Mooo-ooom!

Linda is drawing on the walls again!” Big sister’s voice rang out as young Linda was caught red-handed yet again, drawing on her bedroom walls with whatever tool she could find — marker, crayon, pencil. “I’ve loved art for as long as I can remember. If I couldn’t find paper, I’d just use the walls,” Hilbrands laughs. Now, having moved past the walls, Hilbrands holes up in her basement storage room/art studio, with the aroma of coffee wafting through the rafters, worship music filling the air and easels loaded, ready and waiting. Acrylics and brushes are scattered in every color and size imaginable as she settles in to create and embrace the beauty that comes. Looking back on those days when her only canvas was the nearest wall, she rejoices that God is still faithfully growing and using that which he planted in her heart so long ago.

As a teenager Hilbrands took every art class she could squeeze into her schedule. When it was time to consider college, she knew that while she didn’t want to teach art, she definitely wanted to pursue her passion of creating beautiful things and spaces. Through the fashion merchandising program at Minnesota State Community and Technical College, Hilbrands found both her niche and her best friend and future business partner Melanie Wendel. In learning to stage homes and businesses to be warm, chic and welcoming, her creativity was piqued and eyes opened to the then mostly unknown art of repurposing. “I would just see normal, everyday items that might be considered garbage, like maybe an empty glass bottle, and in my mind picture what it could be. Melanie and I started fixing up old furniture even before it was a cool thing to do. For us it mostly started out of necessity as being poor, young, married college students. We didn’t have any money but we wanted our homes to have personality and fashion on a dime!”

Married to her high school sweetheart Paul, Hilbrands had dreams of starting a family. In the waiting, she found ways to earn an income doing what it was that God had created her to do. Renting a booth at the Crafter’s Mall of Fargo gave her a space to display and sell her paintings. As she prayed over her painting career, her brand HeavenlyChic Designs was born. “I really wanted people to feel like they could have a little bit of heaven in their homes.”

With creativity flowing through the family veins, Hilbrands traveled with her parents and sister to craft fairs throughout the region, showcasing her painting, her dad’s woodworking, and her sister and mom’s crafty handiwork. Having since lost her dad, memories of laughing and working together through hours upon hours of craft fair travels fill her heart with joy. She and Wendel also continued to grow their collection of repurposed décor, eventually setting up a little shop in the Hilbrands’ living room and advertising by word of mouth. When they outgrew the living room, they moved to the Moorhead Antique Mall, where they were able to design and stage their own little store.

While her art flourished, the Hilbrands’ hopes for children began to wilt. Infertility tests, treatments, procedures and the devastation of two miscarriages filled the decade of their 20’s. Her artwork was a solace of safety and comfort during times of heartache and stress. Creating beauty was a balm to her soul. But after 10 years of struggle they miraculously and joyfully welcomed twin baby boys into their family, and Hilbrands knew it was time to put the paintbrushes down. “I’d waited so long for Samuel and Jordan that I didn’t want anything to distract me from being a mom. God was nudging me to just enjoy my kids and not let anything else get in the way.” Six years later a surprise baby girl, Mary, entered the world to complete their family.

Unable to turn off her creative brain, Hilbrands still found spare minutes in the nooks and crannies of her busy days to create and sell repurposed items both out of her home and at the Antique Mall with Wendel. When their paths crossed with the owners of Livin the Dream boutique in Moorhead, a partnership was born. The Livin the Dream team shopped from Hilbrands’ home studio, choosing items from her abundant collection of pretty things. Four and a half years ago when Livin the Dream sold to Mary Sue Olhauser and Paula Otto and became Burlap Rustic Chic Boutique, Hilbrands and Wendel didn’t miss a beat. They contacted the new team and dove right back into partnership selling their repurposed artwork. It soon became clear to the Burlap team that this dynamic duo had a knack and a niche for staging spaces. They were hired on as the Burlap design team, weekly transforming the store to a place of respite, where a frazzled customer could step through the doors and feel instantly at home: warm, cozy, welcoming, lovely, peaceful.

Another joy each winter has been decorating homes for the annual Fargo-Moorhead “Homes for the Holidays” tour, which allows them to transform everyday homes into beautiful wintry Christmas wonderlands that anyone would love to enter, snuggle into, and never leave.

When her boys became men and her daughter a teenager, Hilbrands began to hear God whispering that it was time to pick up her paintbrushes again. As God’s voice ruminated in her soul, her creative heart began to beat faster. She hadn’t known if she would ever return to painting. Was it really time for this hibernating passion to wake up? After 18 years, would the bristles still work magic in her hands? Yes. Her brushes had been patiently waiting, and now it was time. And she had more to give than ever. Years of heartache and infertility followed by the immense joys and deep challenges of parenting swelled her heart with a capacity to communicate more emotion and insight in her painting than ever before.

So, amid much prayer and excitement, Hilbrands put a fresh canvas on her easel and filled her home with the familiar aroma of acrylic. It was as if her hands had never stopped; they knew just what to do. The team at Burlap welcomed Hilbrands’ incredible artwork into their shop as she reflected the ambiance and style of the store in her paintings. Before long, Hilbrands’ calendar was booked with the eager requests of shoppers: “This is so beautiful! But could you paint me one with these colors, or this size, or in this tone …” Her bristles haven’t had a moment to dry out yet. And the artwork doesn’t stop with the painting; her husband, who is a computer guru by day but a hobbyist and wood-worker by night, custom designs and handcrafts every single frame.

For Hilbrands, the thrill and wonder of creating never gets old. Leaning into the master Artist for inspiration, she gleans from Him the creativity and imagination that goes into every work of art. Sometimes a painting takes an un-anticipated turn, resulting in a finished work that is quite different than she initially imagined. “Each painting has a life and personality of its own. Sometimes you just have to go where the painting takes you. It’s exciting to begin a new work and never quite know for sure exactly what it’s going to be until it’s done.” For this reason, she gives each painting the time, love and tenderness it needs. “A painting cannot be rushed. If I do rush a piece, it certainly won’t be right. When I think a painting might be finished, I let it sit on an easel in my home for at least a week. As I walk by it, it speaks to me about whether it’s done or wants more.”

And the journey of her artwork isn’t just in the creative process. Much of her art is now traveling upon completion rather than staying local. The reach of social media has brought inquiries from as far away as Europe and Australia, causing Hilbrands to marvel over the connections that painting has brought into her life. “I’ve developed so many relationships and friendships that I never would have if I hadn’t picked up my brushes again.” This global reach has also spurred Hilbrands to pursue her next artistic goal: prints. Still a work in progress, developing prints of her paintings would significantly reduce both the purchase price of a piece as well as the shipping costs, greatly increasing the opportunities for her art to find homes around the world.

Through all the twists and turns, Hilbrands’ prayer for her artwork has remained the same — that each work of art would radiate the beauty and hope of heaven into the home it inhabits, bringing healing and peace to people’s lives. Indeed, from the days of drawing on the walls to now painting for the world, Hilbrands’ life has been marked by the Artist’s touch, a heavenly chic design.