Hi, I’m Anna Marlowe.
Welcome to the home I wish I’d had at 38
The night my apartment stopped feeling like mine
I was 38 when I came home after a long day, dropped my keys on a counter buried in mail, and realized I didn’t like a single thing about the room I was standing in.
It wasn’t dirty. It wasn’t empty. It was full of furniture I had bought for a life I no longer lived: a six-person dining table for guests who never came, a gray sectional chosen because it was “practical,” and a bedroom that looked like a hotel I would never book.
My nine-year relationship had ended that spring. I had moved into a one-bedroom apartment with a car full of boxes and made every decision in a hurry. Buy what’s on sale, put it where it fits, move on.
That night I sat on the floor with a cup of tea that had gone cold and asked myself a question nobody had ever asked me:
What do I actually want my home to feel like?
I didn’t have an answer. It took me almost a year to find one, and that year of trying, failing, returning furniture, and repainting one wall three times is how Ask For Anna began, although I didn’t call it that for a long time.
Why single women deserve better home advice
I spent nine years working as a visual merchandiser for a home furnishings retailer, arranging showrooms that people walked through and said, “I want my home to look like this.” What I noticed, over thousands of customer conversations, was that the advice was almost always built around two people, or a family with kids and a dog.
When a woman came in alone, the message was often the same: buy something simple for now, and do the real decorating when your life settles.
Your life is already happening. Your home should be:
- Yours, not a placeholder until someone else moves in
- Safe and calm, because you’re the one who comes home to it every night
- Practical, because you’re the one who assembles the bookshelf, fixes the running toilet, and carries the groceries up three flights
- Affordable, because you’re building it on one income and your own priorities
I couldn’t find that advice anywhere, so I started writing it.
If you’re standing where I stood
I write for women who live on their own, by choice, by circumstance, or somewhere in between. You might be:
- Someone in her first solo apartment, staring at empty walls and a very long to-do list
- A woman rebuilding after a breakup, divorce, or loss, who needs her home to feel like a fresh start
- A renter who has been told she “can’t” make her space personal (you can, and I’ll show you how)
- Someone who has always lived with roommates or family and is finally choosing her own style
- A homeowner who loves her place but still feels like it isn’t finished
- A woman on a tight budget who refuses to believe that a beautiful home has to be expensive
Whichever one you are, you’re in the right place. I write the guides I wish I had found in my own first year alone.
A few things you should know about me
Most About pages say the author is “passionate” about their topic. I’m not going to do that. Here’s what’s actually true:
- I live in Portland, Maine, in a 620-square-foot rented apartment in a 1920s building with creaky floors and wonderful windows.
- I share it with Biscuit, a gray tabby with strong opinions about every new piece of furniture. She has rejected two chairs and one rug.
- I rearrange my living room every three months. My friends have stopped commenting. Now they just ask where the sofa is this time.
- I once bought a velvet sofa in a deep emerald green for a room that gets full afternoon sun. Within a year it had faded unevenly. Learn from me.
- I have a collection of mismatched thrifted mugs, and I will not be taking questions about how many.
- I’m certified in nothing. I learned most of what I know from nine years in retail merchandising, a lot of trial and error, and an unreasonable number of paint swatches taped to my walls.
- My favorite corner of my home is a small reading nook by the window with a secondhand armchair, a brass floor lamp, and a side table that is actually a stack of old books.
My golden rule: I never buy anything I can’t picture in my home within ten seconds. If I have to talk myself into it, it goes back on the shelf.
How this blog earns the right to be read
I take what I publish personally, because the women reading it are making real decisions about their homes, their safety, and their budgets.
- Every article is researched before it goes live. Product recommendations are based on specs, materials, verified customer reviews, and, whenever possible, my own use.
- Older posts get revisited. Prices, availability, and trends change, so I update or retire articles that are no longer accurate.
- Affiliate links are always disclosed. If I earn a commission, or a post is sponsored, it is clearly marked at the top. You will never have to wonder.
- I’ll tell you what not to buy. If something is overpriced, flimsy, or just not worth it, I’ll say so.
- Safety comes first. For anything involving tools, wiring, mounting, or locks, I’ll point you to a qualified professional when the job calls for one.
That’s the standard I hold this site to. If I ever fall short, I want to hear it from you directly.
One last thing
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably a woman who reads About pages carefully. I respect that. I do the same thing.
So here’s what I believe: a home doesn’t need a second person to be complete. It needs to feel like you the moment you walk through the door. Everything on this blog is a small attempt to help you get there, one corner, one candle, one hard-won decision at a time.
I’m so glad you found this place.
Come say hello at [email protected]. I read every message, and so does Biscuit (she mostly sits on the keyboard).
Anna Marlowe
Founder & Editor, Ask For Anna
