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Before and Afters

All Things Home

double-welting tutorial

Well, it only took six months, but I finally finished the “deconstructed chair“! If you think I always plow through my to-do list and nothing languishes, well, the fact this took me six months should make you feel better. There are times when I drag my feet, lack motivation, or I’m simply not in the mood. And upholstery is something I really need to be in the mood for. So, for those who haven’t seen this chair along the way, here is how it looked shortly after I acquired it. It was upholstered in a tattered, threadbare pink silk fabric that was stripped off pretty quickly. I really liked how it looked with just the muslin and burlap, but it was just a little too far gone. It was shedding horse hair stuffing and burlap fibers like crazy and just wasn’t going be functional at all. Despite what my husband thinks,

January 4, 2017 36 Comments

All Things Home

a grain bin turned coffee table

When I shared the industrial-style coffee table a few months ago, some of you called it. It just didn’t work with my style. While I like the table a lot and it was very functional, it was too large for the space and the longer I lived with it, the more it felt off with everything else in the room. Great piece, wrong space. Since I realized that, I’ve been looking around at antique stores and craigslist for something to replace it, but pieces were either the wrong size, wrong style, etc. I finally came across an old grain bin on craigslist. It was a little longer than what I was looking for, but otherwise the dimensions were perfect. It wasn’t blue, either, but it was really old, had a lot of character, and, at $105, the price was right. After thinking if over for a few days (and seeing that

December 9, 2016 81 Comments

All Things Home

my new creative workspace

Yesterday, I was a determined woman. Despite the gloomy weather, I was in the mood to organize, purge, and get my creative space put together. We have organized and cleaned out the studio here and there, but we haven’t picked through each bin and each drawer, keeping only the things that are really used. It was time. It was long past time. Kriste and I worked together, emptying out the contents of bins, drawers, cabinets, and cubbies, and grouped like things together, so we could actually see everything and make more informed decisions about what to get rid of and where a group of items should be stored. We found all sorts of fun and useful stuff that I entirely forgot I had and we also found eight trash bags full of completely superfluous stuff that I gleefully hauled to the dumpster. (We also found some things that other people might want that we’ll list

December 8, 2016 42 Comments

Artistic Endeavors

The art cabinet makeover

The art cabinet is finished! In case you forgot (or missed it), here is how it looked when I bought it… It was charming as is, but it was a bit orange for me and I had a “vision” for it. You can see more details on the before HERE and the pieces that inspired me HERE. Finding really cool hardware was a key part of executing my vision. I sourced these cast iron pulls from England on … They were the perfect hardware to dress up the drawers. It was a little tricky installing them, though! The drawer dimensions were irregular and several were broken, so I had to eyeball a lot of the pulls, hoping they were lined up and level. I painted the cabinet in MMS Milk Paint Grain Sack. I didn’t sand or prep the piece and I ended up with a lot more chipping than I wanted! I paint a

November 22, 2016 40 Comments

Before and Afters

Angie’s Landscape Dresser

Let me start by saying that I rarely accept custom work, but this one just felt right. Angie, the client, said I could just do what I do and her only request was that I “add critters”. She also wasn’t in a rush, so I was able to work on it when I had time and as inspiration struck. Kriste lightly sanded the piece and painted it in two coats of MMS Milk Paint Farmhouse White to give a blank white “canvas” for the landscape. I decided to paint this one almost entirely with milk paint. I have been mixing acrylics into the other dressers I’ve done, but I wanted to keep these colors very soft. I also wanted to do the landscape primarily in blues and green/blues. I used Eulalie’s Sky, Shutter Gray, and Farmhouse White for the clouds, Flow Blue, Trophy and Shutter Gray for the mountains, Boxwood, Lucketts

November 20, 2016 37 Comments

All Things Home

how to upholster a broken cane-back chair…

…because you know you wanted to do that at some point in time, right? Top Google search -“How to upholster a broken cane-back chair?” Well, here is your answer! So, the chair itself isn’t broken, but the cane back is. It’s actually missing entirely, but that qualifies as broken in my book. So, here is how to upholster a broken cane-back chair. I bought this chair quite a while ago and Kriste commandeered it from the stash to use as her desk chair. Well, our stash is very thin and my back was killing me perched on a stool all day, so I commandeered the chair from her. Clearly I need to go desk chair shopping if we have two people who need to sit and only one proper desk chair. So, I’ll do that. Until then, I needed to take a break from sitting at a desk, so I decided

October 25, 2016 48 Comments

Before and Afters

Schloss Highboy Dresser

When we moved Calvin into the guest room, he decided to keep the dresser that was in there, so his old dresser became an extra. A couple of weeks ago, we finally muscled this piece down the stairs and took it over to the studio. It’s a beautiful piece, but the finish was pretty dinged up and tired. It looks a bit better in the picture than it does in person… Kriste and I tag-teamed this piece and I love how it turned out! We lightly sanded the finish to give it “tooth” and then painted it in two coats of MMS Milk Paint Schloss. I lightly distressed the edges with medium grit sandpaper just to soften the newness of the paint and bring out some of the details of the piece. Kriste finished it off with MMS Hemp Oil to protect the finish and bring out the beauty of

September 26, 2016 27 Comments

All Things Home

progress in Calvin’s room…

We made some real progress in Calvin’s room the past couple of weeks. As a reminder, we’re transitioning our guest room into a room for our youngest son, Calvin. He’s ready to have everything done right now, but I’ve been trying to teach him that good rooms aren’t rushed together. It’s about collecting just the right items and that can take time. With the addition of a desk, bean bag chair, more masculine bed frame, some navy bedding, and a rug, it’s looking a lot more like a boy’s room, and a pretty cool one at that. One of my favorite pieces, though, is his new nightstand. This room is really small and we needed a small nightstand to fit in the tight space. I was using a stool when it was a guest room, but Calvin needed something a little more substantial. I happened to have a piece in

September 12, 2016 42 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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