decorating dilemmas Archives | Miss Mustard Seed

decorating dilemmas

All Things Home

Toni’s beautiful but boring dining room | Decorating Dilemmas

This post has been in my drafts for mooooooonths. That means a long time! For some reason, I just kept feeling like it wasn’t enough. I needed to put together a cohesive and completed design before this would be ready to post and that’s just not the case! These Decorating Dilemma posts aren’t about me working as an interior designer for a client, but rather giving a reader some opinions and ideas about their space. When I frame it in those terms, I don’t have to have any answers, but just a few suggestions. And I certainly have that for this dining room; at least enough to get this post out of draft purgatory. So, here we go… “This is my boring dining room. I love my custom farmhouse table and Ethan Allen buffet but the room is blah. There is not much natural light (windows have plastic on outside

July 2, 2020 70 Comments

All Things Home

Savannah’s Awkward Kitchen | Decorating Dilemmas

In this Decorating Dilemma, we’re going to take a look at Savannah’s soon-to-be kitchen. We’ll talk about working with dark granite that you might not love, but you don’t want to replace, unifying a disjointed space, adding shelving for style and storage, and more. Here’s what Savannah says about the space… “I need help! Lord willing, my husband and I will be moving into my parent’s old home when they finish building their new house. But I have a serious decorating dilemma. The kitchen has me stumped!” The kitchen was renovated about 10 years ago and Savannah was able to help with that process, so she’s not picking on her parent’s choices! She’s just ready to take this look in a different direction when it becomes her home. These are the things Savannah wants to address… She doesn’t like the dark granite but, understandably, doesn’t want to spend the money

February 6, 2020 85 Comments

All Things Home

do you have a decorating dilemma?

Do you remember my Decorating Dilemma series? About once a month, I would share a reader’s decorating dilemma and some possible suggestions and solutions. It was one of those things that I enjoyed, but I went through a busy season (probably getting ready for Lucketts or something), neglected it, and then forgot all about it! Well, I think it’s time to revive it. Many of my readers and followers have asked for more practical, budget-friendly decorating advice. What better way to do that than by talking about real spaces that need some help? The thing I loved most about this series was seeing the spaces evolve based on my advice and the ideas the homeowner got once they started moving things around. My ideas were just a jumping-off point and then they ran with it! So, do you have a space that has you stuck? Would you like some suggestions

January 9, 2020 32 Comments

All Things Home

options for the master bedroom

Last week, I shared that our master bedroom was not quite finished and I was mulling over some ideas for how to take this beautiful room and push it over the edge. I received so many wonderful ideas, thoughts, and suggestions on that post, so thank you for that. As I read your comments and thought through the possibilities, I settled on a few options that could work and I thought I would share them. As a refresher, here is how the room currently looks… A few of you mentioned the desk and, in my last post, I failed to say that this is on the list of things to remove from the space. I just haven’t found the perfect thing to replace it, so it’ll hang out there until I do. At that time, I’ll move it into the sewing room to use as a sewing desk. It’ll provide

June 27, 2019 115 Comments

All Things Home

hall/foyer update

Believe it or not, fireplace season has started in Rochester, Minnesota! My boys love switching the fire on, turning the chairs to face the firebox, and basking in the warmth. And I love watching them do it. We also had our first snow. I thought it was just going to be a few flurries, but it snowed almost all day and we ended up with about two inches by the end of the day! People keep telling me this isn’t usual, but we got snow in October last year as well, so I think they are just in denial. I happen to love winter and snow, so I was enjoying it immensely. I will admit that there is a small part of me that feels like we only experienced fall for about 2 1/2 weeks. I hope it will reemerge for just a little longer. Our leaves haven’t even finished

October 15, 2018 45 Comments

All Things Home

dining room | new arrangement & plans

This squared-shaped dining room has been a little tricky to figure out, but I think I’m getting a little closer. The primitive blue hutch has felt wrong from the beginning, but it’s what I had and I needed time to live in the space and think about it before I bought anything new or made any big decisions. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to try something free…swapping around the furniture. I had an oak sideboard that I moved up to the master bedroom, really as a place-holder more than anything else. I decided to move it back downstairs and try it out in the dining room… Obviously, everything is low and the space is a little naked, but I really like this option better than the hutch. It seems to open up the room a bit more and the pieces of furniture, while found secondhand on

May 4, 2018 78 Comments

All Things Home

Butler’s Pantry Plans

Before I share about the butler’s pantry, I wanted to give everyone a head’s up that my latest round of paintings are for sale and the auctions end today. You can view and bid on the paintings HERE. There is still snow on the ground and it was in the 20’s today, but it still feels like spring is coming. It will be here eventually, anyway! I don’t feel antsy for spring, but I am starting to get the itch to work on more home projects again. We’ve kept things moving along over the winter with painting, having the wood floors installed, working on organization, sewing curtains, etc. but I’m ready to dig into some bigger projects. Once it’s warm enough, we really need to get our garage cleaned out and organized. We have some boxes we still need to unpack, even! It’s a bit of a mess and a

March 15, 2018 25 Comments

All Things Home

hiding ugly office stuff & hanging sconces

Before I go into today’s post, I have some exiting news! Free Spirit Fabrics has been acquired and that means my fabric lines will still be produced! That means I need to hunker down and start working on colorways for the second collection again. I’m so excited that Bunnies Birds & Blooms will be available, but I’m even more excited for this second collection to launch. The wheels are turning again… Now, onto today’s post… I’m still chipping away at my office here and there. I have been looking for baskets for the top of the cabinet to use for storage and to raise the visual height of the piece. I also wanted to hide the internet modem and Orbi unit. My no-spend February turned into a low-spend February when I bought the cabinet off of craigslist and since then, I’ve stuck to the spirit of my low-spend challenge. I

February 28, 2018 38 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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