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All Things Home

Decorating

My Favorite Decorating Books

When Jeff and I were too poor to have cable, internet or dinner and a movie out, we would occasionally go to a book store and hang out for a couple of hours.  He would wander off and look at…I don’t really know what he looked at, but I would make a bee-line for the home & garden section and camp out on the floor.  I didn’t care that it might not be proper for an adult to sit on the floor in a store.  I would sit there and look through all of the books until Jeff came to get me.  I ended up leaving with a full creative tank and a list of books I wanted to ask for when Christmas or my birthday came around.  Between those book store dates and book club memberships over the years, I’ve accumulated a nice library of decorating, home and DIY

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Decorating

Hanging Plates on the Wall

Many of you have noticed the plates hanging on my walls throughout my home.  If you haven’t noticed, plates, platters and lids are pretty much my go-to wall art.  It all started because I could find plates at yard sales and thrift stores…sometimes for as low as 10 cents a piece.  I ended up with enough plates to feed a small army, so I started hanging them on the walls.  I first hung plates in the obvious place…the kitchen, but when I needed something to hang in the bathroom of our townhouse, I opted for an arrangement of silver plated platters.  (They looked so good against the rich navy walls!) I always have a stack of plates and platters in my home, so when I’m moving things around, the plates are often the first thing I pull out to fill a space or round out an arrangement. When we hung

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Decorating

my home – the paint colors

I have recently received a lot of e-mails and comments asking for the name of the paint colors I use in my home, so I thought I would share them in a post.  (I’ve also been asked how I hang my plates, so that post is coming up.) Do you remember the era when everyone had a yellow kitchen, red dining room and beige family room?  Well, just about everyone I knew did!  Anyway, during that era, Jeff and I bought our first home – an 1100 square foot, two story condo.  I had been dreaming about paint colors the entire time we rented and lived with white white walls.  I also spent most of my childhood in military housing (with white walls) and with a mom who was a little scared of color (which meant white walls.)  She has since gotten more daring with “accent walls” and even beiges!

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Decorating

about my jute rugs

Many of you noticed the jute and seagrass rugs throughout my house in the partial house tour and asked some questions, so I thought I would share a bit more about them.  After trying a bunch of patterned rugs in my home, I realized I didn’t want so much pattern on the floor.  I wanted the rugs to be quiet, so the fabrics and painted furniture could be the stars.  The rugs in the living room, dining room and kitchen were purchased from Joss & Main with credits I earned there.  They are the Barbados Rug by Safaveih.  I would describe them as nubby, but soft.  They don’t feel scratchy, but since they are so heavily textured, it feels better to wears socks or shoes when walking on them.  They’re definitely not rugs to snuggle on. I have found these rugs to be very forgiving with crumbs and spills so far.

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Decorating

The Style Shift

As I’ve been working on my home over the past few months, a few realizations have hit me.  The first one was that I have too much stuff and I’ve talked about purging, selling, donating, organizing and paring down in recent posts.  I find myself grabbing more and more things to put on the sale pile.  The other day I was cleaning out kitchen cabinets and Jeff stopped and stared at me, sitting on the floor surrounded by kitchen gear and cook books, as he walked by.  I looked up at him and exclaimed, “I’m getting rid of all of this!  What is all of this stuff, anyway?  I don’t use it.  I don’t need it.  I don’t like it.  It’s gone!  I see STUFF in a brand new way.”  He just replied, “I know you do” and went about his day.  He’s pretty unbothered by the things I do

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Antiques

the new horse

The new horse actually arrived yesterday, but I was so busy listing things in my online shop that I didn’t even open the box.  That’s unusual for me, because most of the time the arrival of a box causes me to drop everything as I get distracted with new, fun things.  But it had to wait.  Jeff and I spent hours today packing up almost 40 orders that were placed yesterday.  We’re still figuring out a good system, but we learned a lot today.  I am going to switch to a different kind of online shop that will work much better for the kind of shopping frenzy that ensued yesterday after I posted a bunch of stuff.  I’m holding off on listing more until we get the technical stuff figured out in order to minimize frustration for shoppers.  I also am aware that my site has been down some over

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Antiques

The new sofa has arrived!

Today was the day!  For someone who usually hauls their furniture from a thrift store, yard sale, auction or antique shop, it’s a luxury to have a piece that’s finished delivered right to my home and placed in the very spot I want it.  I’ve only experienced that one other time – with the bed in the master bedroom. (For those who are catching up, I bought the Brooklyn Sofa from Pottery Barn a few weeks ago.)  Last night, I started getting nervous about it.  It’s a huge purchase and I am fickle when it comes to furniture.  Would it look as good in reality as it did in my head?  I started to imagine that it would look hideously orange in my space or too big or too small or just all wrong…  Or, that it was perfect, but had a huge slice in the leather or a leg

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Organizing

organizinggallery

With the boys out of school, it’s been really difficult for me to get in my groove, but I have been able to pick away at some organizing projects.  Organizing is the kind of project that can be done in pieces between building Lego’s (I’m the “piece finder”), Ukulele practice, “snack picnics” and playing Creationary.  In the past few days, I was able to get my linens starched, ironed and organized for their next use.  The drawer looks so pretty now! And I’ve been working on my office shelves.  As I mentioned a few days ago, I’m moving my decorating books to our home office shelves, but I don’t want all of the spines to look too busy, so I’m wrapping them in brown paper.  Brown craft paper is pretty thick for this kind of project, so I’m actually using a roll of the thinner brown paper that’s sold in

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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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