Writer / Ashley Dykton
When needing fresh new home decorating ideas, stylish decor or that perfect gift, there is no better place to find that unique something than Mary and Martha Home.
Originally opening in Northwest Indiana, owner Dawn Johnson moved her business to the heart of Brownsburg in 2022 to be closer to her daughter, Sarah Chastain.
“My mom started this business over 25 years ago and I didn’t join until she moved the store to Brownsburg. It wasn’t supposed to be a long-term scenario. I was just going to help her get started by hiring and training the staff, but I fell in love. I love working with my mom. We found that we have different strengths but that we make a good team. Where I’m not as strong in an area, she is, so we balance each other out really well,” says owner Sarah Chastain.
A common misconception is the name of the business is Mary and Martha, and people think that must be the owners’ names, but in fact, owner Dawn Johnson picked the names to reference the two sisters, Mary and Martha, whose story in the Bible demonstrates the importance of balancing priorities to serve as a reminder to herself to keep her grounded when she originally opened her store over 20 years ago, balancing a new business and raising a family when she originally opened her store in Northwest Indiana.
From the moment you walk through the door, Mary and Martha Home is different. It’s more than a local store but a shopping experience. Being a home décor store, it’s important that it exudes a feeling that shoppers will want to recreate. It’s the ambiance of the great smells and the warm atmosphere of carefully curated pieces in the store that creates a coziness that makes guests want to replicate that same feeling in their own homes.
Mary and Martha Home is committed to offering a selection of gifts, décor pieces, art and furniture that customers cannot find elsewhere by carefully curating their collection by selectively sourcing items by going to market twice a year.
In a world where everything is mass-produced and so many stores typically sell the same item with slightly different variations, it’s hard to find unique pieces, and Mary and Martha Home prides itself on purposely choosing distinctive items.
What makes Mary and Martha Home so unique is that they really pride themselves on being an in-store shopping experience. Mary and Martha’s in-store inventory is not available on their website, which prompts customers to come to the store to shop. The store is purposely laid out with intention and attention to detail to not feel overwhelming, with a small, dedicated group of staff that provides expert assistance and is attentive to the shoppers, building a relationship and learning their customers’ names. Currently, there are no future plans to expand their footprint to a larger space, including their vacant neighbor next door, or to offer any online shopping because that will take away from the intimacy and the human connection that is special about Mary and Martha.
“When you walk in, you immediately know our store is different. There’s a warmness here, and honestly, it’s not even something we carry. It just happened that way. We try to bring in items and find the things you can’t find everywhere else. We feel it’s really important that people shop in person because you can shop online for home decor anywhere you want, but walking into Mary and Martha Home is a totally different experience than walking into a bigger named store. The space next door to us has been vacant since we moved in, but we don’t have any intentions on expanding there because it would just make us feel big, and we just want to stay small and unique. We have decided not to offer online shopping so that we can build that relationship with our customers and help them. We want to be that source of support for them when they need something,” says Chastain.
Come find your newest home inspiration and shop at Mary and Martha Home, located at 5724 N. Green St., and open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m.
