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Decorating

Decorating

card room green living room shelves

Back in December, I shared our living room freshly painted in Card Room Green, but then I started sharing more Christmas content, so sharing the details of the room was left for another day.  I finally got out the camera again to showcase the built-in bookcases and how they look in their new shade. Because painting the living room was a big, multi-day project, I waited to paint the bookcases until everything else was done.  They were easy to access with the furniture moved back in place and waiting also gave me a chance to decide if I wanted to keep them white or paint them the same color as the walls.  So, I painted the ceiling, beams, walls, door, and trim, and decided the bookcases would look best painted the same color as the wall. My mom came over one day to help and we were able to knock

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Decorating

family gallery wall in the hallway

After living in military housing apartments followed by two single-story homes in my childhood, I was always enamored with the idea of having an amazing staircase in a future home.  The first two homes Jeff and I bought as adults had staircases but they were enclosed and completely utilitarian.  Our Minnesota house was the first house that had a staircase that was an architectural feature and I loved it.  It was open to the foyer, but it was also a unique “scissor staircase”, which split in two at the landing making a “front staircase” to the foyer and a “back staircase” to the kitchen.  When we started househunting in 2022, I never thought we would end up in a single-story ranch-style house.  I think the fact I was in an orthopedic boot and on a scooter made me a bit more open to the idea of not having a staircase. 

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All Things Home

caring for wood floors in a kitchen

I’ve been asked a few times over the years about having wood floors in the kitchen, so I thought I would share my experience as well as how I care for them.  We inherited wood floors in the kitchen of our previous home in Minnesota, but I selected wood floors for our current home when we renovated.  We also installed hardwood floors in the kitchen of the first townhouse we owned.  We’ve had linoleum and tile in other kitchens, but wood is my favorite.  My Opa, who was a builder, selected hardwood flooring for his kitchen when he designed and built his own home, so it was never an odd choice for me.  Of course, there are downsides to wood floors and I’ll get to those, but there are downsides to any floor you select, so you might as well pick what you love if you have the choice. As

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All Things Home

put a rabbit painting on it

I have learned over working on many rooms in the homes we’ve lived in through the years that there are always little loose ends that languish until you get sick of looking at them.  For me, it’s often installing shoe molding or touching up trim for some reason.  I was pretty good at keeping a list of the final touches on our kitchen renovation so I could complete them and check them off the list.  I wanted to be able to call the kitchen completely done instead of having to add an asterisk every time I shared the room.  It’s done except for this, this, and this.  That just gets annoying and I wanted it to be done period.  But, there was one lingering thing that I’ve been simply ignoring and removing from photos – the doorbell.  See it above the doorway to the hall? The doorbell is hardwired, so

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1970 home renovation

2023 favorite projects

While I enjoy looking forward to the coming year in January, I think it’s also important to look back.  It can be easy to focus on the to-do list and ways we want to improve, but, even if the previous year has been difficult or hasn’t been everything one hoped, there are always things we’ve learned, things we’ve accomplished, and things to celebrate.  Since the main things I write about on this blog are projects I’m working on, I figured I would share my favorite projects from 2023.  When I still feel like so many projects need to be done on our home specifically, it’s a good reminder to see how much we’ve accomplished in just over a year since we’ve lived here!  And, 2023 was a huge year because we tackled the two biggest projects on our to-do list when we bought the house. As I’ve shared before, we

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All Things Home

Christmas Dining Room 2023

I have just one more space to share for Christmas this year – our dining room.  The dining room is still just wearing primer on the walls (we had the wallpaper stripped earlier this year and it’s next on my list to paint), so I debated even decorating it, but we’ll be eating our Christmas brunch in there as well as doing puzzles and playing games, so I just couldn’t help myself!  When we took walls down during our kitchen renovation, it also opened the sidelines, so it’s nice to see a decorated dining room from the kitchen, foyer, and even living room. First, I have to share the view into the dining room from the kitchen. We built that shelf to hang by the side door a few months ago (You can find the details HERE) and it’s worked so well to make a little landing area for hanging

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All Things Home

Our 2023 Christmas Tree

I don’t know if it’s ever taken me so long from setting up the tree to finalizing the decorations as it did this year!  A part of it was I wanted to take my time and let my vision for the tree unfold as I played with what I had.  As I started to experiment with those ideas, I ended up making about 60′ of two types of garland, so that slowed me down a bit, too!  Anyway, it’s done and I really love it. I don’t completely start from scratch when it comes to decorating our tree each year, but I like to sort of tweak it a little bit depending on the look I want.  I use the same ornaments, maybe adding a few new homemade ones and I always use white lights, but I’ll mix up the garlands, ribbons, and/or picks.  This year, I wanted to create

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Decorating

Christmas kitchen shelves

Just when you might think I’m done decorating the kitchen for Christmas, there is more!  If you missed any of them, you can see my previous posts about decorating the kitchen here… Christmas Kitchen Wreath, Christmas Kitchen Window, More of the Christmas Kitchen.  I know the white shelves are a sticking point for some, but I felt like they were begging for greenery, candles, and “gingerbread houses.” For the sprigs of greenery, I used parts of a Norfolk pine garland.  I pulled one of the garlands apart and it makes these perfect, very realistic-looking branches to place over picture frames or shelves.  I just checked to link the garland and there are a few more back in stock!  Pine garlands, wreaths, and branches are all available, but in limited quantities.  You can check them out HERE. I then added some of my new favorite real wax in little ironstone pots. 

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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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