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Before and Afters

All Things Home

the chair that didn’t need a makeover…

…but ended up getting one anyway. It took me months to get the nerve to rip the beautiful Pierre Deux fabric off of this chair… I loved the colors, the pattern and the upholstery was done very well. There were a couple problems with it – it didn’t work with my Farmhouse White theme for the Lucketts Spring Market and the fabric was faded at the back and a little dingy. You don’t really notice it in the pictures, but it looked tired. It was still hard for me to rip it off, so I had Kriste start on it while I worked on something else. When I started putting the chair back together again, with pieces cut from an antique hemp sheet and ticking, I was at peace with the decision. The chair is still its pretty, Frenchy self, but it feels fresher; less fussy. I finished it off

March 19, 2016 51 Comments

All Things Home

a curvy chair gets a makeover…

It’s really hard to turn down free stuff, especially when it’s a curvy chair that just needs a little cosmetic work to make it special. So, when my friend Traer brought this to my studio, asking if I’d take it off her hands, I couldn’t say no. In the flurry of activity, I didn’t get a proper picture before we stripped off the upholstery that it was wearing. It was black tapestry with some purples, creams and green in it. Not my thing. So, we stripped off the old upholstery (Katie and I took turns working on it) and then I sanded the glossy frame and painted it in two coats of Farmhouse White. The paint adhered really well, even without the bonding agent, so I didn’t get a lot of chipping, which I was glad for. There is such a large contrast between the dark wood and the

March 16, 2016 31 Comments

Before and Afters

the hutch wearing an unfortunate shade of brown…

Does this cabinet look familiar? In case you don’t, let me refresh your memory. Here is how the hutch looked when I found it on craigslist… It had a lot going for it. A pretty and simple shape, interesting details and I liked the wire in the upper cabinet doors. It was painted a most unfortunate shade of brown, though, and the interior was a mess. The contact paper and a smattering of cream paint wasn’t working for me. As I was working on upholstery, Kriste asked what she should do with it. I suggested painting the outside first and then we’ll deal with the inside. It was just a delay tactic and we eventually had to deal with it. It involved scoring the contact paper, ample amounts of Goo Gone, and scraping with a scraper and then a razor. It was not a fun job. I know it looks like I

March 14, 2016 39 Comments

All Things Home

making a “vintage” chalkboard with milk paint

As I shared yesterday, the past couple of weeks in the studio have been devoted to getting things finished that have been hanging around for way too long. I’ve ignored some of them, because I knew they would be a pain-in-the-rear to work on, like the French chair with nailhead trim (yet to be revealed), and I ignored others because I just didn’t know what to do with them. I knew they had potential and I wasn’t quite ready to give up on them, so they languished in “the stash”. This oversized Eastlake mirror frame, minus the mirror, was one of those pieces, but it was a perfect piece to repurpose. Here’s how I went about making it into a vintage chalkboard with milk paint. Before we get into the tutorial on making a vintage-style chalkboard with milk paint, a bit of history… I picked it up at a yard

March 12, 2016 43 Comments

All Things Home

another pair of frenchies

There are some things that I hold onto for years. They survive the purges and my “selling moods”. I just know I will have the perfect use for them some day. Well, some day finally came for these linen grain sacks that I’ve been holding onto for years. A reader, who lived in Europe, found them for me and sold me a few for a great price. They were something like $5.00/each. I think she was able to get them for $1.00/each out of an old factory. I used a couple of them on a chair a few years ago, but have been saving the rest for just the right project. These chairs were that project… I got the chairs last Wednesday when another reader was delivering all of those ironstone bowls to me. She brought along some other things she thought I would be interested in, including this pair of cane-backed French

March 10, 2016 35 Comments

Before and Afters

the hand painted landscape dresser

The theme for the space at Lucketts this year is Farmhouse White, yes, but that doesn’t mean that everything will be white. A lot of things will be white, as you may have noticed, but we don’t want to neglect the “farmhouse” side of that theme. After some creative brainstorm sessions, we decided one way to bring that in was the use of landscapes. And, of course, I immediately imagined a landscape on the front of a dresser. Here is how the dresser started… And how it looks now with it’s sweet, folk-art landscape painting… Now, I can’t take full credit for this one. It really was a collaborative effort between Kriste and I. We had a highly technical conversation about “blobby little trees” and “blobby sheep” and “brush stroke-ish grass”. I painted the base colors, did the distressing and finishing, and chimed in now and then with some thoughts for

March 9, 2016 84 Comments

Before and Afters

mini dresser makeover & “hand painted” stencils

I am always drawn to child/doll furniture or salesmen’s samples (small, portable versions of full-sized pieces of furniture). There is just something so sweet about them. But, after buying a few of them and noticing how long it took to sell them, I stopped buying them. I can get a better bang for my buck if I spend it elsewhere, so I look at them and “aww” and open the drawers and then walk away. Most of the time. I made an exception with this one. It was well priced and I liked the simple shape. Here is how it looked when I picked it up… It was fine, but just looked a little drab. We painted it in Farmhouse White, leaving the knobs wood. That was Kriste’s suggestion and I loved it. I added a stencil to the front in MMS Milk Paint Linen. I like the soft tone-on-tone

March 6, 2016 21 Comments

All Things Home

paint all the things white

One of the best parts of having a theme for a retail space, whether it’s a booth at a market or a small shop, is focus. Your theme keeps the items you’re collecting cohesive, so they look better together in a display. Better displays mean that customers can more easily envision items in their own homes, which will hopefully lead to better sales. With the theme of Farmhouse White, we’re painting a lot of things in…well, Farmhouse White. But, we need to add some other whites in, so the booth doesn’t look flat. As I’ve mentioned before, the key to white is layers, texture, and using many shades of white that all play nicely with one another. So, I’m pulling out the other whites in our line, Linen, Grain Sack and Ironstone, along with some custom-mixed whites. And that means a lot of things are going to be painted some shade

March 5, 2016 31 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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