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All Things Home

All Things Home

painting & finishing the aviary dresser

The last time you saw this dresser, it was sanded down and prepped for painting… In case you missed that post, you can check it out HERE. Years ago, I made a video tutorial about applying the first coat of milk paint, what to expect, etc.  While the information really hasn’t changed a lot, I decided to make an updated video as I worked. In this video, I cover some of the basics, like when to sand and the benefits of sanding.  I also talk about application (brushes, rollers, sprayers) and some of the perks of using milk paint, especially if you’re a sloppy painter! Here’s how the dresser looked after the first coat. The variance in color that you see is partly the nature of milk paint and partly how the paint was absorbed into the surface.  I debated painting on a second coat to even it out a

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All Things Home

counter selection | compromising nothing & gaining everything

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by HanStone Quartz.  All words and opinions expressed in this post are, as always, honest and my own. As I’ve shared before, replacing the countertops was on our to-do list for this house before we even bought it.  These are nice granite counters and they really don’t look bad at all, but they aren’t my taste.  We would also like to install a tile backsplash, which would look a little odd coming off of the little backsplash that is currently a part of the counters.  We plan on being in this house a long time, so we decided it would be worth changing them out. So, I had my heart set on marble.  I love the look of it and the “soul” of marble.  It’s such a beautiful material.  I know the issues, though, and I’ve spent months reading reviews and asking friends who have

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All Things Home

prepping two pieces to paint

For those of you who are missing furniture makeovers, a few are coming your way!  As I was working on these pieces today, I realized my back does not miss working on furniture, but I do.  There is something therapeutic about working on a piece of furniture to me. Prepping these pieces to paint was not on my “big three” list today, but I got two out of three of my biggies done and I decided to shift gears.  We have had winter weather through most of March and all of April.  It’s just been too cold to work outside or in the garage.  I tried it a couple of times and it was just stupid.  Anyway, we’re expecting some snow and a wintry mix this weekend, so I figured I needed to take advantage of a (warm) 40 degree day and do some furniture prepping, which really needs to

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All Things Home

painted studio floor update

I’ve been asked quite a bit for an update on how the painted floors in my studio are holding up, so I thought I would share! Here is a reminder of what the room looked like when we first moved in.  It was perfect for a sunroom, but I wanted a studio more than a sunroom and all of that orangish wood wasn’t going to work. It’s so hard for me to remember the space like that!  It was so dark. The flooring is just deck boards.  We had insulation installed under the floor, but decided to paint the deck boards instead of installing a “proper floor” on top.  We may do that down the road, but since this is a studio for painting, I wasn’t too concerned with upgrading the floor.  It is certainly going to get splattered over the years. The floor has gotten chipped and gouged in

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All Things Home

studio form & function & $200 arhaus giveaway

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Arhaus.  I have worked with this brand before as an influencer and a paying customer and I am an Arhaus fan.  As always, all opinions and words are honest and my own.  And, there is a giveaway, so you might want to stick around! As I’ve been using my sunroom-turned-studio space over the past few months, I have learned what’s working and what’s not and I’ve slowly been adjusting things here and there. One of the glaring pieces that needed to be addressed was the drafting table.  It worked okay, but it had been stripped for parts, so it was missing some key pieces for adjusting it and locking it into place.  I couldn’t adjust the height of the table and I had to rest the top on my legs while I was working.  The move from PA only made it worse.  I found that

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All Things Home

speckled milk-painted eggs

I told you another milk-painted egg post was on the way and here it is, just in the nick of time before Easter.  This idea came about because I bought a bunch of real eggs to paint, but then I found the paper eggs and those were going to be even better for my original plan.  So, I was left with a bunch of cheap white eggs.  I will insert here that I eat eggs for breakfast almost every day.  Big egg fan.  But, I’m picky about my eggs and like ones that are free-range and organic with rich yellow/orange yolks.  They just taste so much better!  These were just run-of-the-mill, pale-yolked eggs that don’t have a lot of flavor.  I wanted to find another use for them. So, I made these speckled milk-painted eggs, but I used quail and robin’s eggs as inspiration. This speckled milk-painted egg project was

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All Things Home

blue & white transferware details

I’ve been asked a lot lately about my pale blue & white antique dishes, specifically about the handleless cups and the pattern, so I thought I would share the details with everyone. I found my first handless cup several years ago.  I’m not generally a lover or collector of teacups, but I loved the more functional shape of these.  They are taller than traditional tea cups, making them suitable to be used for small potted plants, candleholders, pencil cups, all sorts of things.  And, since they don’t have a handle, they stack easily. By the way, they are cups, not egg cups or pudding molds.  They are from the 1800’s and that was the fashion, I suppose.  I don’t often think about the fact that these are well over 100 years old.  Oh, the stories they would tell… Anyway, the color of this transferware also caught my eye.  It is

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All Things Home

milk painted paper eggs

After making the Pysanky eggs last week, I thought it would be fun to break out the MMS Milk Paint and make some more eggs!  I selected a color palette of Mustard Seed Yellow, a custom green (2 parts Boxwood + 1 1/2 parts Lucketts Green), a custom pale blue (2 parts Eulalie’s Sky + 1 part Linen), and Artissimo. I found at Target and knew they would be perfect for milk paint.  I was planning on just painting some small papier mâché eggs, but these were even better.  They are larger, about the size of duck eggs, and the fact that they open up makes them easier to paint and they can actually be filled!     No prep work was required.  I just painted on one coat of each color.  I painted the white eggs in the lighter colors and the craft eggs in the darker colors. The

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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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