Before and Afters Archives | Page 39 of 51

Before and Afters

white washed desk & tutorial

Thanks so much for all of your sweet comments and encouragement in response to my recent big announcement! I really do feel like I have a huge group of friends who have been with me through this journey and you’re cheering me on. It’s an awesome feeling and it means a lot to me. The next three weeks are going to be insane. I’m getting stocked up for the Lucketts Antique Market, which means lots of shopping, painting, pricing, packing, upholstering, sewing, glittering, gluing…whew! On top of that, I’m working on rewrites for my book and developing this line of milk paint. I need to find a way to duplicate myself, so I can get it all done and still make dinner and keep my guys in clean clothes! I know it’ll all work out. It always does. So, here’s the latest piece of furniture I just finished today…

April 28, 2012 1 Comment

Before and Afters

French Grain Sack Chair

Unfortunately, I do not have a before picture of this chair. I bought it last summer off of Craig’s List and never snapped a picture of it. It had a wood frame and lavender plaid upholstery. It was in great condition, but it just wasn’t “me”, so I gave it to Ruthie, my upholsterer to let her work her magic. I also gave her two antique grain sacks to use as the fabric. I can hardly take credit for how amazing this chair looks. My contribution was a naked chair frame painted white with some grain sacks and Ruthie did the rest. I love her choices on the position of the grain sacks. My *plan* was to sell it, but I am so in love with it that it’s not leaving my house. Ever. Well, I guess I shouldn’t say that, because I do often

April 23, 2012 1 Comment

Antiques

Milk Paint Dresser

For those of you who have missed my furniture before & afters – this post is for you! Today I’m sharing a classic Miss Mustard Seed dresser makeover. I bought this dresser off of Craig’s List a couple of weeks ago. It looks like it’s natural wood, but it’s actually painted brown. It did have the original hardware, though and it’s solid as a rock. I painted it out in one coat of a custom mix of milk paint by Homestead House and lightly distressed it. (I’m going to make some video tutorials on milk paint soon.) Milk paint did the magical thing it does and created this awesome flaked finish. I finished it off with a clear coat of Annie Sloan’s clear wax, so it’s super smooth, despite the textured appearance. I decided to paint the top on this one, since it was already painted brown

April 21, 2012 No Comments

Before and Afters

Inside the Armoire

Over the past couple of months I’ve been working on my work office (not to be confused with our home office) for a magazine feature. It’s been so fun moving things around and adding some pops of color to inject a bit more personality into the space. The art director asked me to move the fabric from my mirrored armoire, which wasn’t being photographed to my French armoire, which was. Well, the inside was an orangish-yellow pine and I was not going to have that in a magazine. Here’s the best before picture of the interior I could find. See…knotty, yellow, orangish, not cute. So, I went to my paint stash to decide on a color. Since this was the inside of a piece, I could have a little fun with it. I decided to use ASCP Antoinette, which is a soft ballet pink. Since there are inset

April 4, 2012 No Comments

Before and Afters

my hospital visit

For those of you who are familiar with me, you know it’s torture for me to just sit and rest. Home decor is my hobby and my business, so it’s hard to keep me from it. Well, when I checked into my hospital and was faced with this room, I knew it needed my help. A little painting here, some sewing there and ta-da… traditional bedroom design by los angeles interior designer Elizabeth Dinkel Don’t ask me how I got those windows in there. It was quite a chore. I would show you what I did to the operating room, but they wouldn’t allow me to bring my Nikon in there. OK, totally kidding. I nabbed that beautiful bedroom picture off of Houzz. I was a good patient and went through the same blue shower cap, airy gown experience everyone else does. Things were a little rough and blurry

March 14, 2012 No Comments

Before and Afters

writing on the walls

I’m still plugging away on all things book right now and getting some things done on my house is a nice bonus. I had a chalkboard project I needed to finish for a freelance job and for the book (two birds with one stone), so I had some fun with it today. I have been admiring the amazing work of artist Dana Tanamachi around Pinterest for a while and then saw her work highlighted by The Nester. That was it. I decided I would try something like that in my kitchen and here’s what I did… I don’t even PRETEND to be anywhere near as fabulous as Dana, but it was fun to give it a try and draw on the walls. I did a few other little doodles as well… I also worked on the pharmacy cabinet I bought a couple of days ago. I liked the chippy paint, but it was almost beige and it was pretty nasty,

February 27, 2012 No Comments

Before and Afters

Best of MMS – French Chair Makeover & Tutorial

Welcome to another “Best of MMS” post. A few of you offered up the brilliant idea of sharing some of my past posts while I’m busy working on things for the book, so that’s what I’m doing. (I’m sorry about the wonky spacing in the post. Something funny happens when I put code from my old blogspot blog on my new site.) I painted these French chairs before I had tried ASCP or Milk Paint and I thought I would share the makeover and technique again, so you can see a great look can be achieved with latex paint, which is less expensive and more readily available. I really love ASCP and Milk Paint, but latex shouldn’t be totally forgotten. Here’s how the pair of French arm chairs started… (I had two arm chairs, although only one is pictured.) The back of one was upholstered and the other was caned, but the

February 11, 2012 4 Comments

Before and Afters

half bath reveal

The renovation that wouldn’t end has finally come to an end. As I was looking back over the pictures to prepare this post, I realize it’s taken a YEAR to get this 4′ x 8′ space finish. In our defense, we’ve had a pretty busy year and the half bathroom was just not a priority. We did hear some grumblings from the teenagers that frequent our home, because they had to hoof it up the steps to use the facilities, but other than that, it didn’t inconvenience anyone. Nevertheless, it’s finally finished. Here’s how it started… …well, THIS is actually how it started the day we moved in… …but I really prefer to block that carpet entirely out of my memory. We put down the sticky-back black tile (after removing the carpet, of course) until we could afford something better and I did the best with the space

January 25, 2012 3 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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