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Decorating
Bathrooms

the unimpressive, free, one-hour bathroom makeover

Blogging has been (and I’m sure will continue to be) a weird, wonderful job for me.  It has allowed me to roll the things I enjoy into my business and has helped me unearth and develop skills I didn’t even know I had.  Work for me can be anything from going to an antique store to making a slipcover to organizing a closet to drawing a pattern.  It is a strange job, but I really love it.  As with all jobs, though, there are perks and pluses and then there are drawbacks.  Some of those drawbacks are just embedded in the nature of the job, but some are definitely of my (our) own making.  One of those drawbacks is, over the years, I have built up this idea in my head that unless I’m really going to give a room a makeover, I mean, give it an overhaul worthy of

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March 7, 2022 35 Comments
All Things Home

painting a metal gas fireplace surround

So, remember the family room makeover?  It’s still there, but it has dragged on for quite a while!  It’s a project that moves in fits and starts.  I’ll make huge progress and then I’ll get distracted by other things for a while.  That’s not a bad way to work on a project, though, especially one that’s strictly cosmetic and not causing any real interruption to the household.  I can take a break and come back to it with fresh energy and perspective.  It’s allowed me to make decisions one step at a time and I certainly haven’t felt rushed!  This past weekend, though, it was warm-ish (for February in Minnesota), sunny, and I was itching to tackle a list of undone projects including finishing the details of a project I worked on back in October – painting the metal fireplace surround. I painted the mantel and tile, but the reveal

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February 28, 2022 2 Comments
All Things Home

French Upholstered Bed Frame Round-up

Any time I share a picture of our bedroom, I am asked about the bed frame.  I purchased it from on final clearance, so I got an amazing price on it, but it is no longer available for purchase.  So, I thought I would share a French upholstered bed frame round-up for those who are in the market for something similar.  I really prefer to link just to products I own and have tested, so I can speak to their quality, but I tried to select beds from companies I’ve purchased from in the past and have had positive experiences.  Online reviews and good return policies could also help you buy a bed frame online with a bit more confidence. So, if you’re shopping for a French upholstered bed frame, here are a few options at different price points… I like the simple curves of this bed frame and it

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February 24, 2022 2 Comments
Decorating

our master bedroom makeover reveal

A few of you have asked to see the full reveal of how our master/primary bedroom makeover turned out, so I am sharing all of the details in today’s post.  Since we’ve been living with this finished bedroom since the summer of 2020, I don’t really think about sharing it, but I’ve only shown little peeks and previews of the room and not the completed space.  I wanted to save that for my book, Feels Like Home.  There are tons of tips about decorating a bedroom as well as different photos of the room in the book, but I wanted to show some before & after pictures as well as resources & links to tutorials together all in one place. So, here is the final result of the bedroom makeover!  Well, for now.  You know how room makeovers go.  They are done until they are ready to be redone or

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February 22, 2022 13 Comments
Decorating

timeless decorating & design inspiration

While I’m always inspired by magazines, I tend to hold onto them for a while and then drop them off in recycling or pass them along to someone else after a time.  Fresh inspiration comes in and there is only so much room for magazines that I’m not likely to revisit as a resource.  But, there is one magazine in particular that has managed to stay in my stash for almost 20 years.  Every time I sort through my magazines and books, I make sure this one is clearly set aside and saved.  I actually thought I misplaced it last year and I started hunting for a replacement., but I found my original copy.  Whew!  The issue that has offered timeless inspiration to me was the September 2002 issue of .  And, even more specifically, the article on the Swedish-style home of the Carlsons. This article was like a pebble

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February 15, 2022 28 Comments
All Things Home

ensuite bathroom makeover

Do you remember back in the summer of 2020 when we were working on our ensuite bathroom?  Well, I shared the plan and some of the process (you can see the process post HERE), but I wanted to share the final reveal in my book, .  It was important to me that some spaces and the majority of the photos felt fresh to even the most regular readers.  So, I never shared the final photos of our bathroom makeover.  But, now that the book has been out for a few months and the ensuite bathroom is only represented on a couple of pages, I wanted to share the full reveal here on the blog. The ensuite bathroom makeover was a hybrid of DIY and work that was hired out to pros.  And, I did the project management in order to save costs, but I had a great tiler (Matt Grant

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February 8, 2022 27 Comments
All Things Home

the new living room jute rug & winter mantel

Just a few days before Christmas, I received a for the living room.  I had the white jute rug for about a year and a half and it was showing wear much faster than other jute rugs I’ve owned.  I wrote an initial review about it HERE where I mentioned that the weave was a little loose.  Furniture legs ended up getting caught in the loose weave of that particular rug and the white color started to get a little dingy.  With teenage boys, a dog, and two cats, that wasn’t too surprising. l | So, I decided to go with a natural jute rug and one that had a tighter weave.  Jeff doesn’t generally make comments about decor, but when we rolled this new jute rug out, the , he immediately commented how much better he liked it.  (This is not a sponsored post, but the rug was given to

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January 27, 2022 14 Comments
a slice of life

Bavarian Pretzels (Bretzels) Recipe

For Christmas, I got a cookbook called .  It’s an excellent book if you’re interested in learning about or improving your bread baking.  As I read through it, I was surprised to see a recipe for German/Bavarian soft pretzels (bretzels.)   These delicious soft pretzels spilled over the German border into France and were adopted by the region of Alsace.  For those who don’t know, I’m a military brat who spent most of my childhood in Germany and soft pretzels were my very favorite thing.  I was excited at the idea of being able to make an authentic-tasting recipe at home, so I made my first batch on New Year’s Day. Over my winter break, perfecting Bavarian pretzels became one of my missions.  I think I ended up making five batches over three weeks and I tested, tweaked, and tasted.  Lots of tasting!  I don’t want to say they are perfect

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January 25, 2022 22 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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