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home improvement

painted cabinets revealed & a video tutorial

First of all, thanks so much to everyone who bore the hardship of going to TJ Maxx to look for pillows for me. I think they will order more of those pillows after all of the phone calls about them! You are all such wonderful ladies and I really wish I could hang out with all of you! Two readers found a total of five pillows. My goal was to find four, so I am totally set and the hunt is officially over. Boy, you girls are fast! However, don’t let me stop you from taking a trip to Home Goods or TJ Maxx. If you must, you must. Now to what I have been slaving over the last few days. In case anyone was in doubt at all about the power of paint…this post is for you. Here are my kitchen cabinets before… …after… …before… …after… I didn’t get new appliances, counters

June 22, 2011 133 Comments

the greatest tool ever made

This post does is not about pretty pictures. I am tearing my home apart to paint my kitchen cabinets and family room walls and ceiling after all. I bought some pears today for my next Cottages and Bungalows photo shoot, lined them up on the window sill and snapped some photos. I just couldn’t help myself. Now that I’ve gotten the pretty picture show-and-tell out of my system, here’s the practical stuff. For those who don’t know, I am in the process of painting just about every surface in my family room and kitchen. I’m in the thick of painting the cabinets, now, and there are lots of them. Fifty one doors to be exact. Today one of the teenage girls in our youth group came to my house to help me out. She hadn’t been able to find a summer job, so it worked out well for both of

June 16, 2011 49 Comments

my farm table & cabinet painting prep tips

I received a few comments about the farm table in my kitchen. You could see peeks of it in my kitchen accessories post, so here is a full view. (Ugh…excuse the floor!) I bought it a few months ago at an antique store with every intention of selling it. I even put a tag on it at one point. I set it in my living room. It was totally the wrong size and scale for the space, but I really liked it. I stained and waxed the top and held onto it to use for the farmhouse chic wedding I styled. Afterward, I decided to try it in my kitchen, which is not really an eat-in kitchen, but I thought it might work. The size worked perfectly and now there’s a place in the kitchen where my family of four can sit together to eat… …and it gives me a good

June 15, 2011 56 Comments

Living Room Paint Techniques

I received a ton of e-mails, comments, requests and pleas for a tutorial on how I achieved the paint treatment used on my trumeau mirror and reupholstered French chairs. Well, I aim to please, so here it is! For the chairs, I started off with a thin coat of Light French Grey by Behr. For the mirror, I started off with a base of Georgian Revival Blue by Sherwin Williams. It’s OK if there are some brush strokes or places where the wood shows through. Just watch for drips and keep this coat light and thin. Allow it to dry. For the second coat, I used a “dry brush” (meaning it doesn’t have a lot of paint on it) and lightly brushed on French Grey Blue by Deco Art. (This is an acrylic paint that can be purchased at a craft store.) Work the paint with the grain of the wood. While the

January 4, 2011 27 Comments

Preparing Your House to Sell…to You

Every once in a while, I look at my home with a critical eye. Most days, I walk past all of the things that are undone and I don’t really notice them. It’s easy to get used to something in your home that is unfinished, broken, or downright ugly. I’m living right now in the second house we’ve owned. The first one was a 1980’s town house that needed some major cosmetic work. We painted every wall surface, refaced the cabinets, installed Brazilian cherry floors, updated all of the fixtures, put up molding and installed pot lights. It was a two year labor of love that we finished the week we put it on the market to sell. I was sad that I never got to live in the place when it was totally finished. Someone else enjoyed the fruits of our labor. Our current home has been a four year

December 14, 2010 34 Comments

Finding & Embracing Your Style

This post is about style. Your style. Great style. And how to figure out which is which. Do you find that you love transitional beach modern French bohemian country shabby chic log cabin Edwardian cottage junk style? Do you get your home set in one style and then a magazine or blog will sway you in an entirely different direction? Do you feel like your style is a moving target? You’re not alone. You’re not suffering from IDSPD (Interior Design Split Personality Disorder.) It’s ok to love a lot of styles. Here’s the important question you have to ask yourself: Do you love this style or do you love this style for your home? That’s a very important question. As decorating fanatics, we all appreciate great design and chic style, but we don’t have to use it all in our homes and we don’t have to use it all together

November 24, 2010 53 Comments

Resetting a Room

Have you been working on a room and you’re feeling stuck or it’s not looking the way you envisioned? If so, it’s time to press the reset button and here’s how I do it. I’ve been working on my living room for a few months, now. When I was looking at it the other day, I realized it’s not turning out the way I wanted it to. It is mostly, but once I added two of the curtain panels, it totally messed me up. I had been decorating for a pretty neutral room and the pop of color and pattern from the curtain fabric began to compete with all of the pictures and accessories. Step 1: Remove all of the pictures, accessories, and anything else from the room that you’re not sure about. Only keep what you really love or need. This is a great time to move some furniture around

November 16, 2010 39 Comments

Measure Twice, Hang Once

First of all, I decided that I am not going to host FFF this week (again.) I am a guest judge on The CSI Project for furniture makeover week, so if you have something to share, link it up over there and I will be picking ten of my favorites and one winner. Will it be you? I love decorating with plates. They are cheap, pretty, and versatile. I buy a good transferware or iron stone plate whenever I see them at yard sales, antique or thrift stores for a reasonable price. I am putting the finishing touches on my dining room and that involved hanging some plates to flank the archway into the living room. Here are some tips for hanging your plates in a nice, straight line. I’m hanging a collection of three on a small piece of wall, so I measured the width of the wall and then divided it by

July 21, 2010 19 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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