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All Things Home
All Things Home

tips on selecting wallpaper

As I shared a few weeks ago, I’ll be hanging wallpaper in our guest room (above a chair rail).  Well, my mom is visiting this week and we’re taking that on as our big project.  Hanging wallpaper in an entire room feels like a bit of a risk for me, but a guest room is a good place to take risks.  This particular one is in our basement, so it’s separate from the rest of the bedrooms and the living spaces where we spend most of our time.  Ever since I hung a wallpaper mural in our tiny upstairs bathroom in our last house and saw the visual impact it brought to the table, I’ve been eager to try it again on a larger scale. And this guest room is one boring box that could use a visual punch to make it special. I realize that I’ll be putting a

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March 4, 2019 75 Comments
All Things Home

how’s your view?

A door frame is not just a door frame.  It’s a frame. Whether it’s intended or not, it frames out the view of the room that is beyond the opening. A couple of years into blogging, which involved taking lots of pictures of my home, I started to take notice of this idea.  How does a room look through a door frame?  How does one room invite you in from the next? What are the common design threads that tug on your senses and delight as you round a corner? When decorating a home is approached like this, it isn’t just a building with connecting rooms.  It becomes a home with a story that is told throughout.  The story might be one of color or style or something else altogether. As I’ve been working through this house, specifically the first floor that is full of “frames”, I’ve been keeping this in mind when

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March 1, 2019 49 Comments
All Things Home

studio closet

I have always loved this corner of the studio…  the oak hutch with the bird pulls, filled with art books.  The vertical row of brushes and the dress form flanking it. Having a good storage piece seemed like the best solution for that wall, but once I started really using this space, I realized that the oak hutch only provided a fraction of the storage I needed.  I had bulky photography equipment and video lighting and tripods and stands tucked all over the house and I really dislike work stuff encroaching on spaces meant to be just our home.  (I know it’s a fine line, but I try to keep the spaces distinct as much as possible.) So, over the Christmas break, I made a list of things I wanted and needed in my workspaces.  More storage was at the top of the list and that had me looking a

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February 26, 2019 33 Comments
All Things Home

Finished Staircase & First Floor Home Tour

Our staircase is finished and it’s one of my favorite makeovers to date!  Well, it’s hard to say that because we’ve done so many things to this house that have customized it to our liking, but this staircase is a central feature in the home and it’s nice to have it looking so timeless and beautiful. Originally, I thought the foyer would be one of the last projects we would tackle.  I mean, it’s not a “real room”, so why spend the time and money on it?  But as we lived in the house, I realized how important that space was.  It connects all of the other spaces on the first and even second floor and having it undone made the house feel a little disjointed.  So, we bumped it up the priority list.  The plan was to hire out the painting (since I don’t do tall ladders), hire out the

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February 25, 2019 75 Comments
All Things Home

office details

Welp, yesterday was yet another snow day in Minnesota!  We didn’t have much snow through December and even into January, but we have been having one of the snowiest Februarys on record and another storm is expected this weekend.  I actually love getting snow, but I am getting weary of having everyone home during the day while I’m trying to work.  I love my boys, but I need that time!  I do enjoy watching their excitement about the snow days, though, waiting with anticipation to see if Rochester Schools end up on the list of cancelations.  And it won’t last forever.  Spring will eventually come. Anyway, today I’m showing another wall in my office.  I shared the bookcase earlier in the week… …and this is the adjacent wall.  It’s between one small window and the french doors that serve as the entrance to the room. I knew I would move

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February 21, 2019 30 Comments
All Things Home

the other side of the studio

I showed the right side of the studio in yesterday’s post and today, as promised, I’m sharing the left side.  This side is tricky, because of all of the windows, the mini-split (heating & cooling unit), and the fact that it’s the part of the room that’s most visible from the kitchen. From the moment we first moved in, I felt like I needed to put the hardware cabinet under the window.  It is, after all, one of the coolest pieces I own and I wanted it to be the focal point!  But, it was a clutter magnet and almost always had stuff stacked on it and the stuff on the adjacent wall (the chair, table, etc.) obscured the view. When I made the decision to move it over to the “big wall” and stack the bookcase on top, that meant I would need to find something else for the

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February 20, 2019 41 Comments
All Things Home

the bookcase & the hardware cabinet

Today, I wanted to show you how the marriage between the hardware cabinet and craigslist bookshelf look in the studio now that the piece had been organized and styled. When I first sketched out the idea, I thought it might work and it was at least worth trying.  There was some doubt, though! When the bookshelf was set in place on the top of the hardware cabinet, it confirmed that these pieces at least worked together.  The wood tones and the patina on the pieces looked like they could’ve come from the same place. (As a note of safety, the first thing we did was attach the bookshelf to the wall with L brackets at the top.  You can see the edge of one sticking up on the right side.) And now that I’ve moved in, I am sold. Even the lamps and ironstone milk pitchers and brushes worked just

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February 19, 2019 50 Comments
All Things Home

hanging art on a bookcase & styling tips

Since Jeff did all of the furniture moving for me last week I have been working on moving back into my office and studio.  Don’t worry!  I’ve been pacing myself, taking lots of breaks, and working mostly with my left arm.  It’s been slow going (like moving one or two books at a time), but I can’t tell you how awesome it’s been being productive again.  I just am the sort of person who needs that in my day. So, one of the things I worked on over the weekend was moving into the new bookcase in my office.  It’s the from .  It’s sold out right now but will be back in stock in June.  (They also have this bookcase in a and .  Use code “GEORGE” to get 15% off for President’s Day.) Anyway, this bookcase has been sitting in my cart on Birch Lane’s website for weeks,

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February 18, 2019 79 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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