. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Melanie below.

Melanie , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I am a goal setter. I love to work on the process of attaining the goal I’ve set. I pour over details, working through scenarios knowing some may not even happen.

I worked for our local school system for 22 years. I loved my job but started to feel like I was needed a change. Once this happens to me, feeling like I need a change, my wheels start turning.

I have always loved home decor. For both inside and outside living spaces. I admire unique displays, vintage and handmade items. I love to take a space and create a useful yet unique living area.

My husband and I started going to auctions, looking for pieces for our late 1800’s home. This was around 2014/2015. There were always so many great pieces. Always more then we had room for. UGH! We would go to these auctions and it was so hard to leave some of these items behind. I knew there had to be a way for me to put them to good use.

Home decor is always changing – the vintage , farmhouse style was on the move and I love that look. I was at work one day and had a thought! What if we opened a vendor based business that sold these kinds of items? We knew how to source ourselves and we knew people that would vend with us. It was a win win. The idea is the easy part.

That night I approached my husband Steve with the idea. Remember I had the whole day to think about this so I was way ahead of him. I was excited , I delivered my idea and then he said ” I’ve got to think about it” ….. WHATTTTT! Im like whats to think about – its going to work and be successful. This is how my mind works. If I want it to happen I think it will happen. Steve was 2 years from retirement. I needed him to be completely on board with me since I would be leaving by career and asking him to forego retirement and work a few more years . I needed him.

After giving Steve time to process the idea and many discussions and more discussions we began to create a plan to open a business. Even though we have different approaches to life we work as a team. We need one another’s perspective and experience to make our life work, We are partners.

In 2016 we opened our first Vintage store with the second to follow 2019. It was not without hurdles and hiccups. We took 2 empty building and created 2 successful businesses. We had many naysayers, people thought we were out of our league. They asked why we would do this so late in life. That just fueled us even more. I never worried about the success, I knew if we put the work in people would love it like we did.

Our stores housed over 100 vendors, giving other small businesses owners a chance to do what they loved to do. Our vendors delivered beautiful decor displays with different styles. We believe your should love your home, your home is a reflection of you. Make it yours. That’s what we did , created businesses that supported peoples decor.

In 2022 we had a chance to sell both stores. This was a big decision for us knowing that all the hard work we had put in would be no more. But it was the right choice. We set out to open a business and opened two successful ones. We created relationships with people whom we may have never crossed path with and we spent 6 years working side by side. We never worked as hard as we did while we owned the stores. Wouldn’t trade a day of it. We would not be here today if we had not opened that first store. I believe life is a path, it leads you to where your suppose to be.

Melanie , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Melanie Pruiett – Retired businesses owner, passionate about home decor.

I am definitely a “DO it Yourself” person, I love to work on our home both inside and out. Our home is old and we continue to nurture it along. I am always gleaning photos, displays for inspiration to kick start a idea.

What I like best is to find a discarded item and turn it into something useful, I look for potential in everything.

I love teaching classes to folks who are interested in learning how to do a project themselves. When we had our businesses it gave me the opportunity to share my experiences with others. We offered furniture painting classes, transfers and decoupage application, stamping and molds. No matter what class I taught I always learned something useful from our participants. We also offered a series of children’s art classes- so fun.

Now that we are retired a lot of my time is spent fine tuning our home. I mentioned before our home is old – late late 1800s old and continues to need updates and maintenance. We do most of the work ourselves and have our own decor style- I lean more to Maximalist- I love a lot of decor, finding ways to fit it all in with our home looking too crowded. It can be done it just takes time and planning.

I have always posted the projects I’ve done on social media. I recover chairs, paint pieces, garden projects etc. The feedback I have gotten gave way to starting a Home Decor DIY Blog. I have alway wanted to start a blog but never had the time to do so. Now I have time. I want to let readers know that your home is a reflection of you. Decor works best if you love it. I created White Willow Home, a blog that shares our projects and hopefully will inspire you to do yours.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I feel like everyone is creative is one way or another. I admire people’s creativity, in awe when I see something that a person has poured their time into. I get it, I understand what goes into my process so I can only imagine what might go into theirs.

When people look at some of the small projects or rooms we have redone whether it be in person or on social media they ask ” how did you think of that” I actually get a little embarrassed since I’m not quite sure. I can’t really offer a answer other then I just come up with ideas. I don’t even think of myself as being “creative” , I just do what I love to do.

So I would have to say rewarding part for me would be the self satisfaction that “I did that” – not in a snarky way by any means. When I start thinking about a project regardless of the size, it might be a sign I want to make or refurbing a room the ideas start popping. I plan, and work and make changes and sometimes have to start over a couple times when I just don’t feel it working out the way I had imagined. There is a lot of work by my own choice that goes into what I choose to do, so when Im done and stand back and look at the project, or piece as a whole I know that I did that. I chose to put my time, experiences and creative thinking into it and I like the out come .

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Since my blog – White Willow Home is focused on Home Decor and doing what projects you can yourself I would have to say my mission would be you can creative a home you love.

My opinion of course- there is no right or wrong way to decorate your indoor or outdoor space as long as it works for you. I feel people want to love where they live, they want to come home to things that make them feel good. If you love lots of color then use it, if you prefer a neutral palette by all means enjoy it. Love where you live by making it a reflection of you.     

Contact Info:

• Website: https://whitewillowhome.wordpress.com/
• Instagram: whitewillowhome