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All Things Home
All Things Home

Goodies for Junk Bonanza

Getting ready to sell out of a 10 x 12 indoor booth in a space predominately occupied by another vendor is a far cry from filling the entire Show Barn at the Lucketts Spring Market, but I am excited about getting ready for Junk Bonanza nonetheless.  And honestly, I’m glad that I’m only responsible for bringing a few things.  I just don’t have the space or the time or the shoulder for anything more. I am sharing the space with one of my amazing Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint retailers, Chris Hardine of Midwest Cottage & Finds out of Germantown Hills, IL.  She is also on my team and manages the MMS Milk Paint Facebook page. We’ve been talking for a few weeks about the look we’re going to have in our booth and last night, she sent me pictures of some of the items she is bringing and I

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March 29, 2019 16 Comments
All Things Home

annoying projects

While the boys are home and dedicated, quiet creative work time is limited (or non-existent), I am trying to knock out some projects that are quick and mindless and have been hanging around undone for months.  The projects that fit in that category are on my “annoying project list”.   Every once in a while I dedicate an entire day to annoying projects.  (You can read about my annoying project day in July HERE.)  That’s the only way I seem to be able to gear myself up to finish unglamourous and unexciting projects, so they aren’t hanging over my head any longer. Instead of merging them all into one day, I’m trying to knock out a few annoying projects over the course of spring break week. The one I worked on yesterday was touching up the paint on the butler’s pantry.  I installed a beadboard back last summer and once the

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March 27, 2019 30 Comments
All Things Home

studio closet progress

Remember the closet we were building in the studio?  (You can read about it HERE if you missed it.)  Well, we finally had some time to do a bit more work on it.  This is how it looked when you last saw it… The construction of it was very basic, but I didn’t care too much about making it fancy.  The interior would all be hidden away behind closed doors. Over the weekend, we took advantage of the warmer-ish weather and built the two doors for the larger opening.  I wanted to build them out of tongue and groove v-boards, so they would compliment the planked walls and ceiling. We put them together using 1 x 3 boards on the back side of each door.  In hindsight, we should’ve used a “Z” pattern to help reduce the risk of warping or bowing.  One of the doors is pretty warped, but

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March 26, 2019 20 Comments
All Things Home

picture frame molding in the 1/2 bath

While my mom was here and the mitre saw was out, we decided to install the chair rail and picture frame molding in the half bathroom.  This is a small room with 9′ ceilings and I thought this trim work would be a nice way to break up those tall walls a bit.  (You can find a tutorial on how to install picture frame molding HERE.) Here is a look at the same view before we started the foyer/half bath makeover… This room still isn’t finished, but it’s really coming along and the trim made a big difference in adding some architectural interest to the room.   The walls are still feeling a little…meh.  I think this room needs some pattern on the wall, so I’m thinking about hand painting a design or using one of the wallpapers I am planning to make for Spoonflower. We will also add some crown

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March 25, 2019 35 Comments
All Things Home

how to frame a baby dress

I’m still chipping away at the finishing details in the guest room.  One of the details that had me a little stuck was what to hang to balance out the mirror hung by the left side of the bed, but I finally have it figured out.  I’ll share my solution and also how to frame a baby dress… You can find the wallpaper  I used in this room HERE. I tried holding up a few different things…mostly collections of smaller pieces.  As I looked through pictures in my stash that still haven’t found a home on a wall, I found this large bird print.  I bought it shortly after we moved in, but I realized that it really didn’t work with anything.  (I really needed a pair and I could only find one.)  It was one of those purchases I regretted, but I didn’t have the heart to take a

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March 21, 2019 80 Comments
All Things Home

picture frame molding tutorial

While my mom was here, the biggest job on our project to-do list was wallpapering the guest room.  I was planning on installing the chair rail as a part of that, but I was going to stop there and work on the picture frame/box molding with Jeff.  He’s the real woodworker in our family and he is much more detail-oriented than I am. Plus, there’s the math. But once we got the wallpaper done and the room was looking so good, we didn’t want to stop.  I decided to just go for it.  I’ve done other types of trim and I took a chance that I would be able to figure this out. So, my mom and I went and bought all of the trim we would need for the guest room and we even got a little ambitious and bought it for the bathroom, too! One tip – The

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March 19, 2019 29 Comments
All Things Home

“week” wall clock

When I was out shopping last week, I was poking through one of the antique mall booths and spotted a pretty clock on the wall.  I’m not so much into clocks, but I think I’m attracted to them as small pieces of furniture.  Does that make sense?  I like the shape of the case or the design on the face or the patina of the wood.  I don’t care if they work, although it’s a bonus if they do.  I just like them for their aesthetic quality. So, I leaned in to admire this small, curvy clock and was surprised to see it was only $55.00.  And, beyond that, it was in working order and included a key for winding!  I thought about it for about 2 minutes and then gently lifted the clock of its nail and took it to the counter to claim. I had several ideas of

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March 18, 2019 59 Comments
All Things Home

antique store finds & Junk Bonanza 2019

In addition to the dresser and mirror my mom and I found for the guest room, I found a few other fun finds on our two shopping trips to local antique stores.  I still need to do a lot more exploring to find “my honey holes”, but that will come with time.  I lived in PA for several years before I found all of my favorite places.   Junk Bonanza is coming up April 11-13 (more details are below) and I’m looking forward to doing a bit of shopping there while I attend to teach MMS Milk Paint demos and sell some antiques.  It was a great event last year with top-notch dealers, so I’m expecting to find some antique pieces on the running wish-list for my house. Anyway, here are the things I found while hitting some local places… I bought this cute little wooden horse.  It was just

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March 14, 2019 24 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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