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All Things Home

All Things Home

the doodle book & an empty studio

Just in case Lucketts wasn’t exciting enough, this weekend is also the launch of my newest book – The Home Design Doodle Book! This book was such a labor of love, partly because of the content, but also because it was drawn/written entirely by hand!  I had no idea what I was getting into when I made that suggestion, but it made this book so much more personal.  (In the end, we did have to use a hand written font for some of the text, because we realized editing a hand written book was ridiculous!  But, the first draft was written entirely by hand.) It’s different from any of my other books.  It’s part journal, part decorating book, and part encouragement.  I wanted this book to feel like a conversation we would have if I was in your house, holding your hand through finding your style, reworking your rooms, putting together

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All Things Home

La-Z-Boy Design Dash | Vote & Win

A few months ago, I was invited to be a participant in the La-Z-Boy Design Dash this year.  It’s a design competition that starts with a sofa and ends with a day and a half of racing to claim furniture & accessories in a showroom to put together an entire space in a few hours that will be photographed and voted on!  Eeep! Here’s a quick video preview of the event… My first thought when I was invited was that I would be totally out of my element.  I’ve always worked with antiques and second-hand pieces and I’m used to putting my stamp on everything.  Would I be able to put together a room with all new stuff?! I didn’t know the answer to that question, but I like that this opportunity pulled me out of my bubble and would be a challenge.  Plus, I’ve had the chance to work with the people

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All Things Home

finished “French twins”

Now is the time when everything I started gets finished.  Well, it’s also the time I buy new things that need to be finished, because it’s my biggest event of the year and I have to give it everything I’ve got, but that’s another post. One thing I finished this week was the sibling to my French twins of 2017… I finished one of them a few weeks ago, but then I shelved upholstery work for a while and opted to work on painted furniture. While upholstery is something I can do, it’s not something I enjoy.  I like the end result of the transformation and, unfortunately, the process has to happen in order to get to the finish line.  So, I give myself a pep talk and make it happen. They turned out great.  The second one, that I had been avoiding for weeks, ended up being a piece

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All Things Home

a trunk, a wicker chair & a side table

The studio has been a flurry of activity so far this week.  It’s our last full week before Lucketts and we’re making a push to get everything finished, photographed, priced and packed.  There are so many pieces that I haven’t even had the chance to share!  A market scale, a barrel scale, an amazing clock (that works) from a telegraph office, textiles, baskets, fans, totes, and lots of ironstone. I do find myself wrestling with the familiar doubts that always nag me before an event.  Am I bringing too much?  Not enough?  It really feels like overkill one moment and nowhere near adequate the next. Even though it’s all a little ridiculous, I think it’s a part of that nervous energy that balls up before something exciting.  I always felt it before a performance when I was into that sort of thing and it always drove me to do better.  I

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All Things Home

slipcovered settee

I usually don’t work on the weekends, but it’s crunch time as Lucketts is quickly approaching.  So, after sitting out in the rain most of the morning to cheer my boys on at soccer, my mom and I spent a few hours in the studio to cross some more things off the to-do list. My mom priced the shipment of German dish brushes, hemp twine, and fly swatters as well as the antique pieces I purchased last week.  I worked on a few pieces of furniture and styled and photographed the settee I finished on Friday… This started out as a Queen Ann settee I purchased off of craigslist.  I honestly bought it because the price was so good.  It had a nice shape, but I didn’t expect much from it.  It looked a lot like a piece that would be in the waiting room of a dentist’s office.  I was

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All Things Home

the mint dry sink

One of my blog readers gave me the nicest compliment a couple of months ago.  She said something like, “I love that you love nice things, but you can let them go.”  I keep coming back to those words as I’m deciding what to keep and what to sell. Loving a piece isn’t enough.  Hoping I will have the perfect place for it isn’t enough.  If I use those two arguments as qualifiers, I would keep everything.  Those two arguments are factors, but I also have to think about versatility.  Can I use the piece in a variety of ways, in many different rooms, giving me lots of options as I set up in a new home and studio? I love this dry sink and I have been holding onto it in the hopes that some day, I could hook it up to a drain and wall-mounted faucet and love

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All Things Home

fan scale, watercolor matches, & soapstone chalk

If you are a scale-lover, as I am, you may have spotted the antique fan scale on the Farmhouse White buffet I shared on Friday… I don’t know what it is about scales that pull me in every time, but I love them and have been selling them in my retail space at the Lucketts Spring Market since my first year as a vendor.  I am bringing several this year, maybe about eight, including this beauty… That dial has all kinds of crazy numbers on it and I don’t even know why they are there, but beyond their practical purpose, they just look cool. Agreed? And I like that it’s big, but not too big.  You could realistically have this on a kitchen island without it looking grossly out of proportion. My new Lucketts helper, Debbie, and I worked on some furniture pieces today, but I don’t have anything finished to

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All Things Home

two full weeks until Lucketts…

I was looking at the calendar today and it had me sweating!  I only have two full weeks to finish getting ready for Lucketts!!!  Ah!!  And, Kriste, my trusty sidekick, has gone on maternity leave.  Slacker. So, the pressure is on and it’s time to put the pedal to the metal.  Since it is fast approaching, I wanted to share a few details and reminders. The main thing to remember is that the Lucketts Spring Market has moved!  If you show up at the grounds of the Lucketts Store, the market will not be there.  You will be sad and lonely and will end up making a mad dash to the Clark County Fairgrounds in Berryville, VA, so you can join all the rest of us. There will be over 175 vendors this year, plus a lot of fun new things, like paint demos, a glamping expo, crab pickin’, old

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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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