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Decorating

Decorating

feels like home | preorder bonus two | renter’s guide

It’s Friday!  If you have already preordered the book and collected the first preorder bonus I announced (the free high-resolution original art download), then you may have snooped around and discovered the second preorder bonus that I’m highlighting today – a bonus chapter!  It’s the Feels Like Home Renter’s Guide. While there are a lot of ideas in that can be applied to spaces that are rented, I felt compelled to write a bonus chapter specifically for renters.  Yes, you can rearrange furniture, hang art on the walls, add lots of yummy layers, and textures, but there are limitations when you’re renting.  Having been a renter for many years as an adult, I know from experience and was bursting at the seams to paint a wall when we bought our first little townhouse. I grew up in rentals, though.  It actually might be one step down from a rental, because

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All Things Home

painting light switches

For those who have asked about painting the light switches, outlets, and trim in the same color as the wall in the basement family room, this post is for you!  Before I ever put a roller on the wall, I envisioned the walls and trim painted the same color.  The rest of my house has white trim as a frame to blue/gray walls or wallpaper/starched fabric, but I want this room to have a Gentleman’s Library sort of vibe.  I’m sure that many gentleman’s libraries have white trim, but I imagined this room with moody blue walls and trim.  There are a lot of different finishes and colors happening in the space right now and painting it all one color (but different sheens) will remove those visual distractions. As an aside, if I thought we were going to live in this house “forever”, I would want to clad the walls

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All Things Home

basement family room makeover | antique cabinet

In case you missed it, I wanted to let you know that the Feels Like Home book launch team is still open if you’re interested in joining!  You can find all of the details HERE, but in a nutshell, it’s free, it’ll be lots of fun, and you have a chance to win lots of goodies!  You can sign up HERE if you’d like to join and help me promote .  (Just a note to answer a question in the comments.  You do not need to have a public social media account in order to join.  We’d love to have you in the group to get your feedback on the book and there are other ways to support Feels Like Home, like leaving a review.  Please join if you are interested.  You are welcome!) Late last week, I made some more progress on the basement family room.  The work has

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All Things Home

GAP Home at Walmart

Disclosure: This blog post is sponsored by Walmart.  All words and opinions expressed about the are, as always, honest and my own. Did you hear/see that has collaborated with on a new home decor line? As a long-time lover of GAP’s classic style, I was excited to see the products in this collaboration.  GAP’s timeless aesthetic and signature blue & white color palette are definitely on display in this collection and, best of all, it’s paired with Walmart’s affordable pricing. I purchased for Calvin’s bed, but I also bought a from the collection.  If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know that I love dishes and particularly stoneware.  I was interested in seeing modern take on these tabletop staples. First of all, the dishes are sturdy and beautifully made.  They have a raw edge that gives them more of a handmade feel.  Each piece has clean lines, so

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Decorating

painting a vintage dough bowl

I’ve had this vintage wooden dough bowl for a few years.  My mother-in-law gave it to me when they were cleaning out Jeff’s grandfather’s house.  She thought I would like it and she was right.  It is a practical size and shape and has a pretty patina.  I’ve always thought it would look pretty with some blue paint on the bottom and, so I finally pulled it out and painted it a couple of weeks ago.  I was in a mood to work on a project and this was one that’s been on the to-do list for far too long. Here’s how the vintage dough bowl started…  I love how wooden pieces wear over time. Can’t you see some color on the bottom?  I adore primitive wooden bowls and trenchers wearing their original milk paint, but they are always so expensive.  This is a nice way to get that look

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Decorating

Evolution of our Kitchen Makeover

Now that we’ve been living in our home in Minnesota for four years, I thought I would share how some of the rooms have evolved since we moved in.  I did an “evolution” series on my last home (you can see the kitchen evolution post of our previous home HERE) and received so many great comments and feedback in response.  It was fun for readers to see the transformation all in one place while also appreciating how long a real-world makeover can take.  Some rooms come together quickly, but most rooms in most homes just evolve over the years.  Room makeovers aren’t really a before and after, but more of a then and now.  They will continue to be dynamic and evolve.  So, here is our kitchen makeover as it happened over the past four years. This photo was taken the very first day we were in the house.  (You

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All Things Home

basement family room makeover | 1800’s chandelier

Nothing quite says “relaxed basement family room” like an 1800’s chandelier dripping with crystals.  Am I right or am I right? Okay, not really.  In fact, when I shared the very meticulous sketch for this particular area of the family room, I drew out what is clearly a lantern-style light fixture.  Not an 1800’s crystal chandelier. Clearly, a lantern fixture. Buuuut, I looked around online for a lantern-style light fixture I loved quite thoroughly and they were either more than I wanted to pay or not quite the look/style I imagined.  A couple of weeks ago, I shared this quote from on Instagram … I actually had a chandelier and I hadn’t even thought of using it! The main reason I hadn’t thought of using it is it wasn’t what I envisioned.  And, it seemed like sort of a crazy idea to try it.  Those of you who have followed

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All Things Home

four years…

July 24, 2021, was the four-year anniversary of the day we moved into our house in Rochester, Minnesota!  It was a whirlwind move that truly was an incredible story (you can read about it HERE.) On our first night in the new house, we just had the contents of our vehicles, a few new purchases (like a carpet cleaner), and some borrowed air mattresses.  All of our furniture was set to arrive the following day and not be fully unloaded until the weekend, so there was a lot of sitting on the floor or standing around bar when it came time to eat.  The tricky think about eating on the floor with a dog in the house is that he thinks the food is fair game!  So, for our first dinner, we ordered Fazoli’s (Italian fast food) and sat out on our deck to eat. We picked Fazoli’s because it

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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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