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All Things Home
All Things Home

ensuite bathroom makeover progress

Before I get into the post about our ensuite bathroom (master bathroom) makeover, I wanted to let my blog readers know that I’m going to take next week off.  I have had a lot of work on my plate outside of the blog (all fun and exciting stuff that I can’t wait to share with you) and I need to take a week to put my work focus solely on those projects. I’ve really been trying to do too much simultaneously and I’m feeling a little scattered.  I know it’ll help me so much to set a couple of things down in order to do other work with excellence.  So, I’ll pop onto Instagram here and there, but I’ll be quiet here on the blog next week. Our master bathroom (ensuite bathroom) is finished, but I haven’t shared very much of the process here on the blog, so I thought

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September 24, 2020 50 Comments
All Things Home

stripping & waxing antique pine

A few weeks ago, I dragged this old cabinet outside to sand it down.  It had been in Marshall’s room for a few years in this house and our PA house.  It had some water damage on top as well as sticker residue on the sides.  I mean, it has been living in a kind-turned-teen’s room for a few years and they aren’t the best at furniture care!  It was getting to the point that stripping and waxing this antique pine piece was going to be the best way to bring it back to life. Striping Antique Pine This cabinet had a very thin, yellowing finish on it that was easy to sand off with an orbital palm sander equipped with 100 grit sandpaper.  I opted to go that route instead of using a chemical stripper, which is usually my preference.  It would be faster and a little less mess

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September 23, 2020 25 Comments
All Things Home

make-do custom mattress for an antique daybed

Remember the antique Jenny Lind daybed I bought off of Facebook Marketplace a few weeks ago?  Well, I finally received the foam and batting I ordered to make a custom mattress for it. antique jenny lind daybed My plan is to make a french-style tufted mattress, but I starting wrapping the foam in the cotton batting I ordered and I realized I would need to make a cover to hold the cotton batting in place.  Poly batting is much easier to slide a fitted cover over, but I went with cotton because it gives a softer appearance to the cushion.  It was one of those afternoons when I was determined to get this done.  I knew it was irrational to think that I could finish an entire custom mattress in an afternoon, but I felt this push to try. I cut down the 3″ upholstery foam with an electric carving

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September 21, 2020 39 Comments
All Things Home

five things | fall decorating favorites

Because I’ve been busy with home and work projects, I haven’t done much fall decorating.  I did buy one heirloom pumpkin yesterday and some heather, but otherwise, I’m not going to do too much this year.  I may change my mind in a week or two!  The temperature was a crisp 40 degrees this morning on my walk and a couple of trees in our yard have turned a fiery red, so I’m definitely in the mood for fall.  It’s for that reason that I decided to share my five fall decorating favorites from the past few years. Farmhouse-Style Blue & White Fall Table As soon as I broke free from the idea that fall decorating had to include orange, I enjoyed it.  It could be blue and white and green.  This table was a celebration of that! I just used white pumpkins with green apples, some persevered yellow leaves,

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September 17, 2020 19 Comments
All Things Home

master bedroom bed crown & pillows

When I shared the milk painted dresser last week, many of you noticed that the bed crown was finished and up!  My mom and I worked on that as well as sewing some pillows for the bed in the master bedroom. Several readers have asked to see the entire bedroom and I will show it soon, but it’s not quite finished, yet!  I still have a few more finishing touches before the final reveal.  Here is a preview of the bed crown and the new pillows, though… Now, I realize that a bed crown is going to be far too fussy, formal, and French for some, and that’s okay.  If it is, then don’t put one in your room!  For my space, it’s the perfect solution to a tall, arched headboard in a room with eight-foot ceilings.  The space created between the bed and the ceiling was pretty awkward to

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September 14, 2020 117 Comments
All Things Home

How to Clean Stinky Furniture

One of the questions I’m asked most often is about how to clean stinky furniture.  Here is the most recent e-mail I received about that… “I have an older dresser that smells awful! I have no idea what to do to alleviate the smell. It was my mom’s and now it’s mine. There hasn’t been anything smelly stored in it but I’m stumped as to what to do to have fresh-smelling drawers without having to sand the inside of the drawers down or douse it with chemicals. My only other thought is to spray or paint it with KILZ. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions?  Thanks for your time!” Having bought and sold thousands of pieces of furniture over the past 10 years, I have done battle with many pieces that were stinky, musty, smelled like smoke or animal pee, or were just completely dirty and gross.  Sometimes it’s

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September 10, 2020 29 Comments
All Things Home

milk painted dresser makeover

I know that my followers love a good furniture makeover and I have a good old fashioned painted dresser makeover today! This is a dresser I bought in the spring of 2019 when my mom and I were working on the guest room makeover.  We went out to a few local antique and consignment shops to see if we could find dressers to use as storage/nightstands and we ended up finding one for each side.  This is one of those dressers that was now replaced by an almost identical dresser we found when they were visiting a few weeks ago.  Are you tracking with me? We ended up swapping out the one we bought last March with the recent find because the drawers work just a little bit better.  Since Jeff will be using it daily as a nightstand, it made sense to use the slightly sturdier one.  Be also

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September 9, 2020 67 Comments
All Things Home

studio chair slipcover

I wasn’t able to get my post up yesterday, because I was shooting a local home in Rochester.  It was such a fun day!  I love photoshoots, styling, tweaking, etc.  Anyway, today I’m going to share about a slipcover I made for my studio desk chair.  Remember this desk chair that I got a couple of years ago when I rearranged the furniture in my studio and office to make both spaces more functional? | | I moved this chair into my studio when Jeff was working out of my office during the stay-at-home orders and I liked it in there.  It’s a pretty comfortable chair and the small scale suited the antique teacher’s desk I use as a work surface in the studio.  I just wanted to customize it a little bit and while I was playing with fabrics to make a slipcover for my office chair (you can

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September 3, 2020 37 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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