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All Things Home

All Things Home

hiding ugly office stuff & hanging sconces

Before I go into today’s post, I have some exiting news!  Free Spirit Fabrics has been acquired and that means my fabric lines will still be produced! That means I need to hunker down and start working on colorways for the second collection again.  I’m so excited that Bunnies Birds & Blooms will be available, but I’m even more excited for this second collection to launch.  The wheels are turning again… Now, onto today’s post… I’m still chipping away at my office here and there.  I have been looking for baskets for the top of the cabinet to use for storage and to raise the visual height of the piece.  I also wanted to hide the internet modem and Orbi unit. My no-spend February turned into a low-spend February when I bought the cabinet off of craigslist and since then, I’ve stuck to the spirit of my low-spend challenge.  I

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All Things Home

making way for hardwoods | ripping up carpet

I’m sharing everything in reverse when it comes to the office makeover, but that’s just how it goes sometimes!  I usually write about what is most “at my fingertips” and sharing progress on the room was a lot more fun than talking about ripping out carpet.  But, it’s an important bit that some of you might want to know more about, so I’m circling back to share the details on removing carpet. Here is a before picture of the room, so you can appreciate how far it’s come… …and how it’s looking today… (Yes, I’ll work on the cord situation, but curtains will help a lot with hiding those!) Obviously, the first step is to take out the carpet and padding, which is surprisingly easy, although it does take some muscle!  Just pull up a corner and, in most cases, it comes right up.  Jeff did this before I even

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All Things Home

One of the top home investments you can make…

This post is sponsored by James Hardie®.  All words and opinions are, as always, honest and my own. I’ve already shared that our new house in Minnesota has amazing bones.  It has a functional and intelligent floor plan, it has many brilliant features (like outlets in the soffits for Christmas lights and in-wall night lights that go up the staircase.)  The changes that we’ve made to it, with the exception of replacing some of the appliances and “guts” of the house that were at the end of their life, have been largely cosmetic.  They were changes to customize the house to suit our tastes. And, almost all of these changes, are ones we talked about before we moved in.  One of the changes we talked about was replacing the siding.  Even when I first looked at the listing, before we knew we would move to Minnesota or buy this house,

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All Things Home

home office progress

I’m so excited to share the progress we’ve made in the home office!  Initially, this room wasn’t going to get attention for a while. but when we talked about putting hardwoods in the dining room, we decided to have them done in the office at the same time.  Both rooms are right off the foyer (one to the right and one to the left), so it’s nice to have the consistency in the flooring and both carpets were tired-looking from being off the foyer.  I suppose people walked in there with boots/shoes still on? As an aside, we’ve always been a come-as-you-are home.  No reason to leave your shoes at the door.  In Minnesota, though, everyone takes their shoes off and we’ve learned that’s for good reason.  Your shoes get so dirty from the slush, salt, sand, ice-melt, etc. and it really will destroy your carpeting.  So, we’re getting used

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All Things Home

craigslist confession

Sooooo….about that “no spend February”… I’ve actually been doing well with it and have said “no” or “later” to many things I wanted to buy in the moment. But, I made the mistake of browsing on craigslist.  Even as I was doing it, I knew it wasn’t smart.  But, we’re working on my office and I needed a storage piece.  I just couldn’t help myself!  Well, I could, but I didn’t. And, of course, I found something that was perfect.  So, the “no spend February” became a “low spend February.” What I found was an antique bookcase with original glass doors.  The size was right and it’s just the sort of thing I’ve been looking for.  I forwarded the link to Jeff and asked if we could go pick it up.  To his credit, he did not point out my no-spend pledge.  He said it was a great piece and

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All Things Home

dining room wood floors

Before we even moved into this house, before we even saw the house in person, I let Jeff know I had my eye on the carpeting in the dining room.  For a room that is the “most formal” in the house, carpeting just didn’t work for me.  I also do a lot of photo shoots in my dining room for this blog as well as freelance articles, so it was important to me to have the larger surfaces of the room (floor, walls, etc.) looking just how I wanted. There was also the practical side of things.  The carpet is 13 years old and, although you can’t see it in the picture, it was looking a little tired.  Wood floors would be easier to keep clean, especially since the dining room is right off of the foyer. The dining room flows into the kitchen/eating area, so we wanted the floors

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All Things Home

living room curtains

Man, it has been a long, productive day and I am pooped!  Of course, I decided to start exercising the day I had a bunch of physical work planned.  That was brilliant.  I use the word “exercise” loosely, though, because it was pathetic how out of shape I am.  I am still babying my shoulder and about 10 minutes into interval training, modifying everything, feeling stiff as the Tin Man, I realized I just needed to stretch and work on core strength.  I switched gears and did some Pilates and that felt great, but I have been sore all day as I painted window trim and shoe molding and moved furniture back into the dining room and my office. I still have a lot of work to do on those two rooms and a lot of cleaning up to do after having the entire contents of two rooms dumped into

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All Things Home

green art cabinet makeover | part 1

When I bought this piece, I knew I wanted to freshen it up a bit.  It didn’t need dramatic plastic surgery.  It just needed a little makeover, so it could look its best.  Before we even brought it in the house, I put wheels on the bottom and my mom and I gave it a good scrub.  I also hunted for and ordered some pulls to replace the mis-matched ones.  I know there is a charm to it as it is, but just wait until you see the makeover… The pulls arrived over the weekend and, earlier this week, I took some time to remove the old hardware.  What I found was not what I was hoping for… Someone had painted over the hardware. Bummer. This isn’t such a big deal, except it left some unappealing beige paint exposed and the new pulls weren’t going to fully cover it on

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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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