“I bring a lot to the table,” Margaret Leslie says with an open-hearted grin. She’s smiling at her own pun—she loves puns—but she’s also simply telling the truth: Margaret creates custom tablescapes that are far more than plates and glassware. They’re history you can hold, and behold, breathtaking and fascinating creations that spark the kind of conversations where people set their phones aside and look up to take in the beauty in front of them.
For nearly twenty years, Margaret’s focus was boardroom tables; she built a career in Detroit’s automotive marketing world. When the pandemic turned the world upside down, Margaret’s bridge opportunity was running Michigan operations for a plant medicine company. “I went in not knowing much,” she says. “But I left with permission to imagine a different life.”
That permission crystallized when her father passed away. In his will, he asked his children to use their inheritance to start a business. “If there was ever a time, this was it,” Margaret notes.
Enter Strawberry Cheeks, a playful name rooted in childhood Strawberry Shortcake nostalgia and grown-woman confidence. “I turned 50 and tattooed her on my arm.” Margaret laughs as she shows me. “I’d hidden that big kid inside for years in corporate. Now I’m living out loud.”
For flowers, Margaret partners with Kraatz Florist in Mount Clemens. “We finish each other’s thoughts,” says Kraatz owner Lynette Marsack. “She’ll bring her vessels, I’ll bring stems, and together it just clicks.”
Everything but the blooms—vintage china, flint-glass goblets, pheasant feathers, even gilded rescued fruit—comes from Margaret’s own treasure hunts and imagination. She focuses on looks that will get the conversation started, and she uses china as an example: “Mismatched settings are an instant icebreaker. We’ve lost that ability to have conversations. This way, everyone has something to talk about before the food even arrives.”
Speaking of china, Margaret offers this advice: “Use it,” she insists. “Don’t let it sit in a cabinet. If you break a piece, great: now you have something to hunt for.”
Margaret was raised by collectors; she still hears her mother’s voice each time she lifts an Early American Pattern Glass goblet. She’s the president of a local Questers chapter, was nominated to the board of the Crocker House Museum, and moderates a Facebook group dedicated to Mount Clemens Pottery.
Margaret knows how to both honor the past and spark conversations in the present: she can lay a traditional Crocker House table worthy of 1864, then remix it into a Strawberry Cheeks fall feast. “We anchored our main theme around pheasants and a bountiful harvest,” Margaret explains. “The dining room was set for a traditional Victorian aesthetic. And then outside, we created a completely separate look, what I’d call 'casual posh:' exotic bird fabrics from Bali, autumnal hues of MCM glassware, fruits and deep colorful florals.”
“She takes it to another level,” Lynette adds, marveling at Margaret's creativity as only a kindred spirit can. “I’ll think something won’t work…then her photos blow me away. In what we did for Crocker House, our heirloom containers had grapes, roses, hydrangeas, pheasant feathers—even artichokes. She plays across eras, from Victorian to mid-century, and makes it feel…inevitable.”
Anything and everything might be part of Margaret’s canvas: she’ll snip from the backyard, borrow from a neighbor, upcycle rotting market fruit into gilded sculpture. “I’m going for elegance without waste,” she explains. She keeps one “anchor” color to tie mixed patterns together, then customizes, from maximalist to spare, based on the client’s vibe.
Unlike many who chase mid-century trends, Margaret goes niche: she seeks out the unusual, the offbeat antiques you can’t find everywhere. That quirkiness, she says, is what makes people stop, notice…and talk.
“Holding something, say, from the Civil War era in your hand blows my mind,” Margaret reflects. “We’ve lost so much, to fires, to time. I want to keep those stories alive without making them boring.”
Behind the scenes, a small Strawberry Cheeks operations team helps execute Margaret’s visions. Partnerships power the rest: local charcuterie pros Graze Queens have rented her serving pieces for upscale weddings; she’s collaborating with Creative Sol Makery on elevated craft events, and she’s exploring intimate tea parties in the Crocker House gardens, with Victorian ambiance, period music, and a strolling buffet. “It doesn’t have to involve alcohol,” she says. “It has to involve connection. Gathering is gratitude.”
That theme of gratitude runs through her partnerships, too. A year ago, Lynette was preparing for brain surgery and facing a six-week hospital stay. Today, she’s back at Kraatz and grateful for each arrangement. “I was back by Thanksgiving getting the store ready for Christmas,” she recalls. “I’m 99.9 percent back. My pinky is still numb…but I can live with that. And working with Margaret always gives me something fun to look forward to.”
Yes, Strawberry Cheeks can deliver over-the-top soirées for clients with generous budgets. But Margaret’s heart is in the doing, not the making of money. Her hybrid booth at The Conservatory in Clinton Township features more than thirty full dish and glass sets, and she’s rolling out package-priced micro-weddings to help the Crocker House attract younger members. “I want to show people you can entertain beautifully on a budget,” she says. “Give me your Pinterest board; we’ll build your mood together.”
Her corporate past makes her strangely perfect for the work ahead: she’s comfortable with executive-level events, grounded in logistics, and calm in the face of timelines. “I’ve seen Four Seasons buffets and Vail Valley galas,” she says. “My roots are humble, and I can bridge worlds.”
This issue’s theme is gratitude, and Margaret lives it. “Every night I list three things I’m grateful for,” she tells me. “Even if something hard happened that day, I end by thinking of what I accomplished and what’s ahead. Just the fact that I get to try, try to manifest this new life, try to build something at fifty—that’s what I’m grateful for.”
Margaret is immediately and remarkably likeable. It’s her honesty, about imperfect sustainability (“I still slip into fast fashion sometimes”), about her late-diagnosed ADHD, and about how she only chooses environments that feel good. “I’m very human,” she says. “But I show up.”
What does success look like to her? “If Strawberry Cheeks helps one person host a kinder gathering, preserves a story, gives a bride on a tight budget her moment, then I’m grateful,” she says. “And starting over after fifty? I’m living proof you can. I’m finally in full acceptance of who I am, and I’m living out loud. Who’s going to tell me differently?”
If you look closely at one of Margaret’s tables, you’ll always spot her personal signature: a tiny strawberry tucked somewhere unexpected. It’s a wink, her reminder to talk to the person across from you. “My mission is to rose-tint the world,” she says. And while the world itself may not always be rosy, Margaret makes sure her tables are.
So maybe, just maybe, the best way to see life with more optimism is to take your seat at a Strawberry Cheeks table.
To work with Margaret and Strawberry Cheeks, visit strawberrycheeks.com, call (586) 227-3301, or visit her booth at The Conservatory in Clinton Township.
"We’ve lost that ability to have conversations. This way, everyone has something to talk about before the food even arrives.”
Strawberry Cheeks is Margaret Leslie’s joyful reinvention: custom tablescapes that mix vintage and repurposed finds into conversation-starting works of art. From weddings and curated events, to “venuescapes” that help historic sites reimagine their spaces, Strawberry Cheeks offers rentals, styled shoots, and consultations. Clients can simply borrow dishes, or tap Margaret’s team for full creative design. Her ultimate vision? Activating museums and heritage venues for intimate gatherings. “Our goal,” Margaret says, “is to get people back around the table…with their mouths open as they say ‘wow!’”