Welcome to the LBC!!
Hello!! I am so glad that you have stumbled upon us and we welcome you!! We are a brick and mortar home decor market located in the downtown area of Casper, Wyoming. I want to give you a little tidbit of what we do! I get asked a lot when our customer come in of why I decided to do this so I am here to share my journey with you!!
Firstly, I am a wife, mother and also currently a part time Cosmetologist but most importantly I am a lover of design, decorated and repurposing. I have always LOVED to decorate, design, rearrange and make things look new or different. I actually used to rearrange my room once a month when I was younger. I still rearrange and redecorate my house often. I love change and need change to make things feel fresh and new.But I dont always want to spend a lot! And a lot of times doing just a slight rearrange of furniture will give me that fix I need. My mom always had a project going when I was younger and I think my love for design and decorating comes from her.
At 17 I went to Beauty School and got my Nail Technician License. And then a few years later followed that with getting my full Cosmetology License. During that time I taught Nails at a local Beauty School and also took an Interior Design course. Throughout these things, I know I have a passion for decorating, designing, being creative and that I love to teach people.
I feel like all these things have come together in a big ball of what makes my store what it is and what I hope it becomes.
Now onto what has become this “Carriage House turned Home Market”
We bought our house back in 2007. We had looked and looked at a ton of houses. We had an amazing realtor that was dead set on finding us exactly what we wanted. I had a deep desire to have an old house. We would look at newer ones and all I saw was lots of work to make it how I would want it. We had looked a couple older homes in the downtown area and they too were a ton of work or way over our budget! We got a call from our agent one night and she wanted us to come look at this house right away. This house was actually under contract and it had fallen thru and had been back on the market for less than 24 hours. The moment I walked in the front door I knew that this was it, this was MY house, I really didn’t need to look any further. It was built in 1917 and most of the charm and charter was still in tact which most houses rarely are. And if you can imagine, none of the trim or doors had been painted over. Which if you are a lover of old houses most trim and doors have been painted! Most importantly someone had taken a lot care and making new parts of this house look just as old as the original areas. This house also has 2 detached building which one would now has become the LBC.
So back in October of 2016 my family went to Colorado for the weekend. There is a store there my mother-in-law has loved shopping at over the years. She had encouraged me to go in and see the store.The atmosphere of this store was something I won’t forget! We went home and a few weeks later we were all together and my mother and father in law and brought up that I should open a store like the one in Colorado. Of course I’m thinking in my head I would love that, but how would I do that? I already have a Beauty Salon, we have 3 kiddos. Could I add another thing to my already crazy life!
My inlaws have a shop that they had recommended that I could use. It wasn’t in an ideal location so I was uncertain
that would work well. Plus, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to afford much as far as a rent payment would be concerned and still allow for some great merchandise. But my husband who is worth more than I can ever give him credit for, chimed in, we could just use the garage. One of our detached buildings, we assume was the original carriage house. And the moment he said that I knew it would be perfect. Now mind you, our garage was full of “garage stuff.” So now onto the garage clean out!!
My mind will go 100 mph when it comes to creating or designing, so I immediately started brainstorming what we were going to do to this garage to make it into a store front. I brainstormed for months as we started getting our garage cleaned out so I could start designing the space. There were many things that came into place as we started construction of the store.
We had a set of french doors that we were going to use inside our house and no longer needed. I knew I wanted 
windows flanking the front door to the store. We had come home from looking for windows and I was looking thru some of the stuff that we had that we needed to get rid of. I said to my husband “How about we forget the window idea and use these french doors in place of the windows.” I was dead set on having a floor to ceiling window and any in stock window would never fit the bill. As of today the look and feel that those french doors give the storefront is my absolute favorite thing about my store. It lends a very southern feel to a very western town we live in.
I didn’t want to overpower this space with a lot of extras. I wanted it to be fairly simple to allow for my products to be 
showcased. So we left the concrete floor as they were and just coated them with some paint. I painted the walls and the ceilings. We also left the garage doors where our new storefront now is. We put them up and have them locked in place. They create a very nice architectural detail when you first walk in. I love to reuse things and use things that I already have. We have had another set of doors in that garage since we moved in that we not the same profile as the rest of the doors in our house. I figured I would use them one day, somehow. We ended up hanging them from the ceiling with rope to create a divider as you walk in. My husband has done quite a bit of granite and stone work and we have had a pile of random countertops in our garage as well. I knew I was going to need a counter of some sort so I ended up using our kids old changing table, topping it with granite and adding some grey stained shiplap to the front. We proceeded on over the next months making this “manly garage” into what’s now a quaint carriage house turned Home Market. We completed construction in about 5 months.
I always get asked questions on what the name means and why we named the store Lee Brennon Charles Home Market. As soon as we decided we were going on this adventure I immediately started pondering possible names. At first I wanted something simple, a one word name, something easy to remember and kind of a no brainer. Yet, possibly something that had some special meaning to our family. I can’t even remember what things I thought of now because none ever felt right. But one day I just came to my husband and said, “What if we name the store after the kids.” He said “Well, what are you thinking?” I knew their first names would never flow very well, Tryston, Garret and Braden. So I told him what if we use their middle names? Lee…Brennon…Charles!! He was uncertain because it was going against everything I wanted. It wasn’t one word and it wasn’t simple. But the moment I said it it just felt right, it felt like it was meant to be. And it did fit one criteria which was…its something that means something to us!! Actually, it means everything!! I knew I wanted to make sure people knew what I was selling so I added Home Market so that people could identify that I’m selling things for the home. No matter where this road takes us Lee Brennon Charles can be anything we want it to be and will always have a special place in our hearts as do these 3 sweet little boys!
I love painting furniture, really I love painting anything. I love decorating and I love taking something I already have and giving it new life. God has granted me many gifts in my life. This entire process has been by the Grace of Him guiding me into things I would never believe would be possible. This has been the easiest, yet the hardest journey of my life and my hope is that He can allow me to inspire you, encourage you and teach you my passion. Whether that is helping you with your own project, offering you a unique furniture piece or purchasing an accessory for your home. And I hope my crazy and creative brain will inspire you to decorate, re-love a piece of furniture or accessorize an area of your house that makes you fall in love with it!
Happy Decorating, With Love,
Samantha Harkins and the LBC crew.
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