From left, Brian Burkhart, Percy Burkhart, Mary Burkhart, MK Watkins, Keaton Wells, Evan Maple.
Our Little World — located at 20 N. Van Buren St. — staying true to its name, is a world of its own.
Home to all things vintage, handmade and educational, it’s a place to learn how to make new crafts, shop for unique items and explore both coffee and wine bars. The shop includes a coffeehouse, Percy’s Perk in the back where shoppers can buy coffee, donuts and replicas of the shop’s mascot Percy. In a separate corner, there is a wine and beer bar where people can sip on their favorite flavors while hand-making a craft — think wine and canvas, but the possibilities are endless.
Mary and Brian Burkhart started their Nashville shop journey in 2020 when they opened the original location near Naughty Dog Books as a vintage and handmade art store. They later expanded and began offering painting pottery and candle making, but the dream was to eventually have an accessible community art center.
“One thing that’s been fun here is watching it turn into what the community wants, it’s a very community oriented space with the coffee shop, tables, games and things to do,” Mary said. “Sometimes we will have families where part of them are painting pottery and the other part is playing a game on the other side. We have regulars that come in on certain days, we know them by name and what they get. We also have regulars that come in to make and take, so I think it is already turning into that. With this expansion, we’ll keep fleshing it in and offering different and new things to make and do. A lot has happened this year and it has turned into more of what I envisioned.”
In 2022 they opened their shop at the current location, but expanded into their newest space with the pottery wheels, bar and adult-centered projects in January of this year. The coffee shop also opened around the same time.
The make and take section offers crafts for all ages including, pottery, painting, wood burning and designing, metal stamping, leather stamping, coloring, knitting, glass fusing and more.
“On the weekends, we suggest you book an appointment so one of us can be dedicated to helping you (for knitting chunky blankets),” Mary said. “That needs booking ahead of time, the customized signs do too. That requires us to get all of your stencils cut out with your name or saying. The pottery wheels also require you to book ahead. Certain things like the chunky knit blanket and the pottery have their own space on the website, the other regular make and take or personalized, you can sign up for online as well.”
Reservations for make and take spaces can be made online at ourlittleworldstudio.com/collections/makers-space-events.
The prices have a wide variety, to make them accessible at every price point. For example, making candles ranges from $10 to $30, painting pottery starts at $12.
“Most of it is in that $12 to $30 range,” Mary said. “We try to keep things reasonable, I don’t want locals to feel like we’re priced out. We are, if not typical, priced better than if you go out of town to paint pottery and you get it back a lot faster. I would rather people come again than to have in their head that it is pricey and not come back.”
With the holiday season quickly approaching, Mary has seen many groups who visit to make personalized Christmas gifts for their loved ones. Glass fusing ornaments is one of the many options people have for gift making.
Both craft rooms can be booked, one is more adult-centric while the other has more options for children and families.
Our Little World offers adult art camps throughout the year where groups are assisted in making their crafts, wine or beer selections are included in the camp. Information on upcoming events can be found on the website at ourlittleworldstudio.com/collections/special-events.
“We’re doing fall Fridays, so there will be little banners for your door, an embroidery project, string art, we’re going to wood burn a charcuterie board when it gets close to Thanksgiving so you could put a saying or your name and gift it to whomever is hosting,” said Mary.
Pottery has more limited time spots because there are six wheels.
“Usually there’s a good option either morning, afternoon or evening on the weekends and I’m always flexible,” Mary said. “If someone contacted me and said they were only here on a specific night, I can be flexible. I even ran over here a few weeks ago on our day off and some ladies from Franklin came down. Another thing that it does, especially this is being in the artist colony, people are walking around shopping and seeing things for sale, if anything I think it gives them a huge appreciation for the handmade artwork. They understand why mugs and pottery are the price that they are.”
