Our Story
We never set out to start a home decor business.
Mom and I were making a little bit of everything: signs, framed pieces, whatever seemed worth trying. Then she saw a full-size decorative ladder and said, "We can make that." I pushed back. Honestly, I worried that the second people heard "interchangeable," they'd picture a welcome sign where you swap out the O, and I wanted to make something with a lot more personality than that.
We made one anyway. The first batch sold out, then the next one did too, and it just kept growing. That's when it clicked that we had something real here.
Now it's a whole interchangeable decorating system, and somewhere along the way it became a family business. Mom paints every tile by hand. I design them and run the rest. My wonderful husband, James, cuts every ladder and frame on the table saw, mostly so I get to keep all my fingers.
Here's how it actually goes. You've had lemons in the ladder all summer, then that first cool morning hits and you want to hang onto it, so in go the pumpkins and hayrides. Christmas rolls around and Santa goes up. Lean a ladder in the entryway, hang a frame on the front door, set one on a shelf inside. Wherever it lands, it tells your story, not just the season's.
Every seasonal collection is made in small batches, and we don't bring the same designs back year after year. That's on purpose. Your home keeps changing whether you notice it or not, so what's in your ladder should too.
Choose your display. Build your collection. Change it your way.
And the name? That's Millie, our English mastiff. Much like the ladders, she had personality: pink everything, bows on everything, never without a stuffed animal. She was family long before the business was.
Millie & Co.
Ordinary Doesn't Live Here.