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All Things Home

All Things Home

gold rush purchases

Saturday was Jeff’s birthday and he went out for a special father-son breakfast for some time with our youngest before we spent time together as a family.  On their way home, he saw that there was an antique market happening at the Rochester Fair Grounds.  And, believe it or not, he called and told me about it (no. 1) and then (no. 2) he actually suggested we go there together as a family.  Now, Jeff has always been supportive of my antique habit (unless it involves moving something huge), but he’s not usually one to suggest going to an event, especially with the kids and especially on his birthday. After I checked to make sure he wasn’t joking or ill, I gave an enthusiastic yes. So, we all went to the antique market, which is a small offshoot of the Gold Rush Days that happens in Oronoco and Rochester in

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All Things Home

new pulls for my desk

I just can’t leave well enough alone.  That quality is what actually led me into decorating in the first place, so I am thankful for it, but it does mean I’m always looking for ways to customize and/or improve something even when they are perfectly fine as is. Well, one thing I wanted to customize as soon as it was delivered to my house was .  I love the shape, finish, and style of it, but I didn’t like the hardware.  Fortunately, that’s a relatively quick and inexpensive thing to change.  So, I did! Here is what it looked like before… …and here is what it looks like with the new hardware… I chose antiqued brass bin-cup pulls because they still work with the mission-style of the desk, but they look a little softer and less rustic than the original pulls. I bought THIS 10-pack of pulls from Amazon for

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All Things Home

studio closet reveal

The studio closet is finally finished!  I cannot express how awesome it is to have all of that functional storage in this space now.  It was one of my goals this year to make my workspaces more functional and that has been accomplished in my studio and home office. Previous Posts: If you missed any previous posts in the studio closet series, including plans and some process pictures of how the closet was built, you can find them here… studio closet: framing and shelves studio closet progress: building the doors studio closet progress: straightening warped doors with turnbuckles studio closet progress: building the 3rd door & adding catches So, this weekend, while everyone else in my family was occupied, I took some time to prime and paint the closet.  I used Smart Prime by Zinsser as the primer and then Benjamin Moore’s Aura in White Dove in an eggshell finish

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All Things Home

why there is a Christmas wreath on my door in April

I learned last spring that one can get away with having Christmas greenery and lights up on a porch until April in Minnesota. Since there is still snow on the ground, it just works and seems acceptable. (On Instagram, a reader and I dubbed the snow pattern on this door “snowmbre”.  Get it?  Snow…ombre?  Moving on.) But, the live greenery was starting to look sad just before Junk Bonanza, so I took a bit of time to take it down. Just before I did that, though, Jeff pointed out that there was a bird’s nest in the wreath.  I hadn’t noticed it, because it’s built in the top, left, inside corner of the wreath.  It’s really nestled in there and you can’t see it when you’re looking head-on at the door.  He told me we needed to remove the nest, so we don’t have birds pooping all over the door

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All Things Home

linen shades & art sale

First off, the winner of the Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint birthday giveaway is Traci (butterflyoct)!  Congrats! Almost a year ago, I made some linen shades to filter light in my studio.  And that project turned into having the shades reproduced and sold on Decor Steals.  Well, they are back today! I hung one in my kitchen to show what they look like… They are made out of a pretty, off-white, linen-ish fabric that offers some privacy and filters light without blocking it out entirely.  They are made to hang on a tension rod, so they are easy to put up (and take down.) And the ties can be styled in a variety of ways.  Here is a video showing some options… I am asked about those shades almost every time I show them, I’m happy Decor Steals brought back this ready-made option. You can click HERE to purchase them.  Also, I

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All Things Home

more studio closet progress

Thanks so much for all of the lovely comments on my guest room and for the overwhelming response on my milk paint birthday post!  This group knows how to make a girl feel good.  Thank you!  I’ll announce the giveaway winner in tomorrow’s post. Well, we took advantage of a pretty day last week and finally finished building the studio closet! Now, I need to prime and paint it.  I’m planning to paint it the same color as the walls, Simply White by Benjamin Moore, so it just blends in.  I don’t want it to be too visually imposing, which would be easy since it is quite large. We built the last of the three doors and this time added a Z brace to minimize warping.  The door was still a little warped, but not anywhere near as wonky as the other two were. We did make one bone-headed mistake,

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All Things Home

Guest Room Makeover Reveal & $500 giveaway

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Annie Selke (Pine Cone Hill & Dash & Albert).  All words and opinions are honest and my own. The guest room is finally done and I am so happy with how it turned out!!  I went out on a limb in this room a few different ways.  One of them was the color palette.  I strayed from my typical blues, greens, grays, and whites, and went with beige, cream, and yellow with a touch of blue.  The other decision that stretched me was wallpapering an entire room.  I’ve done a small bathroom before, but tackling an entire bedroom was a new challenge for me.  A guest room is a great place to experiment, though, and this was a successful experiment in my opinion! Here is how the room looked before… It had a good foundation and bones, but it was just a boring box.

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All Things Home

designing fabric & papers for spoonflower

A few weeks ago, I shared that my second quilting fabric collection with FreeSpirit Fabrics wasn’t going to be produced.  (You can find that post HERE.)  Thanks for all of your encouragement on that, by the way!  The brief feeling of failure that comes with any news like that quickly shifted into excitement.  This means I can take my designs and what I’ve learned and translate them into the world of home decor fabrics and papers. I am in the very beginning stages of reworking my existing designs and putting some plans together for new collections and colorways.  Once the designs are ready, they will be for sale on Spoonflower. One of the challenges with designing fabrics (or anything, really), is finding a way to communicate the ideas and concepts that live in your head with other people.  That sounds like a no brainer, but it’s more challenging than you

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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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May 20th, 2026 at 1pm EST

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