Miller’s Crossing Design to move into former Tabatha’s
By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
While the 2019 Parade of Homes takes place in the town of Clay, visitors will be able to find a little piece of Baldwinsville in one of the featured homes. Becka Miller of Miller’s Crossing Design helped style one of the luxury properties for Stone Hammer Homes.
“That’s one of my dreams,” Miller said of participating in the Parade of Homes.
The builders at Stone Hammer Homes came across Miller on Instagram, where she posts her custom-painted furniture and other upcycled designs.
“It’s a good match,” Miller said of the partnership. “We picked out everything together: We picked out flooring, tile, paint colors. They’re very talented guys but they kind of wanted a girl’s spin on it.”
Miller and Stone Hammer Homes also collaborated with Fringed Benefits, a home goods store in Fayetteville.
“It has been very fun — a little stressful, but fun,” she said.
The Parade of Homes is not Miller’s only recent stressful-but-fun venture. This past spring, she purchased the former Tabatha’s Family Tree restaurant property on Cold Springs Road. She is hoping to open her design studio there by the holiday season.
“It’s coming along,” Miller said of the ongoing renovations. “We’re going for an industrial vibe. All the walls have come down. We’ve got tin ceilings, board and batten walls.”
Once complete, the studio will be a storefront for Miller’s hand-painted and rehabbed furniture, DIY clay paint and other home decor items. She also plans to host workshops and classes.
“There’s going to be a craft bar so people can stop in and make custom gifts. I’m going to have classes where I teach people to paint, make a Pinterest-type craft,” Miller said. “It’s kind of a hodgepodge but it all goes together. … It’s going to be a place [people] can shop but a place they can come together.”
Miller said she has always been crafty, but she truly began to hone her skills when she and her husband bought a historic home in Baldwinsville. The couple also has flipped several houses.
“It just started out as a hobby out of necessity because we were young and didn’t have a lot of money. I started finding ways of upcycling and making our home cute,” she said.
Miller’s Crossing Design was born in 2016 when Miller began bringing her rustic-chic creations to craft shows.
“It grew pretty quick and I’ve just been growing ever since. I’m hopping around to different stores doing classes,” she said. “That’s just my passion: taking things that other people would probably toss away and making them into something else. I just want to share that with people.”
Miller said she loves all aspects of home decor and is eager to share her passion with others.
“I love decorating, I love staging, I love arranging things,” she said. “Painting the furniture is just another element of design for me. That just makes my heart skip a beat.”
As her business grew, Miller began to look for the perfect headquarters for it.
“I did have a shop in Fayetteville for a while and it didn’t feel right to me. It was too far of a drive, I couldn’t get to my kids, and I didn’t know the community,” she said.
As fate would have it, a property became available on the very road Miller lives on: the former Tabatha’s.
“This one just kept coming up,” she said.
She looked at a few places in Liverpool, but decided to stick to her hometown of Baldwinsville.
“I was born and raised here and my children are in school here. … Here, I know the community, I have history here,” she said. “My clientele is here.”
Miller said her social media fanbase and local clients are excited about the move.
“I really can’t say enough about how supportive the community has been,” she said.
To learn more about Miller’s Crossing Design, visit facebook.com/millersxing or follow @millerscrossingdesign on Instagram. Shop for furniture, Debi’s Design Diary DIY clay paint and other home decor elements at millerscrossingdesign.com or at The Shoppes at Two Twisted Sisters, located at 25 Syracuse St. in the village of Baldwinsville.
