Leanne Ford: How To FEEL FREE At Home And In Life
Listen to the Podcast
About the Episode
"It came out of my brain, not by any work I did. And I'm happy to be the face of it for now. But I think it's bigger than me and I think it can live a bigger life than anything that I can do to it, so I'm excited to see what happens and where it goes." — Leanne Ford
On the Being Home With Hunker podcast we have the one and only Leanne Ford. You most likely know Leanne as an interior designer, or as an HGTV star (Restored by the Fords and Home Again With the Fords), or as furniture designer in partnership with Crate & Barrel. But now Leanne has a new title to add to her name: print magazine creator.
Leanne recently launched a quarterly print magazine on art and home design called FEEL FREE. If you follow Leanne, you'll agree that this name is just so fitting for who she is and what she represents. And as you'll hear in our conversation, I say that there is a high-vibe frequency to her magazine. And I really think so. I held it, I read, and I was buzzing with the desire to do something creative. Leanne has that kind of impact. And it doesn't have to be just in the world of art or home. If you bake, if you write, if you garden – this magazine is for you. It's for everyone who wants to tap into their own creative life force.
She is a shining example of honoring creativity, doing things messy if you need to, embracing failure as part of the creative process, and just being in action.
In This Episode We Also Talk About
-
The
FEEL FREE magazine — what Leanne calls a workbook — with the hope that people
write on it, rip on it, put it on their wall, and get it messy! -
Creating
the magazine to expose people to artists, art, and to inspire people to live
freely. (Because being perfect just isn't a thing.) -
The
generosity of the artists who shared their artwork with Leanne to feature in
the magazine (and for all of us to rip out!) — along with their tips on how to
create art. -
This
magazine is for everyone, no matter what you want to create, whether it's
curating an online shop or writing that book you've been dreaming of. -
Where
Leanne gets her biggest inspiration (hint: it's not design). -
How
the freedom to create is contagious. -
How
her 3 ½ year old daughter is in her prime creative time – and how inspiring it
is to Leanne. (And how her launching her magazine is no surprise that it's
aligning with her daughter's creativity.) -
How
much her spiritual life plays into her creativity, and how what she creates
does not dictate her worth. -
Working
with interior stylist and author Hilary Robertson, who is the Style Director at
FEEL FREE.
Learn More About Leanne Ford
If you want to learn more about interior designer (and magazine creator!) Leanne Ford, visit any of these places:
- Website: LeanneFord.com
- Instagram: @leannefordinteriors
- FEEL FREE on IG: @feelfree
- Buy the Magazine: FEEL FREE
- Buy Leanne's Book: Work in Progress
Transcript of the Show
(Edited for clarity)
Laurie:
Leanne, I need to tell you, okay, first of all, number one, I've never had a repeat person on this podcast. You're the first person.
Leanne:
Is that true?
Laurie:
A hundred percent true.
Leanne:
I'm honored. That's a big deal.
Laurie:
Well, I have to say, you don't know this, but you're like a spirit sister for me. And here's why, because I love watching you create be your authentic self out there in the world. And I feel like what you do is you are an example of giving permission to be creative. Do it messy if you need to, fail along the way, and just be an action.
Leanne:
Thank you for saying that. Amen. Actually, I did know that we were little soul sisters, I could tell.
Laurie:
You did?
Leanne:
Oh, yeah.
Laurie:
I said in the first time we talked that, number one, I loved your book, Work In Progress. I love your book, your story, your family. They're adorable. And now, you've created this magazine. I want to say something really quickly. I ordered your magazine online. I placed it on my coffee table. So here's the scene, my living room coffee table, it's there. Every morning, what I do is I wake up at 5:00 AM. I bring my little movable altar, and I put it on my coffee table with my crystals and my candles, and I sit and I meditate. Next to it, I have my journals and my books of inspiration because one of my things is I don't go on my phone or do any of that stuff until I read something inspiring.
Leanne:
Wow.
Laurie:
I have my journals. I have Martha Beck's book on integrity and Dr. Joe Dispenza, and there's these [other] books there. After I finished my meditation, a few days ago, I looked down and next to those books is your magazine. And I was like, "I'm going to read Leanne's magazine, FEEL FREE, as my inspo this morning." I went through the whole magazine, and I was buzzing afterwards. It was so uplifting.
Leanne:
Thank you.
Laurie:
Let me just tell you, there's a high vibe frequency to your magazine.
Leanne:
Whoa.
Laurie:
It's true. You also call it a workbook, and let's talk about this. So I want to talk about the inspiration behind it. It's called FEEL FREE, everybody. And you didn't go digital. You wanted to put out something that people could hold in their hands. Yes?
Leanne:
Yes. It's funny, there's literally zero digital presence. It's paper. It's tactile. It's a book. It's something I want you to rip it out. I want you to trash it. I want you to put it on your wall, write all over it, get it messy. That's what I want. We're thankful for digital. Our whole life is probably wrapped up in digital for better or for worse. But tactile is so important to me, especially in art and experience. And being a bathtub girl, I like all my favorite things I read in the tub. And I always read everything with a pen or a pencil because I need to capture something. I don't want it to pass by. Right?
Laurie:
Right, right.
Leanne:
So I rip out or I put underline, or I put it on a post-it or something. And that's just how my brain works and kind of processes. And that's what we did with this magazine. Thank you for saying it's kind of on a little frequency. I actually understand what you mean by that. That wasn't anything purposeful there that we set out to do. We just set out to talk about artists, talk about art, and to inspire people to live freely like, "What's this perfection thing we're all aiming for?" I mean, raise your hand if you've done it. Who's perfect? That's so crazy. So let's just cool it. I'm trying to do that. It's funny, my friend sent me the "East of Eden" quote is "Now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good."
Laurie:
I love that.
Leanne:
I know.
Laurie:
That's from "East of Eden?"
Leanne:
Yeah.
Laurie:
Oh, my God.
Leanne:
I know.
Laurie:
The permission behind that.
Leanne:
Yeah, I know. Gets me choked up.
Laurie:
Yeah. It's so beautiful. And I feel like that's the permission behind this magazine/workbook that you've put out.
Leanne:
Yeah.
Laurie:
Because as you just said, write on it, rip it out. You're so generous with this where you feature eight artists and their art. Oh, my goodness. And I just love being exposed to these new artists, whom I hadn't heard of. And then also, you have this little perforated rip out like, "Rip it out."
Leanne:
Isn't that crazy?
Laurie:
"Put it on your wall. It's so great."
Leanne:
Speaking of generous is those eight artists. So, in the back of FEEL FREE, there's perforated pages and eight artists gave us permission to share their work. So, speaking of being generous, they allowed us to do this, that you can hang that on your wall. I mean, I just saw somebody use a Jackie Leishman piece who's a collage artist. The colors in that Leishman piece were used to inspire their family room, their paint in their upholstery and everything. And you think about what bigger life these pieces create and give. And I'm thankful that artists kind of got that and let me play that way. But I do feel like ending the magazine with like, "Okay, this is a gift to you. And what kind of inspired you?" I mean, I'll take any magazine, literally, any book, any magazine, nothing safe. I don't care if that book was 200 bucks. I will rip it out a page that I want to hang on the wall because, in my brain, that lives a longer life up on the wall than stuck between the pages of this book. Right?
Laurie:
Yeah.
Leanne:
So I kind of feel like what is an expensive book is actually pretty cheap art. Right?
Laurie:
I like looking at that way. Yeah.
Leanne:
So if we're able to do that with this magazine and play... I just talked to Jackie Leishman, kind of did an Instagram line with her. It might have gone away into the abyss because I'm horrible at technology, but I'm trying to save it. But anyway, she kind of gave me tips and gave us all tips on how to collage. So, in FEEL FREE, everybody's saying their take on art and how they feel about art and how they started, but then they all give how you should do it. So we have Philip Soucy, who's a ceramicist, says, "Okay, you get the clay. And now, here's what you do. Here's what you create. Now, you do your thing and collage." And it's really fun. I mean, selfishly, I'm reading it to go do a collage, which I will do when we hang up. So it really is very beautiful that way, is that everybody's sharing their work and not keeping it secret of what kind of gets everything emotion for them.
Laurie:
Yeah. It's so beautiful. And I know that you do term your magazine as a workbook, which is interesting to me because sometimes, when I get magazines, or in the past, when I've gotten magazines, they'll stack up and it feels like homework to me where I'm like, "Ah, I have to go through and read all these." Yours does not feel like homework. It just feels like inspiration.
Leanne:
Thank you.
Laurie:
Yeah. I was thinking about you and I was like, "I feel like Leanne, you have this improv attitude around design." So in improv, what they say is, when you're working with people, you have a "Yes, and" attitude.
Leanne:
Yup.
Laurie:
Right?
Leanne:
That's so crazy. I just did this whole thing reading about improv and watching this documentary about it a couple days ago. And I was like, "That is how we design and how we play, and how we create, the "Yes, and."
Laurie:
It's the "Yes, and." So there's no stopping because when you get on stage and you're doing improv, the minute someone says, "No," or "I don't see that," then it's like [inaudible 00:09:31]. And then it stops and it all goes away. I feel like you are design improv where you have that "Yes, and" attitude, and we need people like you to look to... Sometimes, we just need permission. As you said, we don't have to be perfect because perfect is it's not a thing. It's unattainable.
Leanne:
It's literally not possible.
Laurie:
Yeah.
Leanne:
And even in homes, it's so interesting, let homes be kind of a reference for your life, but homes are living, breathing things. There will be plumbing issues at some point. Your floor will get beat up. What are we trying to create? I always say, "I don't want to live in a computer animated drawing. We're trying to create this perfection with ourselves, our homes, and with our art. Let's just lose that. Whoever told us that? Literally, who told us that?" I'm looking around.
Laurie:
I know.
Leanne:
I'd love to know. Whoever told us that, let's ditch it. And let's kind of have fun. We're here for, what? A sand particle. We're here for a minute. Let's knock ourselves out. Right?
Laurie:
Yeah. And what I want to say to people listening... We are hunker, so we have a design audience.
Leanne:
Yeah.
Laurie:
Not everybody is all about design. And what I love about this magazine is that if, say, making art, say, painting is not your thing, if doing pottery is not your thing, what I still get from what you do and from FEEL FREE is that, for me, it was that bubbling of inspo in me like, "Ah, I just want to make and create." So if someone's like, "I've been dying to write a blog," there's that inspo there, or "I've been dying to create a curated online shop of things I've found in my travels," do it. It's that permission.
Leanne:
Well, it's so interesting because I get my biggest inspiration from art forms that I have no involvement in. I'm inspired by Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen's books and Paul Simon's book. Those are not my fortes or my careers, but I'll read those books and I was like, "Put it down. Have an idea about something visual or something creative in any form." I mean, I get inspiration from more things that are not in my realm than that are, you know?
Laurie:
Yeah.
Leanne:
Because when they're in your career path or in your realm, it's almost like you compared with it or to it or your brain's like, "Well, I can't do that because this or they already did that ... And when it's in a different... I mean, Julia Child, everything Julia Child stands for, I love. Do I cook? Zero. I cook zero. And she's a huge inspiration for me. You know?
Laurie:
Yeah, I see that.
Leanne:
So I think that's the same thing with FEEL FREE, is you're seeing these people create and feeling that freedom. And it really is contagious.
Laurie:
It is contagious. That's a really good word. Don't we need more of that?
Leanne:
Yes. And I think the freedom that comes from creating, it's this freedom to creation, and then creation to freedom, and then feeling freedom because you're creating, and all of that kind of snowball. I'm talking to some with a salt crystal behind you, so I know you get me.
Laurie:
I know, yeah.
Leanne:
But all of that works its way together. There's a page in my magazine that says, "I'm classically and officially trained in nothing," but here I am. And they're like, "Isn't that the truth?" I mean, literally you didn't go to school for much or anything I'm doing now. What do they call it? They call it imposter syndrome, people of imposter syndrome. It's like the word amateur means for the love of it. Did you know that?
Laurie:
I did not know this.
Leanne:
Like Ama, love. Amateur means for the love of it.
Laurie:
I love it.
Leanne:
I mean, it is so interesting when I read that as it was this huge unlock like, "Oh, that makes sense to me." I mean, people that aren't doing it for the money, they're doing it for the love of it. And a lot of times, money follows, and that turns out to be a very fruitful. You get to create and work in the industry you're in. And that's a good thing, too. There ain't nothing wrong with that, but let's not let that rule our roost. What's your North Star in creation? For now, let's just create. Let's not worry about it.
Laurie:
Yeah. Why do you think honoring our creative expression matters so much?
Leanne:
Well, a couple things that's in there. We're all creative. If you dream, you're obviously creative. You're brain made up something that you did not put together, but you did. So we're all have creative in us, but there's an outlet and a softness that comes with it that can cool down and let go of a lot of tension.
Laurie:
It's so interesting. I know you have a little daughter. She's three and a half?
Leanne:
Yeah. And she says, "I'm not three. I'm three and a half."
Laurie:
Well, of course.
Leanne:
Okay.
Laurie:
It's big.
Leanne:
Thank you so much.
Laurie:
So she's at prime creative time.
Leanne:
Oh, yeah.
Laurie:
Right.
Leanne:
It's been inspiring. I would say it's no mistake that this is all aligning with my daughter in her age. It's been really interesting. Even the front of the magazine is my scribbling that I did with her pastels while I was sitting next to her. And I'll draw with her. And then she'll grab it and she'll draw over it, and I'm like, "Wait, wait, wait. Okay, let it go. Let it go." And then it comes out cooler. Just watching a kid create and play is so inspiring, and it really is. I mean, every great artist goes back to the freedom that you feel as a kid is where your greatest stuff comes. So how do we keep in tune to that and get to that?
Laurie:
Yeah. "How do we keep in tune," that's such a good question, as we go through life. I have teenagers right now. One's, as a junior in high school, starting to think about college. And then it's a new pressure starts to happen with kids, as much as we're trying not to do that as much, but it starts to feel at some point where do we maybe start to abandon that freedom of creativity because of all the things that are being told to us about a college you need to get into, and work you need to do...
Leanne:
I know. I know.
Laurie:
... and a life you need to lead.
Leanne:
Well, not to rock your world.
Laurie:
Go, rock it.
Leanne:
But every parent that's going to be mad at me for saying this, but I believe that potentially these college experiences are going to evolve. And a lot of people aren't going to be at college the way it is now. And I loved my college. I went to Ohio University. I actually created my own major. They had a program where you could take what you wanted to learn. I had an amazing experience.
But also, there are apprenticeships. And there are people who... They might be bad at math, but they might be great at guitar. And they might be great at some art form that they've never even thought to try. That's really big for me for FEEL FREE is like, "Why are we getting rid of art programs and creative programs in schools?" I wasn't good at math. And I was really had a great time in jewelry class. We need to double down and understand that not all kids need to go the "right route" that we have in America in 2000, dah, dah, dah. And believe me, I'm not anti, I think it's incredible for certain careers and certain people. I think there's just other versions of growing and other versions of getting in it. I mean, we went to college to train to get a job. Right?
Laurie:
Right.
Leanne:
So a lot of people are training in getting a job. Isn't that the, "We want to educate ourselves, but we don't have to do it in a classroom always"?
Laurie:
Yeah, I believe everything you're saying. I'm down with that. And I think it is a lot about honoring the person, the child, who they are, what do they really want.
Leanne:
Exactly. That's right.
Laurie:
Yeah, what speaks to them. Yeah.
Leanne:
I think I told you this story the last time I was on here. But when I was a kid, I got really good grades. It's not bragging. I was in fourth grade or whatever. And I went to high school and my mom said, "You know what, Leanne, get a B early." Like, "What?" She said, "Get a B early and have a good time."
Laurie:
Oh Mom, I love this.
Leanne:
I know. I looked back and they're like, "That was permission to not fail, not enough, but permission to relax." She said she would see these kids would be so stressed and trying to be valedictorian. And by the senior year, they got to be in gym and their life was ruined. You know?
Laurie:
Right, right. Yeah.
Leanne:
She just said get it over with, which is art too. I'm just talking to Jackie Leishman, she's like, "Just start. Make a bad one and do it. Be bad at it, and get that over with and keep going."
Laurie:
Yeah. Yeah. I've heard some people say, "Be okay to be a B or C student in life, not just in school, but in life where..."
Leanne:
A hundred percent.
Laurie:
Because that just means that you're trying. Just keep trying though.
Leanne:
Well, yeah, because if we... Okay, they say if you praise a kid for, "You did that. Good job. Good job. Good job," then what they're looking for is that they did a good job instead of good try. Right?
Laurie:
Yes, yes, yes.
Leanne:
Now when they don't get the good job, you did a good job. Good try doesn't cut it anymore.
Laurie:
Right.
Leanne:
And I think about that, and that's like, "Okay, that's so interesting as, for me, as a parent, but also thinking about how we all grew up and how we can inspire our families," et cetera. It doesn't have to be good job." It could be like, "Man, great try."
Laurie:
Yeah. "I saw how hard you were working at..." fill in the blank. Yeah.
Leanne:
Yes. You notice how hard they're trying and working, and that's good enough.
Laurie:
Yeah, yeah. I think it's one of the reasons why your magazine is striking such a chord with people. Because I see on, say, Instagram, people are posting just how much they love it, what they're doing with it. I think it's making people feel expansive. And as we get older, maybe sometimes we've stopped the trying at some point because maybe didn't give us what we wanted right away or whatever, or we were given message about something. So I think that your magazine is striking that chord right now. And one question I wanted to ask you of just about creation and feeling free, do you feel like your spiritual life plays into your creativity?
Leanne:
100,000%. Absolutely.
Laurie:
Tell me more.
Leanne:
I just read this book, "What Happy People Know," Dr. Dan Baker, maybe. Your intelligence, your creativity and your spirituality are all in the same part of your brain, which I think is the neo frontal cortex.
Laurie:
Let's go with it. Sure. Yeah.
Leanne:
Like, "Dr. Leanne's in town." But your spirituality and your connection to, for me, God is so important and freeing of each other and there's so understandable to each other. That's a huge part of how I create and why I create and why it doesn't matter if you fail. Because when you're connected to it, higher power, all this little stuff is just fun. This is just a good time. This is not where you get your worth. Your worth is not from what you're creating, ever. I feel zero worth from putting out a good product as much as putting out a bad product. That's not my worth.
Laurie:
That's so good to get in that space.
Leanne:
Oh, it's very creatively freeing because now you can play and you can try things. And it's so funny, it comes through me. I let it go. Even with FEEL FREE Magazine, I'm like, "Okay, my job is to get it out. And what happens from there is off my hand. It's not in my power. I get it out and off it goes. And it lives its life." I really do hope it does well, and I'm so thankful for people talking about it. I'm so thankful for you telling people about it because I want to do more. I mean, I have so many artists to talk about. I have so much to talk about. I can't wait. And I want these artists to talk about their artists. We go to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, and then we talk about who inspired him.
Laurie:
I loved that.
Leanne:
I want to dive into who inspired these famous artists and who inspired not famous artists that were living around today. It's pretty endless.
Laurie:
So kind of as we're wrapping up this a little bit, I do want to focus on the magazine a little bit and your future of how you're seeing it. First of all, I want to call out that Hilary Robertson is your style director?
Leanne:
Yes, she is the best. So she's an incredible friend who I met because I was fangirling her. She has all these gorgeous books. Nomad at Home just came out, and Monochrome Home and Brooklyn Interiors and the Stuff of Life, these books, I started realizing all my favorite books were by the same woman.
Laurie:
Wow, yeah.
Leanne:
I sent her a message years ago, just said, "Hey, just want to tell you, I love you," fangirl. Well, she wrote back and the rest is history. We've been friends and working together. And she kindly is my style director. I basically said, "Everybody can name themselves whatever they want." We're like, "There's four of us working on this."
Laurie:
I saw that. I was like, "Wow, I love this." It's like "The Little Engine That Could." I want to tell you something. I spoke with Hilary. Her episode is going to air after this episode. I had reached out with her, and the day that I was to speak with her, your magazine was released. And I was like, "Hold up. She's the style director."
Leanne:
No way.
Laurie:
It just was like this wonderful coming together.
Leanne:
She's incredible. That's amazing.
Laurie:
She's delightful. Yes.
Leanne:
She's also been in the industry longer than I have, and she's such an inspiration for me. It's like somebody to look up to. I like to surround myself with people that are better at their job and my job than me. I love being around these people that can kind of guide me. And at the same time, I like to do that for people starting out. But it's important to get both worlds. And then Darren Holdway is the art director. They're both British because British people are so cool and so stylish. I found him in my favorite magazine ever, Modern Rustic UK. And he did the premier issue for that magazine. And I was like, "I'm holding the magazine up." And I was like, "I want it to feel just like this, just like this." And I opened the page, I'm like, "Oh, I'll call him."
Laurie:
Oh my God, I love it.
Leanne:
And I called him.
Laurie:
You're manifesting, you're like, in real time.
Leanne:
I mean, everybody's on the... It's so funny. It's a High Fidelity quote, but he's like, "She's in the phone book." And if you know, then you know.
Laurie:
That's so good. Yep. Yeah.
Leanne:
Especially everybody's available or one call away. So he said, "Yes."
Laurie:
Amazing.
Leanne:
I mean, I pinched myself about all this. This is pretty wild. And I like that this can live a bigger life than me. It came out of my brain, not by any work I did. It just came out of my brain. And I'm happy to be at the face of it for now, but I think it's bigger than me and I think it can live a bigger life than anything that I can do to it. So I'm excited to see what happens and where it goes.
Laurie:
I love this. So what is the plan? Are you releasing it quarterly or...?
Leanne:
Quarterly.
Laurie:
Okay.
Leanne:
Yes. And if enough of you all get one, then we can keep going.
Laurie:
Okay. And people can find it, where?
Leanne:
Okay. Thank you for that lovely question. Okay. It's in every major newsstand. It's at the airport. Please, if you go to the airport, go get it. Also, pull it to the front, put it in front of whatever hot gossip magazines are out this week, I'd call it. I was like the FEEL FREE street team, everybody's going renegade and putting it in the front of displays, which I think is...
Laurie:
I love it. I'm going to be at the airport next week, going to visit my mom, so I will do this.
Leanne:
All right.
Laurie:
I'll pick up a copy for her, and then I'll put one in front.
Leanne:
Thank you. Exactly. And then you can buy it on my website at leanneford.com.
Laurie:
Yeah, that's what I did. It was so easy.
Leanne:
Thank you.
Laurie:
Shows right up at your door.
Leanne:
And I think I'm going to do some kind of FEEL FREE signed starter kits and stickers and things, so I'll let you all know.
Laurie:
I love this. Now, I normally end my podcast with what is being homing to you. I already asked you in the last time we talked, so I'm going to send people to that episode, unless you have anything new about being home that has come up for you since this new endeavor.
Leanne:
I was just talking with my husband about this last night. I feel so lucky that my home is my creative space. So I get to be creative in my home. We're literally gutting my basement to put arts and crafts and studio down there to play with my daughter and play alone. Just open space feels so good. So for me, my home has become the most creative experience, even more than travel.
Laurie:
Wow.
Leanne:
Travel's very inspiring and gets your kind of brain going. And I just feel so lucky that being home is such a creative... What's the word? Amplification.
Laurie:
Yes. Yeah.
Leanne:
What's the word?
Laurie:
Sure, let's go with it.
Leanne:
Visually, just lights over the top of your head. And it's what a joy. I'm a very, very lucky and very, very blessed. Hashtag blessed.
Laurie:
Hashtag blessed. Well, you're so wonderful. I have just so much respect for you, Leanne.
Leanne:
Thank you, Laurie.
Laurie:
I appreciate the generosity that you put out in this world. Again, as being an example of possibilities of when we just say yes to ourselves and we just try, and we allow ourselves to make mistakes and keep going.
Leanne:
Blow it. Let's all try to mess up a little bit today, shall we?
Laurie:
Let's do it. Let's do it. And everyone, go get your magazine. Let's keep this going.
Leanne:
Thank you. Feel free. FEEL FREE magazine.
Laurie:
Feel free.
Leanne:
And that's our call-to-action, feel free, get it?
Laurie:
Let's do it. I love it.
Leanne:
Thanks, Laurie. You're the best.
Laurie:
I love you. You're adorable.
Leanne:
Should we do this again sometimes?
Laurie:
Yeah, of course!
About the Podcast
Being Home With Hunker is a new podcast where we explore the idea of "home" — not just as a place where you live, but as an expression of your identity. Each week we talk with designers, creatives, and artists about who they are, how they create meaningful spaces, and what "being home" means to them.
If you like what you hear, please rate and review the podcast, hit subscribe/follow, and share with a friend. When it comes to podcasts word of mouth is how most people will find the show. It really does help. Visit Hunker.com/podcast where you can find, follow, and listen to our show.