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All Things Home

All Things Home

finding your style under clutter

For those of us who love collecting pretty things, there is a problem.  When is enough, enough?  When do the amazing things we own prevent our style from even being visible?  Our style is buried under the clutter.  Too much furniture and collectibles wedged into a room not big enough for it all.  But we love it all, so how can we get rid of any of it? I went through this in my living room, especially.  It’s a really small space, but I wanted to fill it! While I loved everything in the room, I realized it wasn’t really the look I was going for.  It felt too busy and crowded.  I wanted it to feel light and airy, so I started rearranging and editing.  I remember having a moment when I stepped back, took in the space, and thought, “There it is!  There’s my style.” (Sorry, I need

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All Things Home

keeping history

I have had a bin of family pictures, a box of matts and glass, a stash of frames and a mat cutter hanging out in my to-do pile for years.  YEARS!  And that is not an exaggeration.  It really is ridiculous.  Since I’m working on the finishing touches on my house, it is time to do some framing. I have had dreams of creating a gallery wall in our stairway since the day we moved in.  Now that things are freshly painted, I’m ready to create the gallery wall.  (I think just on the wall to the right, so it’s not too overwhelming for the narrow space.) That project starts with the pictures. I get emotional going through old pictures.  I’m not sentimental about very many things, but pictures and handwritten letters, get me choked up.  I think it’s because I know what happens to old, nameless pictures.  They end up in

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Decorating

keeping history

I have had a bin of family pictures, a box of matts and glass, a stash of frames and a mat cutter hanging out in my to-do pile for years.  YEARS!  And that is not an exaggeration.  It really is ridiculous.  Since I’m working on the finishing touches on my house, it is time to do some framing. I have had dreams of creating a gallery wall in our stairway since the day we moved in.  Now that things are freshly painted, I’m ready to create the gallery wall.  (I think just on the wall to the right, so it’s not too overwhelming for the narrow space.) That project starts with the pictures. I get emotional going through old pictures.  I’m not sentimental about very many things, but pictures and handwritten letters, get me choked up.  I think it’s because I know what happens to old, nameless pictures.  They end up in

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All Things Home

reupholstering a French chair | part 5 | upholstering the chair

We are finally here…get your staple guns out and let’s start upholstering!!  I know it’s hard to believe that it takes four parts to get to the point when you can actually upholster, but that’s often how DIY projects are – you have to do several steps to get to the fun part (or at least the part when it starts looking like an improvement and not an epic fail.) This episode is the longest, because I wanted to show each step in detail, especially the tricky places.  I know it also helps visual learners to actually see what I’m doing as opposed to just hearing me describe it.  I also wanted to do a bit of hand-holding for people who are brand new to upholstery. I talk about the staple gun I use in the video, but I thought I would link to it here as well.  It’s a

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All Things Home

checkered rug

I’ve shared before that rugs are my nemesis, but I feel like I’m finally getting a handle on what I like and what works with everything else happening in my space.  I had a plain jute rug under the table in the family room (off the kitchen), but we rolled it up and put it in the basement when we set up the Christmas tree.  It was fraying and the color just looked a little bland, so I didn’t put it back.  As we’ve been living without a rug for a while, I came to the conclusion that it would be much better with one. But which rug?  hmmm… So, I’ve just been waiting until the right option comes around.  I often troll Joss & Main to see if anything jumps out at me and a few days ago, something did. It’s a jute rug, so it works with the

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All Things Home

reupholstering the French chair | part 4 | selecting & cutting the fabric

Part four of the video tutorial series on reupholstering the French chairs is here.  If you missed parts 1-3, you can find them here… Part 1 – stripping the chair Part 2 – painting the frames Part 3 – distressing & waxing the frames Now that the frames are ready, it’s time to work with the fabric.  As I mentioned in the first video, we set aside the fabric we removed from the chair in order to use the pieces as a template.  I remember the first few pieces I upholstered, I chucked the fabric and started from scratch and that was definitely “the hard way.”  You make things so much easier on yourself if you keep the old fabric and use it to your advantage. When it comes to selecting fabric to work with, the weight of the fabric is very important.  If the fabric is too thin, it

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All Things Home

design ramblings | episode 10 | investment pieces

Happy Friday!  Kriste and I are back with another episode of Design Ramblings.   In our 10th episode (woohoo) we talk about investment pieces for the home.  It took me many years of decorating and redecorating to learn that some things are worth a splurge…   Yep, I’m a little bit passionate about bed frames, in case you didn’t notice!  The bed frame I mention in the video is the Vienne bed from Restoration Hardware… The sofa I have is the Brooklyn leather sofa in Toffee from Pottery Barn… And the “cow paintings” we talk about are by Cindy Austin, who sells prints of the originals in her Etsy shop. What are your favorite investment pieces?  What are you saving your pennies (or gift cards and credit card points) for?

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All Things Home

upholstering a french chair | painting & finishing the chair frame

Here we are at parts two and three of our makeover of these French chairs I found on Craig’s List… We stripped off the upholstery in part one, which you can find HERE in case you missed it.  Once the upholstery is stripped, that is the time to deal with the frame if you want to change it at all.  I love leaving wood frames alone when they are to my taste, but this one had a shiny finish, black speckles that speak to the 1970’s-80’s and a hand painted gold detail that wasn’t really my thing. Stripping the finish would’ve been much more than I wanted to take on, so I decided to paint.  Kriste and I painted the frames in MMSMP in Mora… (In case it’s driving you nuts, I did paint the inside of the back left leg of my chair once the camera stopped rolling.) Since 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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