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Decorating
All Things Home

linen fabric swatches & master bedroom progress

Remember my design breakthrough in the master bedroom that I shared a few weeks ago?  Well, I’ve been moving forward…little steps to make the plan happen.  And it feels good.  It’s a room that’s had me stuck for a while and I’m glad to have a clear direction that I’m excited about.  It’s definitely been a lesson in patience and playing. Since I shared that plan, I ordered a few more yards of the Aviary Toile fabric (by French General) in order to make the bed crown.  I also ordered some pleater tape to pleat the checked fabric and give it a nice, finished look.  Now, I need to get some specific measurements to draw out a plan for cutting and sewing the fabric before attaching it to a plywood piece cut into a half-oval shape.  The plywood will then be mounted to the ceiling.  I also need to figure

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May 21, 2020 24 Comments
All Things Home

parsons chair linen slipcover reveal

I know that my house usually looks clean and tidy in the pictures I share here and on social media.  And, I will admit, that I am a bit of a neat freak.  I generally like to clean and I love having a spotless, organized, and clutter-free home.  But, life happens here.  I have middle school boys, a dog, two cats, and a husband who has a higher mess tolerance than I do.  Trust me, there are parts of our house that are not pristine! One of the more visible non-pristine areas were the seats of the end chairs at our kitchen table.  These are well-loved and well-used chairs and they were looking pretty rough.  I was even a little embarrassed by them when we had people over because they looked so grungy.  That’s just my own silliness, though.  I doubt anyone ever really cared. The chairs are still in

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May 18, 2020 42 Comments
a slice of life

pick-me-up plants

Saturday night was a rough one.  Jeff and Marshall (my oldest) slept in a tent set up in our backyard, so that meant I was on overnight diabetes-duty on my own.  For those who don’t know, Calvin, our youngest is a type 1 diabetic.  This is just a normal part of our lives and we all work together to manage it, but the most wearisome thing about diabetes is it never takes a break.  It doesn’t sleep.  It doesn’t care if you’re traveling or if you want to have a special treat on a holiday.  It has to be considered and dealt with all the time.   And Saturday night, it was demanding.  His equipment wasn’t working, so I had to test his blood sugar every 1.5-2 hours and try to sleep in between with alarms sounding.  I woke up grouchy, groggy, and with a headache. It felt like jetlag; like

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May 7, 2020 85 Comments
All Things Home

hanging the antique birdcage

Even if decorating comes naturally and you have a great space to work with, there is still the possibility of getting stuck.  It’s just normal and a natural part of the creative process.  Some things come easily and others take more thought, time, and discovery.  Such has been the case with this corner in my living room.  I think this wall is a little tricky because it’s a fairly small stretch of wall between a doorway and built-ins.  Whatever piece of furniture that is placed there needs to allow for the doors to open, work well with the built-ins, and also visually balance out the piece on the other side of the doorway.  In my case, that is an antique hutch… Shortly after we moved in, I hung a collection of ironstone plates over a wood dresser just to fill the space.  I always pictured hanging a mirror there that

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May 4, 2020 57 Comments
All Things Home

hanging a butcher’s rack over the stove

When I received another box of goodies from Maria of Dreamy Whites, one box contained a long metal rack with pointed hooks.  I wasn’t sure what it was, so I asked Maria and she told me it was a French butcher’s rack used when making sausages.  No matter what it was once used for, I could pretty quickly envision many different uses for it in our home. The most obvious one was hanging it above our stove.  It looked like it might be the perfect size and I have always wanted to hang something there.  It seemed like it needed something.  I’ve tried signs, ironstone platters, breadboards, a tole tray, and a large silver platter and none of them seemed to work right.  I had always wondered about the idea of hanging a small rack to hold a few small copper pots, but I wasn’t sure how I would mount

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April 29, 2020 49 Comments
All Things Home

Delta H2Okinetic® In2ition® Shower Review

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by .  As always all words and opinions are honest and my own. Last summer, I gave the boy’s bathroom a refresh.  It wasn’t a total overhaul, but simple, inexpensive changes that made a huge difference!  While I would love to do a custom-built tile surround, install a deeper tub, and a few other things, that isn’t where we want to put our decorating dollars.  Given that my middle school boys don’t really care about the state of their bathroom, I wanted to make high-impact changes that we could do ourselves. As a reminder, here is how the bathroom looked before… And here is how it looks now… …on a good day! We already changed out the crusted builder-grade fixtures with  Faucets and they might be my favorite part of the room.  I always admire the soft curves and cross handle accents when I clean

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April 22, 2020 19 Comments
All Things Home

tidying the sewing room

I was hoping to post about our cloud-painting class on Friday, but it is taking an eternity for the videos to upload and process, so that’ll have to wait until tomorrow.  We will be having another class this Friday and a special cloud-painting class on Instagram Live with Megan Gray Wednesday, April 22, 2020, at 2:00 CST.  I’ll share more details in tomorrow’s post. So, today, I’m going to share the tidied-up sewing room!  This was one of the projects I worked on last week to get ready to work on bigger projects over the coming weeks.  The sewing room, also known as the “cat room” and “Sebastian’s room”, had become a dumping ground.  We loaded up on kitty litter before Minnesota was under a stay-at-home order, so there was a healthy stay of litter buckets randomly placed on the floor.  While cleaning other rooms, stray home decor pieces were

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April 20, 2020 14 Comments
All Things Home

washing & mending

I have found the weekends during this time to be especially difficult.  I haven’t put my finger on exactly why.  Maybe it’s because there isn’t much distinction between weekdays and weekends?  We’re just all home all the time.  Safe at home.  Well and happy, but home nonetheless.  Maybe it’s because the week is too busy with work and school to have much time to dwell on anxious thoughts. Whatever the cause, I’m learning that I need to keep myself occupied.  There are a lot of things I can’t control, but I can do the next thing and then the next.  So, that’s what I did this weekend.  I wasn’t feeling motivated to start a large project, but I could knock out several smaller ones or do some prep work for larger projects.  I worked from one thing to the next and got a surprising amount accomplished. One thing that took

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April 14, 2020 35 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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