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Antiques

The Dental Cabinet

I shared in my recap of the Chapel Market that I bought this dental cabinet from Urban Farmgirl within minutes of it being unloaded.  Can you tell how happy I am and how much I love it? Well, now it’s home and in the place it was always meant to be… …this small and somewhat awkward wall has left me searching for the perfect piece for years.  Most pieces are too wide or look too short or not important enough to be the very first thing you see when you walk in the door.  So, I’ve been playing musical furniture in that spot more than usual….even for me.  I’ve always pictured a tall cabinet with a glass door that I could fill with my favorite thing to collect – white ironstone.  Now, it’s the first thing I see when I walk into the house and I love that. It has

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October 22, 2013 62 Comments
Antiques

Guide to Shopping The Chapel Market

Well, this is a guide to shopping my space specifically at the Chapel Market tomorrow.  First of all, here are some pictures of my space and the things that are for sale (and everything is for sale!)… I did not bring t-shirts, because I am almost sold out and need to reorder, but I did bring a bunch of books… …and I’d be happy to sign them for you.  Also feel free to bring a book you already have for me to sign. I brought samples of all of my milk paint colors, including the newest ones… …but the paint and companion products will be sold across the aisle at Perfectly Imperfect. So, here are some tips for shopping my space… Since the space is small, we don’t have any display pieces or a checkout, so you have to find me or my husband Jeff in order to pay.  We’ll

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October 18, 2013 60 Comments
Furniture Makeovers

Furniture Wax vs. Hemp Oil

I have received a bunch of questions lately about Furniture Wax and Hemp Oil, the difference between the two and how I choose which one to use, so I thought it was time to write a post about it.  Let’s dive right in. Furniture Wax Why I started using it… I read an article about finishing painted furniture with wax a few years ago, so I went to the hardware store and bought a can of Johnson’s Paste Wax.  That was really the only wax I was familiar with, so I started using it on some of my painted and stained pieces.  I had a few problems with it.  It was very stinky and the consistency made it difficult to move well on a piece of furniture.  I also couldn’t get it into fine nooks and crannies of pieces.  So, I started looking for other types of wax and found

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October 14, 2013 12 Comments
Hand Painted Furniture

hemp oil gallery (550×275)

I have received a bunch of questions lately about Furniture Wax and Hemp Oil, the difference between the two and how I choose which one to use, so I thought it was time to write a post about it.  Let’s dive right in. Furniture Wax Why I started using it… I read an article about finishing painted furniture with wax a few years ago, so I went to the hardware store and bought a can of Johnson’s Paste Wax.  That was really the only wax I was familiar with, so I started using it on some of my painted and stained pieces.  I had a few problems with it.  It was very stinky and the consistency made it difficult to move well on a piece of furniture.  I also couldn’t get it into fine nooks and crannies of pieces.  So, I started looking for other types of wax and found

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October 13, 2013 73 Comments
Decorating

Sanding, staining, mixing & flooding

I had great plans for today.  I was going to get two furniture pieces finished and fit in e-mail and some photo shoots as paint dried.  The day was going as planned until about noon.  It’s been raining here for two full days.  Hard.  We’ve had a little bit of water seeping into our basement, just because the water table is so high.  This is normal, though, and the water is mostly corralled into channels with the help of some strategically placed towels.  I was busy oiling one of the shoe racks I bought and noticed some water seeping beyond the towels.  I figured they were sopped, so I exchanged them for dry towels and put them on the spin cycle in the washer.  The new towels were soaked in minutes and I realized there was a big problem.  I could hear water splashing.  It was pouring in under the

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October 12, 2013 30 Comments
Furniture Makeovers

Dealing with Bleed Through

When I bought this piece, I thought I might have some trouble with the stain bleeding through.   Unfortunately, I was right. The piece looked like this…  …I sanded it to give the surface some tooth… …painted it in MMSMP Trophy… …which is supposed to look like the color shown above – a tarnished silver sort of color.  I left it to dry, came back and it was gray-ish purple.  Not exactly what I had in mind. If you’ve painted even a little bit of vintage furniture, I’m sure you’ve come across it.  You paint the piece, go make some dinner, come back an hour later and the color is not what you painted it.  It’s turned more red or pink or yellow or orange.  That is known not-so-affectionately as “the dreaded bleed through.”   (This quirk that sometimes rears it’s ugly head when painting pre-finished pieces can happen with

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October 8, 2013 73 Comments
Sewing

HGTV Cafe Curtain

As a freelance writer for HGTV, sometimes I’m assigned specific projects and other times I’m asked for project ideas that fall under a broad category.  When I was asked for kitchen window treatment ideas a few months ago, I immediately thought of cafe curtains. When it came time to sew the rod pocket, I wanted to figure out a simple way to make sure the width of the pocket was the same along the entire channel.  It’s easy to go a little wonky when you’re sewing, especially if you’re a beginner, and it helps to have something to use as a guide.  I didn’t want to mark the white linen, so I used Frog Tape!  I placed the Frog Tape exactly where I wanted the pocket and sewed on both sides of it.  It worked out perfect that the pocket needed to be an inch wide.  Once the pocket was

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September 28, 2013 30 Comments
crafts

Milk Paint Pumpkins

I received a lot of wonderful comments about my blue pumpkins and squash, but several people shared that they couldn’t find them in their area. Well, that gave me an idea… I’ve been itching to play with milk paint since attending the retailer training earlier this week, so why not test some custom mixed colors on a few pumpkins?  I know painting pumpkins isn’t anything new, but I don’t know if I’ve seen milk paint pumpkins out and about.  Given the natural variation in the pigmentation of the paint, I figured it would mimic the variations in the skin of blue pumpkins nicely. So, I started out with mini white pumpkins… …and mixed up six different custom colors.  They’re all variations made with Grain Sack, Boxwood, Shutter Gray, Eulalie’s Sky, Trophy and Kitchen Scale. I have found that these little ironstone mugs are my favorite to use for small paint

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September 27, 2013 48 Comments

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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