Mother Stories
Colorful Minimalism With Andrea Duclos in West Palm Beach
Written by Erin Feher
Photography by Photography by Celia D. Luna
Nov 13, 2019
Today’s mama is a force for so many reasons. When Andrea Duclos found herself single and unexpectedly pregnant nine years ago, she knew she was going to have to get creative (and work really hard) to make a good life for herself and her baby. She had been blogging since she was a teen and decided to start up again, hoping she would be able to make ends meet working and writing from home. Her little site, ohdeardrea, became an instant hit, and allowed her to raise her daughter Marlowe the way (and where) she wanted—including taking her out of kindergarten and homeschooling so they could travel around the world. Marlowe’s K curriculum included stays in Guatemala, France, Nepal, Mexico, and Colombia. Today, Marlowe, Andrea, and her chef husband, Alex, live in a colorful condo in West Palm Beach, Florida, and are practicing paring down and fine tuning their eco-friendly, vegan lifestyle—she even wrote her own vegan cookbook! Today, Andrea gives us a tour of her new digs and talks honestly about her time as a single mama, her health challenges, and what’s next for this breakout blogger (hint: it involves a retreat in Costa Rica for the whole family!). Click through the full slideshow below!
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- "We newly bought this little condo of ours. We moved from a larger home with a yard—and beautiful garden—into this much smaller condo in an attempt to downsize and minimize our lives. We’ve been here about six months or so now and we’re pretty happy with our new space so far."
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- "I’d say it’s a clean and bright, but cozy space. We keep it pretty simple, but have a beautiful collection of handmade things from around the world."
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- Andrea wears a Reformation top and Kordal pants. Marlowe wears an The Animals Observatory dress.
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- "We moved in and put in new flooring and painted some walls. And that’s it. We’d prefer a more beautiful kitchen and bathroom space, but after much debate, we decided it was much more eco-friendly to leave what is already here. While we’d love something more beautiful, what we have is functional and works. Maybe it would be different if we planned to live here forever, but we don’t. This is a temporary—but beautiful—space for us."
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- "We really like things neat and organized around here. We also strive for a more minimalistic life, aiming to keep things clean and functional. But at the same time, we all really enjoy things that are aesthetically pleasing, so I feel like we have a good balance of keeping things simple, but keeping a few beautiful, decorative, and meaningful pieces, too. If it’s not highly functional or sentimental, it probably wont make it into our home."
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- "No, definitely not. Even now it’s hard to call ourselves true minimalists, since we do keep some objects that serve little purpose other than being beautiful. But I’ve never loved clutter and have always valued efficiency above all else, so the transition into less material things isn’t too surprising. We hope to have even less to carry in the future."
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- "Marlowe’s room in this condo is actually slightly larger than her room at the previous home. This wasn’t intentional, but it's definitely an enjoyed perk. It’s also the busiest and least minimalistic room of the house. It was important for us to let her keep whatever she wanted in our move. The goal for us is not to have her part with the things that she already owns, but to be mindful of whatever might come in. Other than a Lego set for her birthday or some new books here and there, not much else will come into her room at this point. Well, we’ll have to upgrade her desk eventually, but that’s because she refuses to stop growing."
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- Marlowe is the house DJ.
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- "I really enjoy all the treasures from our travels. I love our Guatemalan rugs and our Mexican masks. I love our textiles from India and our copper pieces from Nepal. Oh, and I love our tiger/volcano artwork by Marlowe. It’s a favorite for sure. Basically, I love all the sentimental memory pieces most of all. Our bed is pretty damn wonderful, too, though."
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- "Marlowe is welcome to play anywhere and everywhere she likes. Other than finding a book on the couch every morning, she does keep most of the things in her room, though. From the very beginning, we always worked on the idea that everything we own should have a place. So, she uses something and it goes back to its home. She does this without asking now, things are used and then go back where they belong."
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- The fruit bowls are always full around here.
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- "It is absolutely wonderfully amazing that I get to watch my tiny human grow into a full-sized human everyday. I can see my everyday impact on her and her personality, but she’s also her own person, too. And it’s so cool to watch her sense of self and sense of place in the world develop."
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- "I had a few childhood traumas when I was younger. I never want those things to happen to her. It’s also hard when you look at the devolving state of the world and you want to change it for your child, but you can’t."
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- "I cried endlessly when I found out I was having a girl. I was a single mom through pregnancy and the first two years. And in my head it just seemed better for a child and for myself to be a single mom raising a boy. It all worked out in the end, and I am so incredibly grateful for the relationship her and I have. Had I not been single, I would have been tremendously happy with either."
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- "Marlowe Paloma. No special meanings really. I saw the name Marlowe as a last name and fell in love. For the middle name I was leaning towards a Spanish name—I’m Colombian—and I loved the name Paloma. Nothing more. I probably would have just named her November Rain otherwise. Not for any reason other than being ridiculous."
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- The most colorful snacks for this fruit-loving fam.
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- "Marlowe is 9 and loves all things artistic, creative, and nature-based. Hand her a new novel or a Lego set and she’ll disappear for hours."
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- "No. Definitely not. I mean, I love being a mother, and I’m boggled by the people who say that parenting is hard—I don't think is has to be. But even now, I still don’t love babies and I’m really not sure if I would have chosen motherhood or not. I probably would have, but I don’t know. Either way I’m grateful it chose me."
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- "Other than the fact that I was single, scared, and it was not planned, pregnancy was great. Sure I had back pain towards the end, but physically I had a great pregnancy. Honestly, I thank my vegan diet for that."
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- "No, the whole thing was very untraditional. I had just gone back to college after a few years off. I was going to school and working part time. My parents offered to help for a few months until I could make a new, post-baby plan. I’m grateful for it. In that time I was able to establish my blog and start creating an income at home."
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- Marlowe wears a Hugo Loves Tiki dress.
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- "Hmm. I definitely didn’t read any parenting books. And I hardly researched the internet at that time. I did watch The Business of Being Born when I was newly pregnant and I found that to be insightful. But mostly I just went with my gut."
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- "Not really. I mean, my grandmas were amazing women. I’d be happy to be like either one of them."
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- "You know, I try to picture my mom and her motherhood style and I can’t. Like, I know she loved me and fed me and clothed me, but I don’t remember much outside of that—like being taught about life or ideals. My mom was a great mom, but I think she was often wrapped up in the material part of life rather than the emotional. But she let me be me. Which is important for any human, no matter what the age. She wasn’t too strict or stuck in ideas."
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- Andrea hand-painted the rainbow in Marlowe's bedroom.
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- "I’m not sure if I’m super strict. I think the idea of strictness is relative though. But we do have structures in place. I expect Marlowe to be kind, polite, thoughtful, and I especially expect her to take care of herself and the planet. It’s really important for me to have a mindful child in this changing world. Marlowe and I have a lot of one-on-one time together. A lot of conversations. A lot of creative time. We have a really close and intimate relationship. It’s great. I hope it stays that way."
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- "Yes and no. I never try to focus on sexism. Regardless of my own sex or my daughter's sex, I expect her to be a powerful, confident force. I feel like focusing on the fact that we’re females puts an emphasis on the fact that some might consider us ‘less than’—we’re not. The planet needs us."
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- "Motherhood doesn’t have to be as scary or as hard as many make it seem. Motherhood will be whatever you make it. Create the life you want, because you can."
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- "I love the idea of going through a pregnancy with my husband since we never experienced that before, but we are happy with one child and don’t plan to have more. It’s just more sustainable for our lives and for the planet not to. But we’d love to adopt one day if we can."
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- "I blog at ohdeardrea, create photography content for companies, and I wrote a vegan cookbook, too. I love all three, but I am feeling a shift coming on soon. I'm taking this half-way sabbatical time to figure that all out."
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- "I was born in South Florida but moved to Massachusetts with my mother and brother when my parents divorced. I spent my time between the two places my whole life. After high school I went to Rhode Island for college, but I only lasted three years before I couldn’t take any more winter and needed to bail out. I moved to the hottest and sunniest place I could find—Arizona! It was 115 degrees the week I moved there. Eventually, I realized I couldn't really convince family and friends to visit me out in the desert and moved back to South Florida. I’ve basically been here ever since, mostly taking on odd jobs—managing a health food store and a hippie shop, waitressing, bartending, all the things. I went back to school and decided to start up a new blog—I had publicly blogged since I was 16—when I became pregnant. That eventually grew into the full-time business I have now."
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- "Well, I’ve been blogging online since I was about 15 or 16—so about 18 years. But when I became pregnant I thought, 'you know, I don’t know if this can become a full-time job, but let me see what I can do with it.' Well, I got pretty lucky cause it picked up quickly and I was able to support myself and my daughter with my blog and a part time job, and then eventually just my blog pretty quickly. I feel like I would have blogged regardless of motherhood, but motherhood made me curious about the earning potential as well, since I obviously would prefer any job where I can support my family at home."
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- "Yeah, it’s pretty much the only perk of living where I live. My dad and brother and their families are not too far away. I have great friends whom I’ve known for years, and I make new friends often here. I know if I need it, someone is almost always available to help. Asking if the hard part!"
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- "Marlowe started kindergarten like an average kid—sort of. The school near our house was a pretty terrible one, but we were lucky enough that she qualified for a gifted program not too far away. While it was a decent option, the idea of homeschool kept creeping in. And it wasn’t too far into the school year when we decided we would like to pull her out of school and try moving to Guatemala for a year. So, we pulled her out and started homeschooling at home. A few months later we made our way to Guatemala. We were only there for about a month or two and then we left due to a pregnancy/miscarriage situation. We spent the next year and a half mostly traveling. We took her to France, Nepal, Mexico, Colombia, and a handful of other places. While we still worked on the basics for school, we mostly focused on learning out in the world. I guess a homeschool/world-school/unschool sort of situation."
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- "Cut out the junk and don’t overthink it."
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- "Hmmm. I felt guilty when I went to India without Marlowe. And then we tried to go together in our time abroad, but we got Giardia or some sort of water bug in Nepal and never made it to India. So, it’s definitely on my 'must make that up to her one day' list. I don’t know, mostly I feel bad when I do something fun that I know she would enjoy, too. I try not to overthink it, because I know she’s enjoying her time anyway."
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- "It’s super important. Kids are taking note of everything we do, even if they don’t realize it. You want your kid to get off their devices? Then you get off your devices. You want your kid to clean up after themselves? Then you clean up after yourself. Be the person you hope your kid to be."
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- "Relaxed and simple. I might have a few decorative earrings, but everything else is pretty much blue jeans, jean shorts, and t-shirts."
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- "I’ve gone through a few style phases in my life. I wore more dresses and skirts with pregnancy but I’ve slowly phased that out."
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- "I basically rotate between a pair of jean shorts, jeans, or some sort of easy cotton pants everyday. For tops it’s mostly t-shirts. I love the company Franc. The clothes are so easy and so comfortable and ethically made in Canada. Love them. The jeans I wear most these days are from Reformation. I have mixed feelings about the company and the quality, but some of their pieces are pretty great. If I purchase any new pieces, I make sure they are sustainably and ethically made. Outside of that, a lot of my clothes now are secondhand or one-of-a-kind handmade pieces I find while traveling."
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- Andrea also hand-painted the gorgeous ombré walls in her bedroom—a task she doesn't necessarily recommend to others!
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- Andrea wears an Amour Vert top and Levi's jean shorts.
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- "Haha, well, I have a bottle of jojoba oil for my face. A bottle of coconut oil for my body. A bottle of cocoa powder for my hair. And I skin brush daily. I keep it really minimal around here. I’m slowly phasing out makeup as well. Sunshine and clean water are my favorite beauty products."
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- "I’ve slowly started adding workouts to my schedule. I was really sick for a long time and my body couldn’t handle it. Now I do weight training in hopes to gain some strength back. I also try to sauna daily—we have both a gym and sauna in our building. And I meditate every morning. I'm really trying to detox and focus over here."
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"Honestly, I feel like I’m still figuring the whole thing out. C. difficile was the only proper diagnosis I had when I was hospitalized. But I was suffering long before the antibiotic I took created the c. diff overgrowth. It was a series of events that led to my body crashing: mercury exposure from poor dental work, heavy metal poisoning from vaccines, and overworking myself with motherhood, working on my blog, my cookbook, planning retreats, and more. So, not only did I have to repair my damaged colon and immune system, but now that that’s mostly getting into place, I have to detox the rest of the junk built up in my body."
"It’s been a slow and often painful process. But I am getting somewhere. My gut and energy has begun to heal since switching to a high-carb fruitarian diet. And now I’m working on detoxing through saunas and meditation. I’m not 100% better, but I’m light years better for the bedridden self that I was."
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- "Well, we’re all on a high-carb, low-fat, fruitarian diet now. And honestly, that's been awesome. I have seen our energy levels and overall health significantly increase since we all made the change. Marlowe has gotten sick once in the last three years since we made the switch. There were some changes that were hard—becoming a gluten-free household is not easy when you have a husband who dreamed of being a bread baker—but it’s been so helpful for all of us to just be mindful of how the natural and unnatural world affects us."
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"I have A LOT of me time right now. More me time than I’ve ever experienced in my whole life. Marlowe started school this year for the first time in three years. And my husband's work schedule shifted with him opening a new restaurant. And now, for the first time ever, I have alone time for a big chunk of the day. The me four years ago would have been GO GO GO and overworking myself to the ground with this time. But the me now is making the decision to slow down on all things and focus on healing. So, I spend my morning meditating. Then some gym or yoga time. Then the sauna, where I spend my time reading."
"Work is secondary for me right now. Which is actually crazy hard. I’ve always been one of those people who focused on efficiency, and every day I have to remind myself that rest is efficient…and sometimes crucial. If I want to really live and thrive in the life I want, I need to let myself fully heal now. Otherwise, I’ll just be a ticking bomb that can and probably will crash again."
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- Andrea wears a handmade button up from Mexico, Sotela pants, and Pons Avarcas shoes. Marlowe wears a dress she made herself and Pons Avarcas shoes.
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- "We like the beach here…when we can use it. There are a lot of pollution problems here in South Florida due to agricultural run-off—primarily 'big sugar,' but also due to animal agriculture and conventional farming. So, there is a good part of the year that we can’t swim in the ocean due to contamination. But when we can use the beach? Well, then we’re there all the time."
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- "We can’t wait to leave! It’s mostly dependent on my husband's job, but we have about a three-or-so-year plan to make our way out of here. We tried to move to Guatemala a few years ago and came back due to unforeseen events, but we hope to make our way back down to Central America again one day."
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- "Even after relocating to 'downtown' there really isn’t too much to do here in West Palm Beach—like, we go to the beach a lot. But other than that we usually just head south to Miami for family days. We like to plan beach picnics a lot. Or just spend time with friends at home. Or we host friends over for dinner often, since we eat a mostly plant-based diet. There’s not really places to shop around here, which works totally fine for us since we’re aiming to avoid shopping anyway. We live a quiet life when we’re home, but it’s fine, we’re trying to enjoy the quiet mellow life, too."
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- "Travel opens a whole new world of connections, language, knowledge, and gratitude. We need to be able to see beyond ourselves and our direct lives to understand how our own lives impact the global environment and economy. We try to get out in the world often and gain knowledge without taking away from cultures and places. Each trip leaves me feeling renewed and happy, and I can see the change in my entire family, too. I’m always grateful for it."
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- "Yes! I’m hosting a family-friendly sustainable living retreat this coming March in Costa Rica. It’ll be all vegan/fruitarian-based with a ton of workshops focusing on being more sustainable in a non-sustainable world. There’ll be workshops on permaculture, parenting, mind-body connections, yoga classes, nature excursions, and so much more—I'm really looking forward to that. As for resolutions, I want to commit to my health, without feeling guilt. And I want to make a real business plan. I don’t necessarily plan on leaving my blog forever, but I really want to spark up something new. I like new things."
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- For more on Andrea and Marlowe, be sure to follow along at ohdeardrea and Instagram.
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I love her comment about leaving their kitchen and bathroom the way they are because it’s more eco friendly. I feel like there is a lot of focus on sustainability in clothing, skin care, etc, but then we’re all bombarded with home renovations shows/instagram accounts/etc. So much of what is taken out of a home just becomes trash and it’s all to keep up with the latest design trends and home fashions. Thanks for leading by example!
From what I can see of the kitchen, it looks totally fine. It even looks like it fits in with the rest of the house. Every time I click on anything that says “kitchen renovation” nowadays it’s always some copycat
mess of ikea looking cabinets, subway tile, floating shelves, smeg fridge, etc. and the before pictures look totally fine. I applaud her for not renovating hers.