From their businesses to their passions, and most importantly, their family.
By Amy Howe
Nestled among the beautiful backdrop that is Northwest Arkansas, you’ll find the homestead of Dave and Jenny Marrs, the couple making a big impact on their small-town community and the entire country and parts of the world.
Having now lived in Northwest Arkansas for over 20 years, the couple, like so many of us, enjoy the simple life outside of work. They’re raising their five children, ranging in ages from 13 to 4 and tending to a menagerie of animals, including cattle, donkeys, sheep, alpaca and some barn cats and many other animals. You’ll also find the couple tending to their gardens and often dreaming about their businesses and what’s next for them.
Outside of their home life, which is their absolute top priority, Dave and Jenny have taken on many endeavors and have seen exponential growth on the business side of things. They own a construction company, Marrs Developing; Jenny continues to keep up with her blog, Blessings and Raindrops; they operate a berry farm called The Berry Farm; Jenny recently released a book, “House + Love = Home”; they host an Airbnb in Rogers, Arkansas, named The Welcome Inn; they have an incredible television show on HGTV, “Fixer to Fabulous”; competed on season three of “Rock the Block”; and the duo most recently opened a mercantile storefront in Centerton, Arkansas, called Marrs Mercantile.
That’s a lot, for anyone, but such an accomplishment. And it leaves one to ask how they do it all and still make time for a vibrant family life and time for each other. Dave and Jenny say their priority is their kids in anything and everything they do.
“Our kids come first,” says Jenny. “If they have basketball games throughout the week, we are there. We definitely try to create some boundaries on sports so that each kid may only be participating in one sport at a time, but we are purposefully making them a priority in their daily lives.”
To Dave and Jenny, it’s all about finding balance and taking the time to slow down when it’s available.
“We’re really big on sitting down together as a family during the evenings for dinner,” says Dave. “The day goes by so fast. We drop the kids off at school in the morning and then we are home for dinner, which leaves just a few hours before bed. Those few hours matter.”
A unique way the couple spends time with the kids is taking each one on a solo work trip when time allows.
“We’ve had to travel a little more lately and might have a trip that is two or three days long,” says Jenny. “We will bring one kid with us to create that special one-on-one time together. We go to dinner, walk around, whatever we can squeeze in while on the trip.”
Jenny says they also do this at home and create a special date night with one child at a time to ensure they’re getting quality attention.
As for quality time for just the two of them, well, Dave and Jenny are together just about 24/7. The couple make it a priority to enjoy a breakfast meeting together or have a lunch date, even if it’s a time dedicated to talking about work.
“As a couple, you always wish you have a little more time,” says Dave. “But we are in a season of life where the kids are going in different directions, we’re busy with the show, the farm, work, everything else. We understand that this season of life is just busier right now.”
Part of their work life includes non-profit and charitable work. Over the years, the Marrs family wanted to do more for their community and around the globe. In 2014, they started a venture called The Blueberry Farm in Northwest Arkansas. This was a way to provide an education and skills opportunity for orphaned and at-risk teenage boys in rural Zimbabwe by partnering with the organization Help One Now.
“We aren’t looking to solve long-stemming issues of hunger and poverty with a short-term investment,” says Dave. “We are committed to the long-haul with these kids. We want to sow seeds of truth and righteousness and love. The fruit that will result will be long-lasting: eternal.”
In partnership with Help One Now, Dave and Jenny not only provide their Northwest Arkansas community with fresh, locally grown food and a beautiful event venue space, but their efforts also teach orphaned children across the globe how to do the same in their own community.
Their biggest business success to date is their show, “Fixer to Fabulous” on HGTV. In its fifth season, Dave and Jenny embrace the community in which they live and work by renovating classic homes. They transform historic houses in desperate need of updates and turn them into charming forever homes. Dave is the skilled craftsman, builder and general contractor, while Jenny supports the design side of their business.
Dave and Jenny enjoy working together on all of their projects and in doing so, it helps them each understand one another at the end of a crazy, hectic workday.
“We both get it, we understand it,” says Jenny. “We understand each other’s challenges and when we get home and are exhausted – we just get it!”
“We know the feeling of having had to smile on camera for 12 hours and continually talk,” says Dave. “And then we have to catch up on the 50 emails, missed calls and text messages on the way home so we can be present for our family, which is the most important time of our day. Jenny and I have the opportunity of understanding that together.”
What has strengthened their marriage by working together is all of the communication that has to be done.
“We share everything,” says Jenny. “We both have to be in the loop on everything – the kids’ schedules, managing the house, managing the business. We have to be in sync with one another.”
And it helps that both Dave and Jenny share very similar personalities.
“We love to start a project and dream of what it could be,” says Dave. “We enjoy thinking of different things we could put in to these houses and how to tell their family story the best way possible. Even when we are home, in our down time, we sometimes talk about work because we love what we do so much.”
It’s the love for what they do that ultimately created the idea for their storefront, Marrs Mercantile, a cozy warmth of refurbished displays and custom furniture located in historic downtown Centerton, Arkansas.
“For years we have dreamt of creating a unique place to serve our Northwest Arkansas community,” says Jenny. “We saw the potential in a 100-plus-year-old building that originally housed the Centerton Bank. This charming building is full of history and has had many owners since it was first built in 1905. While it has had more than its fair share of wear and tear, we knew the building needed to be saved and transformed into something amazing.”
Work began inside and out to renovate the neglected building. The couple had gas lanterns handcrafted for the exterior lighting, painted the facade and added a beautiful pergola to cover the outdoor patio, which now overlooks a play garden Dave built for kids to enjoy. The main transformation happened on the inside, where they really wanted a space that would feel like home.
“The Mercantile is a place where we want our community to pause from the pressures of daily life,” says Dave. “We want our guests to feel as though they stepped back to simpler times when they enter inside. We envision families meeting here to gather and shop and play. The goods we sell are some of our very favorite things, handmade by artisans and artists we have worked with for years.”
With everything they have going on at work and home, it’s hard to imagine asking, “What’s next?” for the duo and being met with more plans, but that’s exactly what they’re doing.
“We’d love to do more international projects,” says Jenny. “That has been so much fun and so new and has forced us outside of our comfort zones and caused new creativity, which has been great.”
Dave and Jenny still plan to be in Northwest Arkansas, God willing, unless they’re called upon some crazy or unexpected adventure.
“Five years from now, our twins will be freshmen in college,” says Jenny. “Wow! I can’t begin to think about that.”
And while we all love the hard work they do for a great television show, well, who knows what will be next?
“The show is very demanding work but we will continue to do it as long as God calls us to that work,” says Jenny. “We do know that I’ll still be writing and Dave will still be building furniture – those are our passions outside of building and designing and where you’ll always find us.”
“We share everything,” says Jenny. “We both have to be in the loop on everything – the kids’ schedules, managing the house, managing the business. We have to be in sync with one another.”