The artist within
My Inspiration
I have always had a very fond and deep appreciation for art, interior design, architecture, creative expression and homemade things. I was especially drawn to furniture and crafts as a child.
My favorite person, Grandma Mary, had the nicest furniture! I remember cuddling with her on the couch under a blanket she knitted and admiring her beautiful furniture all around us. It looked regal. Even as a child I could appreciate the quality craftsmanship.
I remember sitting at her formal dinning room table and the feeling it brought me - connection, sophistication, elegance. Her handmade tablecloths, meals and desserts made by scratch - and the evidence splattered all over the kitchen that we all cleaned up together. I cherish these memories!
From her hand-knitted blankets and sweaters, to her handmade crocheted doilies, and cross-stitched wall art, her home made me feel surrounded by love and beautiful handmade things.
Our homes are our happy place - we should feel surrounded by love and beauty in our happy place! I've always wanted to recreate that feeling every place I've ever lived and want that for others too!
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About Me
I've been painting and restoring furniture for over a decade and honestly, I love every minute of it. My favorite part started out as the painting, but as I began doing custom orders for people— it's now the conversations. Learning where a piece came from, who it once belonged to, why someone can't let it go. Every piece someone wants to hold onto has a story, and I am truly honored whenever a client trusts me to help preserve something precious to them.
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I get it on a deeply personal level. When my grandmother passed, all I wanted was the hand knitted olive green and brown blanket we used to cuddle under together while watchin Wheel of Fourtune in the 80's. It's so special when our things are so much more than "things". That said, not every piece carries that kind of sentimental weight — and that's perfectly okay too. I'm just as happy helping someone make their house a little more homey with a hand painted piece that exists nowhere else in the world but their home.
How It All Began
The very first peice of furniture I painted was when I was a teenager. I had completely outgrown my white bedroom set with dainty florals on every drawer. As with most teenagers, I had an overwhelming need for self expression — I painted it all black and applied cow print contact paper to the tops of my desk and dresser. It was perfect in my eyes. Luckily, I had a mother that valued self-expression and always encouraged me to be my self! (Thanks mom!)
I moved on from black and cow print and bought a simple dresser at discount furniture store in my early 20's. I carried it with me throughout a handful of moves, and eventally we landed in an amazing old brownstone appartment in Philadelphia. With an unfamilar sense of independence, freedom and adventure, my need for self expression and to make this place - mine, I painted a dresser a rusty red color and decoupaged the drawer fronts with vintage maps and travel magazine clippings to create a one of a kind collage. It became the statement piece that said more than just "Tracy's place, Tracy's style."
t was the moment I realized that creating meant something far more important to me than just a path to a potential dream job. Creating is therapeutic. It's calming. It's expressive. It's not about the outcome — it's about the process.
My first official — read: serious — attempt at furniture refinishing began when my first daughter was born. I found a French Provincial dresser at a Philadelphia flea market for $65, brought it home, watched countless chalk painting videos on YouTube, and just went for it. I painted it with Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White for her nursery and couldn't have been happier. The moment it dawned on me that furniture refinishing was a real thing — a real craft — I was completely hooked and never looked back.
This is the one that started it all!
I've been an artist and crafter my whole life, but I never imagined furniture would become my canvas. I studied Interior Design at Virginia Commonwealth University until an undeniable calling to create a better world — especially for those in need — took me down a different path entirely. I changed my major and my school, eventually becoming a social worker for abused and neglected children in Philadelphia. A decade later I moved into Corporate Social Responsibility, where I had the privilege of directing millions of dollars in corporate and employee donations to organizations like The ALS Association, The Alzheimer's Association, The American Heart Association, and The MS Society.
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It was meaningful, important work. But life as a mom of three young children with a full time corporate career left very little room for me. I felt completely out of touch with my creative side — stifled, stagnant, and smothered. I needed to create. So I picked up a paintbrush again, refinishing furniture the way I had for my daughter's nursery, this time purely as a hobby. It filled something in me that nothing else could — letting me use my hands for more than typing documents or cooking dinner, and giving me the space I needed to breathe and recharge.
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Then came 2020. Non-profits were hit hard and early by the pandemic, and I lost my position with the National Cancer Society within three months. With schools shut down and three children at home — ages 3, 5, and 7 — homeschooling became my full time job overnight. Getting back into the workforce simply wasn't possible, and I needed to create more than ever.
My home was already fully furnished, so I did the only logical thing — I posted a piece for sale on Facebook Marketplace. It sold. So I painted another. It sold too. Then another. Before I knew it I had a following, and people were coming to me with their own pieces and their own stories. Later that year, what had started decades earlier as a teenage act of rebellion against floral bedroom furniture officially became Rabbit and The Oak. It was, without question, a dream come true.
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What's In a Name?
A lot of people ask about the name and how it came to be. When my husband and I started dating back in 2009, he gave me the nickname "Rabbit". I was always curiously hopping from one thing to the next, always exploring new and creative things. It was the perfect moniker to describe my restless nature, which I later found out at age 42 was actually undiagnosed ADHD - but that's another story!
As we were thinking of names for the business, we started with Rabbit. "The Oak" easily followed... My husband is like a oak tree - He's the strong, unmovable force always at my back. He provides for us the way an oak does for the forest and all that rely upon it. I am the Rabbit and he is The Oak.
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let's work together!
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Now that you know a little about me, I'd love to get to know you! If you think I can help make your house a little more homey — or help you fall back in love with a piece you just can't let go of — I'd love to hear from you. Reach out and let's create something together!
Home Is Where My Heart Is
I currently live with my family in Ridgefield, CT. It is a beautiful, quaint little town with an idyllic Main Street and home to my amazing tribe of friends and family.
My little helpers
