Melissa Tebbenhoff is a designer and living artist behind Rusted Rabbitt Living Designs, a small Virginia studio where succulents become something more than just plants. For more than six years she has been creating and teaching easy, customizable succulent arrangements using reclaimed barnwood planters, grapevine, foraged driftwood pieces, moss arrangements, and seasonal living art that bring a little quiet beauty into your everyday spaces.
Her favorite pieces are the driftwood arrangements. She forages each piece herself. The natural curves and weathered texture of the wood pair beautifully with trailing and rosette succulents and she loves how each finished piece feels both wild and intentional.
Her love of plants and making things by hand started early, shaped by her mother and grandmother, who always had a way of showing her the magic in growing, tending, and creating with what nature offers. Her living design business is in many ways, an homage to them and a continuation of that shared love of plants, art, and being gentle stewards of the natural world.
Melissa still finds joy in the same simple things: the feel of moss, the way a trailing succulent softens a piece of wood, and the calm that comes from arranging living things with intention.
She grows many of her own succulents in her nursery, chooses varieties with care, and designs each piece so it feels both finished and approachable. Her workshops are low-pressure and encouraging—places where people (even those who swear they have a brown thumb) can slow down, play a little, and leave with something that feels like their own. She’s especially drawn to the therapeutic side of the work and the way working with plants can ground you, spark creativity, and offer a small, lasting connection back to Mother Nature .
As a longtime Mountain Crest Gardens customer and now partner, Melissa works with many of the same varieties shoppers already know and love. Her focus stays simple: beautiful living art that doesn’t ask for much, but gives back in color, texture, and a little everyday wonder.
