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All Things Home

All Things Home

making a new table look old…

 Before we get into the process of making a new table look old…  I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!  We spent a much needed Saturday at home.  Between sickness and traveling over the past few weeks, we were all behind on our chores, laundry, cleaning, mowing, etc., so we took a day to take care of those things.  Picking up toys turned into organizing the basement and picking out toys to give to younger boys.  That turned into hours of great playtime with toys that had been buried and forgotten.  So, it was a balance of work and fun and a great lesson on the joys of being able to actually find your stuff! Sunday was a bit more restful and involved church, some light yard work (the day was gorgeous), errands and dinner out with my parents.  It was a nice break from the frenzy-that-is-my-life in the weeks

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All Things Home

Sailrite Sewing Machine Giveaway

I have a really, really awesome giveaway today…just so you know. But, let me start from the beginning.  A couple of years ago, I was upholstering a channel back chair and I found the end of my rope with my $150 run-of-the-mill sewing machine.  Don’t get me wrong.  That inexpensive machine has served me so well (and it still does), but I was just asking too much of it and it was starting to choke on 6 to 8 layers of hemp grain sack fabric.  Understandably.  So, I started shopping for a proper machine for upholstery. If you’ve ever looked around for one of those, you know that it’s pretty overwhelming.  Most of the upholstery machines I came across were over $1000 and were HUGE!  It would definitely not be mobile or easy to camouflage in a room, which was important to me, since it would be in my house and

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All Things Home

design ramblings |episode 18 | succulents

I turned the camera on and pressed record before Kriste and I even knew what we were going to talk about.  Kriste suggested something spring-related.  Something about flowers…  I chimed in, “Let’s talk about succulents.” So, that’s what we rambled about this week… (In case you haven’t been watching to the end of the videos, I’ve been putting the “bloopers” at the end instead of in a separate video.  Just an FYI for those who like that sort of thing.) Anyway, I know in the video, I was scratching my head a bit at succulents in wedding bouquets, but then I did a search on Pinterest for some and saw beautiful examples and I can see why it’s a trend.  Here’s one I thought was especially striking… photo source: Brandon Kidd Photography I think I like them when they are paired with flowers that are more delicate and feminine.  I also

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All Things Home

pennants + golf club = window treatments

I made a few updates in the boy’s room over the weekend.  All three of my boys (including Jeff) have been sick, so I’ve been playing nurse most of the time, but Sunday afternoon was so beautiful and the sunshine and warm weather gave me a boost of energy.  I threw open the windows, so my “patients” could benefit from it as well after hanging out under blankets in dark rooms for a couple of days.  So, with this boost of energy, I decided to do some cleaning and “playing” in the house (while movie-watching and napping was happening elsewhere.) I’ve been collecting a few things for the boy’s room and I decided to put them into place. I wanted some window treatments that would fit with the vintage sports theme I have going on, but it’s taken me a while to figure out exactly what I wanted to do.

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All Things Home

how to gold leaf a frame

 When I was out shopping for the upcoming Lucketts Spring Market last week, I was looking for artwork for my living room as well.  I was really hoping for a pair of charming paintings, but I didn’t have any luck.  I did find two vintage Currier & Ives prints, though.  They were sweet farmhouse scenes and I thought they would work well with a new frame and mat.  The frames they were in looked a little dated and didn’t showcase the prints very well. I had a couple of black resin frames I bought on clearance a few years ago that were the perfect size.  The black looked too dark for the prints (and my room), so I decided to gold leaf them. This is what the frames looked like before.  They were a bit dusty, so I cleaned them off to get them ready for the sizing. When applying

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All Things Home

swapping chairs

Sooo…I’ve been know to rearrange, trade and swap furniture in my house.  I’ve always done that, but it’s so much more tempting (and easier) when I have a steady stream of awesome furniture coming into my possession as I’m getting ready for an upcoming antique market.  Sometimes I need to love a piece for a while before I send it off into the world.  There are other times when I trip across something I’ve been looking for and I know right away that it’s coming to my house. That was the case with these chairs… I have been looking for end chairs for my dining room for a while…over a year, I think.  The current end chairs are almost exactly like the side chairs and it looked a little “one-note.”  I felt like some really great end chairs would add a lot more interest to the space.  It’s the kind of

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All Things Home

design ramblings | episode 17 | jessica’s canopy bed

In this episode of Design Ramblings, Kriste and I decided to answer a viewer’s question about her space.  Specifically, she’s stumped with what to hang on the wall behind her canopy bed. (At the end of the video, in the bloopers, I’m doing an impression of my friend Shaunna from Perfectly Imperfect.  Just an FYI.) As I was editing the video and looking for some examples of decorating around canopy beds, I found this picture of Emily A Clark’s bedroom.  The arrangement of the bed and the windows is almost identical to Jessica’s, so I thought it would make a nice “inspiration photo.” I was thinking that having curtain panels on both sides of the windows would be too much, but I really like the softness they add in Emily’s room.  It works with the curtain rods hanging much higher than the bed, which could also be done in Jessica’s

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All Things Home

upholstered ottoman & painted cabinet

Sometimes when I have a huge stash of furniture to work on, I’m overwhelmed and find it hard to even know where to start.  That is definitely not the case as I’m getting ready for Lucketts this year.  ALL I want to do in the studio is work on furniture.  My e-mail inbox was being so woefully neglected because of it, so I had to pin myself down and get it cleaned out last night.  I’m really enjoying painting, upholstering and seeing the pieces transformed.  I hope you’re enjoying it, too!  There are a lot more furniture makeovers to come. I bought this stool at an antique store a couple of months ago and it’s been hanging out in the stash since then.  I was planning to make a slipcover for it, one that laced down the legs and had a short, ruffled skirt. The day was winding down last

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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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