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All Things Home

All Things Home

the fate of the open kitchen shelves

I’ve been looking for and considering an alternative to the inexpensive open shelves we added during our kitchen renovation.  We were at the end of the project and the budget, and I was also experiencing decision fatigue.  But I quickly realized I didn’t have a place to put my mixer or all of my ironstone collection, so I came up with an inexpensive solution – open shelves made out of stair treads and metal brackets, all painted the color of the wall.  It was budget-friendly, pretty easy to install, customizable, and would meet the immediate need.  I always thought they would eventually be replaced with something else, but I keep coming back to the same problem when I look at antique wall shelves or even when I consider building something – there is simply too much stuff. This is one of the realizations that urged me to start thinning my

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All Things Home

the practice of letting go

Over the weekend, I started cleaning out my ironstone collection, pulling the pieces I felt ready to part with. As I was sharing pictures of the growing piles of stuff, I started getting messages essentially asking if everything was okay; if I was okay. Was there some big life event that was forcing this purge? Did I need some quick cash? Were we moving, or had I just received a worrisome diagnosis?  It made me smile that letting go of things, some of which have been synonymous with my aesthetic for over a decade, brought such concern.  I put those fears to rest and shared a link to the blog post I wrote about hitting my “stuff threshold” a couple of weeks ago.  (You can read that post HERE.)  This wasn’t brought on by any major life events but by a slow and subtle change within me that made me

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All Things Home

start where it’s easy | organizing

I shared a couple of weeks ago that I feel maxed out when it comes to my stuff threshold.  (You can read that post HERE.)  Given that we have an enormous basement and this house has ample storage, we still have plenty of room to accumulate more, but I find that I want even more empty space and fewer things that we don’t really need or use.  I’ve already started pulling pieces from some of my collections to sell, but it is hard to let go of things collected with such intention over a couple of decades!  I love what one reader said about stuff in reply to my post.  She likes to envision the way she manages her stuff as a river.  There is water flowing in and water flowing out.  If the outflow slows or stops, the water can become stagnant.  I’ve been pretty good at getting rid

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1970 home renovation

dining room options & taking creative risks

Last week, I shared that I was contemplating the fate of the hand-painted dining room mural and unintentionally posted it on April 1, so a few readers thought it might be a joke!  It might seem a little nutty, but it wasn’t a joke.  It’s not unusual for me to look at something I painted and decide I don’t like it.  I’ve thrown paintings away, repainted or stripped pieces of furniture, and goodness knows I’ve painted rooms repeatedly over the years.  I used to joke with Jeff that we were losing square footage in our PA house because I repainted the walls so many times.  While the dining room mural was a much bigger time investment than just rolling paint on, I’m still able to look at it the same as if I picked a paint color that isn’t playing with the light as well as I’d hoped.  I can

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Decorating

the fate of the dining room mural

Sooooo… remember the dining room mural? The one that I designed, hand-painted, and spent hours and hours on?  Well, I’m rethinking it.  Let me explain… First, let me say that I do love how it turned out.  I love the colors and style of the mural, and even though there are some areas I want to work on, I’m happy with the overall design and look.  I decided to call it “finished for now” as we went into the holidays, so I could step away and think about what I wanted to do next.  I knew I wanted to work a bit more on the distant trees and the foreground, and I was considering adding a glaze over the entire mural to mute the effect. Once I had some distance from all the work I put into it, I was able to get a fresh perspective.  There are things about

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All Things Home

the stuff threshold

Let’s talk about the stuff threshold.  I’ve mentioned before that I don’t like to refer to spaces as sparse or cluttered because I have seen rooms on both ends of the “stuff threshold” done very well.  Some rooms are perfectly edited, displaying just a few key things in harmony with one another.  Sparse seems too cold a word for those elegant rooms.  Other spaces are packed to the hilt, but everything is arranged and displayed so beautifully that applying a word with somewhat negative connotations, like cluttered, seems incorrect.  I think it comes down to the fact that everyone has a different stuff threshold. My own stuff threshold fluctuates and has since I was young.  I remember rearranging my room and wanting to put all of the decor and accessories away so I had clear surfaces and the room felt lighter.  One day, seemingly out of the blue, my mood

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1970 home renovation

2025 yard clean-up

In the final days of February, we kicked off the yard work season of 2025.  We had a few warmer days and wanted to be outside, so we decided to start cleaning up the left side of the house.  This is the side of the house we’ve avoided the last two Springs because it’s such a tangled mess and seemed overwhelming.  Jeff has wanted to rip it all out since we bought the house, but I’ve been protective of it and insisted it would be better to trim it all back.  It’s a nice hedge of beautiful bushes that would cost a lot to replace.  He was willing to leave them but was itching to cut them way back, so that’s what we did. As a reminder, this is what the house looked like when we bought it… And this is what it looked like last summer while I was

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Art

#indexcardartpoject 2025 | free oil painting video tutorial | card “c”

For those who have been waiting for another paint-a-long video, this post is for you!  I am going to film painting a few of my index cards since they are great little studies for beginners, those new to oil paints, or those who want to do a little painting exercise with me.  For this card, card “C”, I’m painting a quick and loose study of an Edward Seago painting. If you’re just hopping into the 2025 Index Card Art Project, you can get all of the details HERE. This is the Edward Seago painting we’re studying, although it becomes more of a loose interpretation and less of a study as I get going! I’ll be posting the exact colors on my palette in a separate video and blog post, but if you’re new to oils, this is the beginner palette I would suggest.  I do use a touch of red

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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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