The Cabbage Dispatch: Meet Bea Copeland

Hey there! I’m Bea, a video creator, DIYer, and home enthusiast exploring how we can create and enjoy more sustainability in our homes.

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Check out the other chapters of the Cabbage Dispatch (and more) here.

I grew up obsessed with home design. Maybe because I’m the daughter of an architect, or because I was constantly seeking order among the chaos of four sisters (think Little Women, I’m Jo). Or perhaps because my mom produces theater, where the stage is a revolving door into the homes of strangers. As a girl, my favorite playdates involved rearranging friends’ rooms or building elaborate Barbie houses. As a teen, I spent hours playing The Sims, where, with the click of a mouse, I could paint an entire room, or use a cheat code to triple my building budget. In college, I started organizing dorm rooms and by my 20s I had turned my hobby into a professional business and YouTube series, Bea Organized.

Renovating a house with my dad had always been on my bucket list. Even though I was content living in NYC, whenever I would visit my parents who were an hour train ride north in New York’s Hudson Valley, I would keep an eye out for “a project.” On a snowy afternoon in early 2021, my dad and I passed a ‘For Sale By Owner’ sign at the mouth of an unplowed driveway. We pulled in a car’s length, careful to not get stuck, and walked the rest of the way to the house, a dilapidated ranch with splintery cedar siding, smashed windows, and multiple code violation notifications taped to the rusted front door. It was both frightening and exciting! A walk around the house revealed an unobstructed view of the Appalachian Trail ridge line and a tall weeping willow off to the side that hinted, “There’s beauty here.” My dad gave me a look — This is it.

The house was built in 1959 as a summer bungalow. The blackened cedar siding reminded me of a cabin in the woods while the single-story layout with large windows looked like a cottage. It’s a cottage-y cabin, a cabin-y cottage… And that’s how my new home, The Cabbage, got its name.

I am so grateful that with this one (albeit huge) project of renovating The Cabbage, I’m bringing so many personal dreams to life. Designing alongside my dad, putting years of Pinterest boards to use, and ultimately creating a home (read: playground) where I can explore my passion for sustainable living. I don’t have a welcome mat yet — in fact the front steps have rotted off the house — but consider this your invitation to The Cabbage. I hope you’ll join me on this journey of many discoveries (and splinters), and that we’ll all come away with renewed excitement and inspiration for what makes a healthy home.