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Decorating

All Things Home

decorating the deck

As I’ve shared in previous posts, I’ve been working on the exterior of our home…the gardens and the deck, which is our outdoor living space.  Jeff and I have always talked about having a nice outdoor living space with a fireplace, a covered area, maybe even retractable screens.  Our deck is nowhere close to that dream space.  It’s a simple deck with warped and faded boards, no shade, no fireplace, no bells and no whistles. If we were planning on living in this house long-term, it might be worth doing something about it, but our hope is to move to a home with a bit more property in a few years and we don’t want to put much more money into this house. What I can do, though, is make the existing space look the best it can look.  I can add things that will make it feel more like an outdoor

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All Things Home

design ramblings | does your house match your wardrobe?

I’ve heard it said that, if ever you’re stuck in your decorating choices, you can look to your wardrobe to get a sense of your style.  Do you agree with that?  Kriste and I chat about that subject in this week’s Design Ramblings… Help me out a little here.  Did anyone else dress like the movie Clueless in high school?  Contempo Casual?  Wet Seal? Anyway, I was thinking about this a little more since our conversation and I do think I’m drawn to similar things in what I wear and what I buy for my home.  Just in a general sense. For example, I think my very favorite pair of leather boots (from LL Bean)… …have the same the same feel as the leather sofa in our family room (Pottery Barn). It’s not that they are exactly the same, but they have the same feel…casual, warm, a bit of detail, neutral,

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All Things Home

preserved boxwood intervention

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had been feeling like my house was “preserved boxwooded-out”, so I started swapping some of them out for live plants.  A few readers here on the blog and on Instagram said they felt the same way and I thought I would write a post about it. I know, for me, I added preserved boxwood in lieu of fresh flowers and live greenery.  I wanted to add some life to the space, but didn’t want the upkeep that comes with live plants or the cost that comes with buying flowers each week.  I also am really picky about using fake flowers and greens.  Some of them can look nice, but they rarely look really real.  And, when I think of fake flowers, I immediately make the jump to dust-covered arrangements with frayed fabric petals.  I know that’s totally unfair to really nice “fauxliage”, but

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My House

Summer 2015 Home Tour

Welcome to my Pennsylvania home tour!  We worked hard on our home for almost eleven years and it was a true labor of love and DIY marathon.  We’ve painted, built, repaired, installed, sewed, upholstered, sanded, refinished, ripped out and remodeled just about every corner. Our goal was to balance the function we needed for our busy family with our (mostly my) desire for a beautiful home.  I hope this home tour gives you some inspiration and encouragement to do the same in your home. Let’s start at the front door… This house was a 1 1/2 story, 2300 sq foot, brick cape cod that was built in 1948.  It’s in a two stoplight town in the hills and orchards of south central Pennsylvania.  We’ve spent most our time fixing up the inside of our house, but we’ve been working on the outside of the house over the past year or so.

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All Things Home

Bunny Williams, the Southern Living Idea House, & Me

I learned a long time ago that checking my e-mail can be exciting at times.  Yes, usually it’s sorting through spam and questions and action items, but sometimes it’s an exciting opportunity, proposal or offer.  So, when I got an e-mail entitled “Southern Living, Bunny Williams & Miss Mustard Seed”, it immediately caught my attention.  I thought it might be a “which one of these things doesn’t belong in the title of this e-mail” sort of joke, but it was actually an e-mail asking if I’d like to interview Bunny Williams, the designer of the 2015 Southern Living Idea House in gorgeous Charlottesville, VA. Here’s a peek at the outside… photo via Southern Living I love how it’s styled after an old stone farmhouse and can’t wait to see more of the inside. If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know we love the Charlottesville area and have

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All Things Home

crazy plant lady

Between traveling last week and our photo shoot this week, Kriste and I weren’t able to get a Design Ramblings filmed for today.  We are getting back in the swing of things next week, though, so you’ll see us next week. A couple of months ago, I decided to buy some myrtle topiaries.  My house was suffering from a bit of “preserved boxwood overload” and some of them, after several years of being on display, were looking a little tired and fuzzy.  I was ready to make an honest effort at caring for live plants. I bought the myrtles from Terrain, which is the only place I was able to find them.  They were definitely an investment and I took that seriously.  I’ve watered, spritzed, turned, trimmed and even given them a pat of encouragement here and there and they have stayed alive and green and happy for two whole months!

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All Things Home

design ramblings | mixing fabric patterns

Once Lucketts was over, Kriste and I turned our attention to the finishing details of my house.   We have a big shoot coming up and I really wanted all of the half-done and 3/4-done and almost-done projects to finally be DONE.  I’m really enjoying having my house as just my house (now that we have the studio) and it’s helped me settle down a bit.  I’m not changing things up or moving furniture around so much, so I’m now ready to look at a room and call it finished.  Seriously.  (Well, ask me that again in a year and we’ll see how I’m doing!) So, a part of finishing has been sewing a bunch of pillows out of fabrics I picked especially for the rooms they are going in.  The pillows I’ve been using have been fine, but they weren’t intentional.  Now, they are intentional and I think that can

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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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