Hallmark+ is the Hallmarkies’ source for getting a deep dive into the real-life passion projects of its favorite stars. Following in the footsteps of Jonathan Bennett, Wes Brown, Lacey Chabert, and Ashley Williams, Luke Macfarlane is bringing his love of woodworking and home restoration to the streamer in the six-episode Home Is Where the Heart Is. Partnered with interior designer Olivia Westbrooks, Macfarlane embarks on a weekly mission around Georgia to help families both renovate select parts of their properties and reclaim someone lost to them, who shared their love of the house.
Imbuing each project with a modern aesthetic and practical functionality according to each family’s needs and historically appropriate design elements, the duo are also careful to preserve some of the original touches that made the house a home in the first place. Each week, they get the download from the current homeowners about the home’s historical and personal significance and why it’s important to keep it while also breathing new life into it.
While Westbrooks focuses on the design concepts, Macfarlane gets to work bringing it to life, even handcrafting special pieces for each family. In delivering the functionality they need — a butcher block for the stove or a repurposed fireplace mantle, he’s also leaving a piece of himself in each home. It’s a neat, Hallmarkian take on home improvement and a chance for one of the network’s favorite sons to showcase and share his artistry outside the realm of the romcom.
Macfarlane and Westbrooks have an easy rapport, and even when they have different ideas for realizing each family’s vision, they reach a happy medium that plays to each other’s strengths. Mixed in with their scenes of planning and doing the renovation, each episode also spends a little time with each family as they share what’s so special about their homes.
Home Is Where the Heart Is premieres with two episodes beginning at 3:01 am ET on Thursday, March 20th on Hallmark+, with the remaining episodes dropping on the four Thursdays that follow.Here’s a sneak peek.
Photos and video courtesy of Hallmark Media.
