About Us

Hi, I'm Bea — welcome to our forever-project of a house. If you've ever stood in a room you love-but-not-quite, wondering whether you could actually fix it yourself, on a real budget, without a renovation show crew — you're in the right place. The Warm Walls is the site I wished existed when I started fixing up my own home: honest, unglossy, and genuinely useful.

How This Site Started

I'm Beatrice Hartman — Bea, always — a former elementary art teacher, lifelong DIYer, estate-sale loyalist, and the person behind every post on this site. I grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania, in a house where things got fixed by us or they stayed broken. My dad ran a small handyman business, and my childhood Saturdays were spent holding flashlights, sorting screws by size, and eventually swinging the hammer myself. I could patch drywall before I could drive. My mom handled the other half of my education: she could make our modest house feel layered and loved with garage-sale finds, homemade curtains, and pure nerve. Everything I do here is, honestly, just Dad's toolbox plus Mom's eye.

These days, my husband Sam and I are renovating a 1942 brick Cape Cod in Pittsburgh — 1,400 square feet of original hardwood, some questionable decisions from previous owners, and slowly accumulating charm — one room, one weekend, and one teacher's paycheck at a time. Our toddler Theo supervises from the floor, and our cat Marmalade supervises from wherever is highest and most inconvenient.

What The Warm Walls Is About

This site covers the rooms and routines of an actual lived-in home: decor that doesn't require a full remodel, DIY projects sized for a weekend, closet and storage organization that holds up after the first week, cleaning routines that fit real life, and seasonal touches that make a house feel considered without feeling staged. If you've read something like our closet shelving roundups or a hall closet door rack fix, you already know the rhythm here — real problems, real materials, real results.

I write about the things I've actually built, painted, reorganized, or completely redone in our own house, plus the ideas I collect and adapt from other homes I admire. A warm home, to me, isn't a magazine spread. It's the shelf you finally fixed, the closet that finally makes sense, the bedroom that finally feels like a place to rest.

Our Editorial Approach

I aim for inspiring-but-practical, every time. That means:

• Real costs, not vague price ranges — I tell you what I actually paid.
• Honest difficulty ratings, including the projects that took twice as long as I expected.
• The messy middle included, not just the polished after photo.
• Ideas that work in real homes with real budgets, not just in showrooms.

You can read exactly how I research, fact-check, and update posts on our Editorial Policy page — I take that transparency seriously, because trust is the whole point of a site like this.

Sourcing, Images, and Honesty About Links

Some posts on The Warm Walls include product links, and a few of those are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase through them, at no extra cost to you. I explain exactly how that works on our Disclosure page. Images used across the site are credited and sourced responsibly — details are on our Image Credits page — and if you find me sharing ideas or boards on Pinterest, that relationship is outlined on our Pinterest Disclaimer page as well.

I also care about how your information is handled when you visit. Our Privacy Policy lays out what we collect and why, in plain language — no legalese maze required.

Who This Site Is For

The Warm Walls is for anyone renovating a fixer-upper on a real budget, anyone trying to make a rental feel like home without breaking a lease agreement, and anyone who just wants their closet, their bedroom, or their living room to finally work for their actual life. You don't need a design degree or a big budget. You need a plan, a Saturday, and someone who's already made the mistakes so you don't have to.

Let's Talk

I read everything that comes in. If you've got a project you're stuck on, a question about something I've written, or an idea for a collaboration, reach out through our Contact page or email me directly at [email protected]. If you're a brand or fellow maker interested in working together, take a look at our Collaboration page first — it explains what I'm open to and how I like to work.

Thanks for being here, and for believing — like I do — that a warm home isn't bought. It's made, one weekend project at a time.