How This Cannabis Entrepreneur Completed Her Own DIY Home Renovation

A home renovation is tricky no matter what, but Charlotte Hanna—a cannabis entrepreneur based in New York—figured it out like a pro. She may be a resident Brooklynite, but she spends a good deal of time in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, a quiet town in the heart of the Berkshires. Although plenty of New Yorkers load up their SUVs and head for the rural mountain towns in the sprawling New England region for vacation purposes, Hanna goes to work. The wife and mother of two is also the founder and CEO of Rebelle, a brand that Hanna describes as “cannabis with a purpose.”

That so-called purpose is abundantly clear upon peeking into her retail boutique on Barrington’s Main Street. Within her shop—which Hanna opened in 2019—she marries two elements seemingly not meant to be together: A minimalist but warm aesthetic that beckons a luxury retail experience and cannabis products. Creating beautiful spaces feels natural to her, especially when it comes to her Prospect Park–adjacent brownstone in Brooklyn, New York.

The planning started well before Hanna even moved into her historic property. She wanted to find the perfect house to unleash her creativity. “I have been looking at this neighborhood for years because the history is so rich and pretty fascinating. Every house is single-family with a driveway and a garage, and no two of them are alike,” she explains. “This neighborhood was actually the first homeowners association in the country, which sounds crazy for Brooklyn,” Hanna says.

After years of hunting around, she and her family finally landed on a four-bedroom home spread across 4,000 square feet that needed a lot of tender love and care. “I had a fixed budget, so I knew that a lot of the work would have to be DIY,” Hanna says. Like any house built at the turn of the century—in 1899, to be specific—there were quite a few original details, including the floors, that Hanna wanted to salvage and restore. However, just as many elements needed to go. Luckily, she knew what she was doing.

“My family is in the real estate business: My dad was a developer, and my mom is really creative, so I grew up with floor plans, swatches, hand-drawing things, and imagining what a space could look like,” she says. With a lifetime of background knowledge, Hanna decided to take up some land, clear it, and build a house in the Hamptons. Though that particular project presented a few challenges, it gave Hanna a taste for renovation, bringing her to her current home project in NYC. “I saw how my parents did it, and I’m going to try to come up with both design and renovation myself,” she says.

She and her husband, who runs a collection of outdoor venues, already had the licensed contractors who could help them get started. Once she got going, she spent the next three months perfecting a complex DIY project. In the main bath, she knocked down a wall that, in the house’s original plans, separated a small powder room and a sitting room to make one large bathroom. There’s also a walk-in closet, new tile, and modern fixtures. The guest bath, however, is where Hanna’s restoration skills shine: Here, she fixed up the original cast-iron corner tub.

The kitchen, which is generally the heart of the home, called for new windows, a small powder room, updated tile, and new fixtures. The crew also installed new cabinets, appliances, and plumbing fixtures. As for the living room, they took up all of the outdated wall-to-wall carpeting and refinished the original wood floors underneath, restored the original 19th-century windows, and installed central air conditioning. A fun passion project in that space? Building a much-appreciated bar area.

With her beloved home finished and Rebelle in full swing for 4/20, Hanna is ready for her next project. But until then, she’s happy commuting back and forth from Brooklyn to the Berkshires to run her cannabis empire.