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upholstery

Before and Afters

Upholstery Tutorial

 Several people asked for a tutorial on the part upholstered/part slipcovered French chair I revealed yesterday, so this is it!  This isn’t a comprehensive upholstery post, but it will give you an idea of what’s involved in upholstering the back and arms of a chair in this style. To get you started, you can read THIS POST on stripping upholstery.  I didn’t strip the upholstery off the seat and cushion, because I’m going to make a slipcover instead.  I had to take everything off of the back and I stripped the arms down to the muslin.  There just wasn’t a reason to strip them down beyond that. I salvaged the batting, webbing and burlap to reuse and used the fabric pieces I removed as templates for the new fabric pieces.  I cut all of my pieces and set them out so I was all ready to go. When upholstering a chair like

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Decorating

Better than Drop Cloths…

My family room has been undergoing some changes over the past few months…years, really.  It’s been one of those slow makeovers that has happened (and is still happening) as the money and time are available.  It started a couple of years ago when I painted the walls and cabinetry and made new curtains.  In January of this year, we installed new hardwood floors.  Since then, I’ve been waiting.  Busy with freelance stuff, busy with the Lucketts fair, busy with life…  and too tired to think of making new slipcovers, curtains, pillows, etc. Last week, I was walking through the family room and got a little distracted…and that led to rearranging the furniture and rearranging the stuff on the walls and making new pillows and slipcovering a small ottoman.  I can see the room taking shape.  It’s not drastically different.  The bones are the same and the main furniture arrangement is

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Furniture Makeovers

Master Bathroom & About My Upholstery Skills

Now that Lucketts has past, I’m turning some attention to my next round of freelance projects, which includes giving my master bathroom a makeover.  (Insert girly squeal that occurs when makeovers are on the horizon.) So, this is the direction I’m heading…   It’s right off of the bedroom, so I want it to flow with what I have going on in there…   Here are some pictures of my bathroom that I dug up from the archives.  It basically looks the same today, except I changed the wall color and the mirror.  Sorry for the crummy photos.   Would you believe I have never painted that vanity or even replaced the knobs?!  I know…so unlike me!  I have basically written this room off.  It’s not worth trying to work around the almond fixtures, pinkish linoleum and things that are fine, but just not me. Since the bathroom is small (one sink,

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Before and Afters

Happy Ending & French Settee Makeover

A few weeks ago, my mom called me, excited about a message that was on my Facebook page.  “Did you see the comment from Albert Crombie’s family?”  I had to think a minute.  From who?  Oh yes!  The bag!!  As soon as I was at a computer, I looked at the comment. “Hi! I just saw a post from your blog back in Aug. 2011 about a WW1 mail pouch you found at a yard sale. It was my grandfather’s, Albert Lufkin Crombie! My dad was his only child. Do you still have it?” If you’ve read my blog for a while, you may remember this mail pouch that I acquired almost two years ago…   At a YARD SALE!  For $10.00!!!  I wasn’t sure what I would do with it, but I felt like I needed to buy it and try to find the family it belonged to.  I

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Before and Afters

Grain Sack Chair

I’m still plowing through my list of freelance articles (all 30 of them), so today I worked on a tutorial showing how to reupholster a small armchair.  See that yellow French chair under the window?  That was my subject.    It took a couple of hours to get her all stripped down and ready for a nice new look.  I decided to leave the wood frame as it was.  It was a pretty, dark wood and there really wasn’t a reason to paint it.  (See…I do leave some things alone!  Well, I did reupholster the chair, but you know what I mean.)  …and here it is in all of its grain sack glory…      …with a little surprise on the sides and back…         The full tutorial will be available on HGTV.com in a while and I’ll link to it when it’s live.  I also still

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Before and Afters

Untitled-1

After a whirlwind week of activities and festivities, we dropped my parents off at the airport this afternoon.   We got so much accomplished, it’s amazing.  I started getting a little teary-eyed today when I saw so many projects complete.  I know that’s silly, but some of them have been five years in the making and now they’re almost done. Before I show some progress on the house, I’ll share my latest French chair makeover.  I’m really missing working on furniture, but I have a few pieces I’m going to work on in a few days.  It was nice to get this chair finally finished.  I’ve had it since June, painted it in July, upholstered it sometime in the fall and I finally made the cushion cover and put on the trim this week.  Here’s how it started… It wasn’t bad, but it was just a little dated and tired.  Here’s

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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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May 20th, 2026 at 1pm EST

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