Meet Ian Brownhill

For readers who aren’t on TikTok or Instagram, tell us about yourself!

My name is Ian Brownhill. I’m 31 years old and I’m an actor and content creator. I’m from Westerly although I live in East Greenwich now.

Before your “New Englandah” skits went viral, what got you into creating on social media?

After getting back into acting in my mid-20s and building my resume, I knew I needed a social media brand to go with it and that’s when TikTok came along. I noticed its resemblance to platforms like Vine, which created hundreds of the actors and social media influencers we know today. Since acting is a hard industry to break into, having a creative outlet to explore my art was crucial and TikTok allowed for that. Then through some self beliefs, hard work, and a little bit of luck, I finally cracked into the social media world. Now after four years of creating, two of them being more locally known, I’ve found myself in an incredibly fortunate position to represent my home state and New England as a whole. I try my best in what I do. I know it’s not for everyone, but I love what I do. Making people laugh is my personal purpose in life!

A big part of your character is the year-round Dunkin’ iced co ee. What’s your go-to order?

Medium iced black with something added. I do a splash of something di erent depending on the day, weather, and my mood. But always with a donut!

What has been the coolest opportunity that stemmed from your online popularity?

I often find myself in situations I couldn’t have ever imagined, for which I’m so incredibly grateful. Being an obsessed Patriots fan – who once spent every dime I had to my name to go to a playo game – to be invited to watch from the sideline and fist pump with Robert Kraft was a dream come true!

Now that you have your name out there, what does the future look like for Ian Brownhill?

Knowing that as a content creator your 15 seconds can come and go quickly, I’m trying to enjoy the ride I’m on now and seeing just how far it can take me. There will certainly be avenues to explore should this run come to an end. Until then I’ll do my very best to continue on creating and hopefully everyone can enjoy. I’d also like to give a special thanks to everyone who has chosen to watch and support me and my content. I value everyone’s likes, comments, shares, and messages. So thank you so much for the support, I hope to continue entertaining you for a long time to come!

Simply Transformed

A Charlestown couple sources, upcycles, and sells storied furnishings

“We love finding quality old furniture that we can bring to new life,” says Chris Denneny of the business he shares with his wife Mary Jane Ferland-Denneny, Granary Farmhouse Antiques. Their combined efforts, which include refinishing, restoring, and repurposing curbside, picked, and sourced finds, can be found at their Granary Workshop in Charlestown, Jules Antiques and General Store in Richmond, and across the northern Rhode Island border in Putnam, CT at Antiques Marketplace.

“I learned how to refinish furniture years ago from my previous father-in-law who was a master craftsman,” says Mary Jane. “I started painting furniture as I came across pieces where it wasn’t possible to restore them due to either cost or lack of availability of the right materials.” She explains that a popular furniture look from the 1940s and 1950s typically used veneer finishes on top of natural wood; not only is it often cost-prohibitive to refinish them properly today but that style isn’t in right now and demand is low. Instead, “painting these pieces gives them a new look and brings them into the present.”

Mary Jane revels in giving wood furniture a distressed look with decorative paint techniques like layering finishes, distressing, and applying stencils. “Our style ranges from shabby chic to modern farmhouse. We feel that all the pieces can fit into a farmhouse from any era.”

The duo can often be found at estate auctions, where Chris is the picker and buyer. They also travel to Lancaster, Pennsylvania a few times a year to buy from Amish craftspeople. “They’ll tear down an old school or barn and use the wood to build furniture, and we purchase some of those,” says Chris. For Mary Jane, though, the most gratifying part of the process is finding furniture on the side of the road that she can transform into something beautiful that someone wants to put in their home. She recently modified a set of “trashed” drawers into a series on legs. “I thought they would make cool plant stands,” she adds of the inventive pairing.

Looking over some of their current inventory, like a blue dresser from the 1800s, Chris says, “This is rock-solid and will last another 100 years. The original wood color was very outdated, but now, painted a light beachy blue, it can fit into a coastal home or a farmhouse.” Mary Jane’s favorite is the tall, 1920s dresser that she stenciled with a Damask pattern and treated to multiple coats of pale, icy gray-blue paint. It’s a work of art that she spent many hours on. With a smile, Mary Jane says, “I’ve always loved antiques and always dreamt of doing this as a business.”

From Memorial Day to Columbus Day find Granary Farmhouse Antiques at the General Stanton Inn Flea Market on Sundays in Charlestown. For an appointment at their home workshop, contact them through the “Get In Touch” link at GranaryAntiques.com or Instagram: GranaryFarmhouseAntiques

An Oddity at the Greenwich Odeum Award-winning actress and director Kyra Sedgwick brings her film back to Rhode Island

“This film is a love letter to Rhode Island!” Kyra Sedgwick said to a cheering full house at the Greenwich Odeum Theater in East Greenwich early April at the premiere of Space Oddity , a movie she directed and filmed in North Kingstown and Saunderstown in the summer of 2021.

The movie stars Kyle Allen ( West Side

Story ) as Alex McAllister, Alexandra Shipp ( X Men ) as Daisy Taylor, and Sedgwick’s husband Kevin Bacon ( Footloose , Apollo 13 ) as Je McAllister. Set in Wickford, the plot follows the McAllister family in the aftermath of losing their oldest son Tom in a car crash that Alex caused. Instead of taking over the family flower farm, grief-stricken Alex is preparing for a “one-way” trip to Mars, until things are complicated by his connection to Daisy. Sedgwick says she loved the script for its honesty and hope, and because it reminds us that this planet is the only one we have and we have to take care of it, she said.

Local actors, extras, and crew members packed the Odeum for the 6pm screening, frequently hooting and applauding when they recognized familiar faces and locales, such as Robin Hollow Farm in Saunderstown, which served as the McAllister farm, and Wickford Middle School. Afterwards, Sedgwick joined producer Valerie Stadler and Rhode Island Film and TV Office director Steve Feinberg on stage for a Q&A session. Rhode Island, Sedgwick said, was a wonderful place to shoot “because the people here were so kind and lovely to us and not at all cynical about the movie business.” She credited Feinberg for his enthusiasm and dedication to the film industry.

Bacon, who was spotted lunching at Sophie’s Brewhouse in Exeter in June 2021 with his wife, did not make an appearance at the Odeum.

Space Oddity debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in March. It is in a handful of theaters across the country and available to rent on Apple TV and Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.

Featured Designers: