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Antiques
All Things Home

back at the house & JAK Camera Strap Giveaway

There has been a lot of activity at the studio and things have been pretty quiet at my house.  I did rearrange the family room a few weeks ago, but otherwise, my house is just my house, which is a big change from how it was a couple of years ago. If I was at this stage of getting ready for Lucketts, I would have things piled up in my dining room, pieces in every corner of my basement and I would be hauling furniture up to my family room for quick photo shoots before I rearranged the furniture back in place by the end of the day. I realize I’m enjoying my house much more as just a home, not a place of business AND a home. Anyway, after living with the new arrangement for a couple of weeks, I am totally sold on it.  I still have a lot

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April 8, 2016 307 Comments
All Things Home

the zinc-topped table goes home…

I’m starting to wonder what I posted about before I had all of these furniture makeovers… Today, we’ll take a break from the before & afters and I’ll tell a little story about a table with rickety, uneven legs. He had one thing that made him really special, though – something that kept him from being a run-of-the-mill old table.  He wore a zinc top that had a perfect patina. The problem was not one of his legs was the same size as another, so he sat at a wonky angle and, even though I tried to sell this table, no one wanted him. So, I took him back to the studio and gave him a little TLC.  I sealed the chipping, flaking paint with Tough Coat… …evened out the legs and added little casters to the bottom… You can read the full makeover post HERE.   He looked so much

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April 6, 2016 29 Comments
All Things Home

the easiest furniture makeover ever

I spotted this piece on craigslist and I knew, despite the missing knob and dry finish, that it was a real gem. Painting is my natural tendency, but this piece spoke to me loud and clear…  I just need a drink!  (Not that kind of drink. Although, I have heard of using vodka to clean stinky furniture, but I’ve never personally tried that one!) What it needed was hydration. The old finish had worn away, leaving the pretty old wood looking faded and tired.  The top had quite a few water rings and marks, so I thought it might need to be sanded, but I was concerned about losing the patina this piece has earned over more than a century.  I decided to rub a corner of the top with Hemp Oil and it woke up! Well, good morning, handsome. Some of the rings and marks would still show through, but I didn’t

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April 1, 2016 42 Comments
All Things Home

the wood wardrobe with the painted interior

I know that some of you probably think I paint everything.  I will paint my mother, if she will just hold still long enough!  Well, that’s not at all true.  While paint is “my thing”, I really appreciate beautiful wood, too. When I acquired this old wardrobe off of craigslist, I wasn’t sure if I would paint it or not, but when I saw it in person, I decided against it.  The wood just has a pretty grain pattern, warmth and it was in good condition.  Most wood pieces I purchase have issues with the finish, so painting is the best route. This one just needed a little bit of help.  I felt like it would benefit from installing shelves and painting the interior. I painted it in two coats of MMSMP Mora… (Here it is after the first coat.) My dad installed the shelves, similar to the way he installed

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March 27, 2016 42 Comments
All Things Home

ironstone brush boxes & grandma Shoemaker’s pitcher

It’s no secret that I love ironstone.  It’s my favorite thing to collect and I am totally honed in on it when I’m out shopping for antiques. I get excited at just about any piece of ironstone, but uncommon pieces especially get my heart pumping just a little faster.  Such is the case with brush boxes.  I own a couple and have sold a few, but they aren’t very easy to find and usually they are a bit pricey ($50-150). They are long, narrow boxes with lids that would have originally come in a “wash set” that contained a wash basin, pitcher, chamberpot, slop bucket, etc.  The brush box would hold toothbrushes and perhaps razors. I found the most amazing brush box when Kriste and I were out shopping earlier this week and the price was definitely right!  I think it was $18 or something crazy like that.  I spotted it and impulsively reached

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March 18, 2016 44 Comments
All Things Home

paint all the things white

One of the best parts of having a theme for a retail space, whether it’s a booth at a market or a small shop, is focus.  Your theme keeps the items you’re collecting cohesive, so they look better together in a display.  Better displays mean that customers can more easily envision items in their own homes, which will hopefully lead to better sales. With the theme of Farmhouse White, we’re painting a lot of things in…well, Farmhouse White.  But, we need to add some other whites in, so the booth doesn’t look flat.  As I’ve mentioned before, the key to white is layers, texture, and using many shades of white that all play nicely with one another. So, I’m pulling out the other whites in our line, Linen, Grain Sack and Ironstone, along with some custom-mixed whites.  And that means a lot of things are going to be painted some shade

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March 5, 2016 31 Comments
All Things Home

two farmhouse style tables…

My parents offered to have the boys over for a sleepover this weekend, so Jeff and I had some time to go out for a date night.  Jeff made reservations at a local farm-to-table restaurant and I asked if we could fit in a trip to a nearby antique shop while we were kid-less.  He knows how much I love it and agreed. Not only did he agree, but he carried my finds to the counter, loaded them all in the van and even helped me make the decision to buy two old hardware cabinets.  Flowers are nice, but carrying chippy old things to the van for me is definitely the way to my heart! One of those chippy old things was this coffee table on little casters, made out of old barn wood. I love how the boards used the make the table-top have some old white paint barely hanging on.   The

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March 1, 2016 22 Comments
All Things Home

keeping & letting go

I was going to go shopping for more antique goodies today as well as some supplies for building pieces, but instead I stayed home to get some “stress-relieving stuff” done – computer work, e-mail, paperwork, cleaning & tidying up the house, etc.  It was all much needed. Unfortunately, in all of my tidying up on my computer, I somehow managed to remove all but 400 photos from my Lightroom software.  I would call it a disaster, but it’s not really a disaster in the grand scheme of things.  It’s an epic inconvenience, though.  I still have all of the photos, but they are in their RAW, unedited state, so if I need the photos, I need to edit them again.  All 8,000+ of them.  So, that stinks. I suppose it will force me to go through the pictures and weed out ones I won’t ever use again.  I am a

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February 27, 2016 28 Comments

I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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