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Photographs by Bethany Schrock, Etsy Journal
Erin and Ben have been redoing the home they bought nine years ago to accommodate large family and friend gatherings.
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Each room, from the eat-in kitchen to the living room to the master bedroom and beyond, showcases sentimental objects and personal collections.
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Golden Rule founder Erin Duininck with her husband, Ben, and children, Lillian and River, outside their home in Excelsior.
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Duininck’s former art studio near the main home was remade into a 450-square-foot tiny house.
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Alex and Dan Cordell, creators of the home goods brand Solid Manufacturing Company, now live in the converted tiny home.
There aren’t many hard-and-fast rules at the Duininck home. A free-spirited, all-are-welcome attitude is palpable from the moment you turn on the gravel road to the family’s homestead, a two-acre leafy tract that houses the old farmhouse with a modern addition overlooking Galpin Lake. There’s also a tiny house nearby where friends and founders of Solid Manufacturing (a furniture and leather goods company) live. In the kitchen, 1-year-old River pads by looking for his ever-watchful sister, Lillian, 13, while Erin Duininck takes out a batch of mac and cheese from the oven. This summer, Etsy Journal featured Duininck’s family in a story about her shop, Golden Rule, which sells jewelry she designs and other maker goods, many sourced from Etsy, and her life at home, which also celebrates community. “As a family, our calling is to invite and host and gather,” she says. That philosophy is how she runs her business—Golden Rule is a hub for frequent gatherings, workshops, and often hosts other local businesses. (In December, look for Minneapolis’s Arlee Park to pop up there.) Back at home, time capsules fill Duininck’s walls—Lillian’s drawings, a scrap of song lyrics, art by area makers. “I’m notorious for bringing everything to my framer—handwriting samples, old mittens, nostalgic puzzles,” she says. “I assign meaning to everything.”
