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Furniture Makeovers

All Things Home

how to sew custom piping | slipcover series part 1

I finally did it.  I’ve been promising to do it for years and I have, at long last, made good. Years ago, I made a six part video slipcover series on how to make a slipcover.  I tried to write posts about it and I always fumbled over the wording and the posts were confusing and long.  Imagine paragraph after paragraph of “with right-sides together, insert piping between pieces of fabric and pin into place along edge of the chair blah-blah-blah-blah…”  It was just way too much to try to explain in words and pictures alone, so I decided to make videos. They were filmed in my crowded craft room, poorly lit and I know it was sometimes hard to see what I was doing.  You can also hear my kiddos in the background.  While those videos have their charm and I will keep the live on my YouTube channel,

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Artistic Endeavors

Farmhouse White Cupboard

 A few months ago, Jeff and I made a cupboard around a pair of reclaimed doors I bought at an antique market for $40.  They hung in my dining room for a few years, but I always thought they would be perfect in a custom-built cabinet. The full tutorial will be available on HGTV.com at some point and I will link to it when it is. I must admit, this cabinet gave me the “building bug” and now I’m ready to do a lot more designing and building.  You know…with all of my free time. Anyway, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to paint the doors initially, so I didn’t.  I figured I would leave them alone and live with them unpainted for a while. After just a couple of weeks, I knew I wanted to paint them.  The cupboard didn’t feel cohesive to me and I felt like the finish looked

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All Things Home

milk paint 101 | mixing milk paint

In part one of this series, we talked about what milk paint is.   Now, we’re going to get into mixing, which I think is the most intimidating part for most people. First of all, we’re not use to mixing paint, right?  It usually comes in a bottle or can and it’s already a liquid.  Just dip in your brush and go.  I must admit that the convenience of that is nice. The reason milk paint doesn’t come that way, is that it is perishable once it’s mixed, so it’s sold in powdered form. I think some people are nervous about mixing the paint because it is an unknown.  And most of us are a little apprehensive when we stray from what we’re used to.   There’s also an assumption that this needs to be exact or everything will be ruined. So, let me first put you at ease. If you can

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Artistic Endeavors

look book two cover shoot

It was almost two years since I had my last portraits done and, with as often as I change my hair, an update was overdue!  I also needed some pictures for MMS Milk Paint’s Look Book Two, including the cover, that will be coming out in just a few weeks. I thought about just having Kriste and I do all of the pictures, but I think there’s a lot of value in bringing in other creative minds in a collaboration. Since Kriste knows a lot of people in the creative field, I asked if she knew any photographers.  She immediately thought of her friend, Brianna Wilbur.  She’s a very talented wedding and family photographer and happened to also be a MMS blog reader, so Kriste knew we would get along well. A few weeks ago, she came to the studio to snap some pictures. Many of you have already commented on my

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All Things Home

milk paint 101 | what is milk paint?

I’ve written a lot of posts about milk paint.  In fact, we have an entire blog just dedicated to all things MMS Milk Paint.  I could talk about it a lot more than I do, but I never want my readers to feel like this blog is a milk paint commercial.  But when I asked you what you wanted from my blog, I was surprised to learn that many of you wanted to hear more about milk paint. I mention it a lot, but I realized that it’s almost in passing, so if you don’t know anything about milk paint, me simply saying that I painted something in milk paint, distressed it and applied hemp oil might not mean much.  I’m glossing over the details that would be helpful for someone trying to replicate the looks I’m achieving. So, I’ve decided to write a series to those who are brand new

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Before and Afters

bring your own furniture | makeovers

Today, Kriste and I shared the studio with some lovely ladies who came for the BYOF (bring your own furniture) workshop. It’s always so fun to introduce people to milk paint and watch them transform their own pieces with just a little guidance and instruction. Here are the transformations… Then: A magazine rack saved from the side of the road. Now: Painted in a custom-mixed green, distressed and finished with Hemp Oil. Before: A stool made by the owner’s father in shop class when he was a boy. Now: Painted in Tricycle layered over Mustard Seed Yellow with a Hemp Oil resist between the two.  Distressed and finished with Hemp Oil. Before: A sweet table painted in a blue the owner didn’t really like. Now: Lucketts Green layered over Boxwood with a Hemp Oil resist between the two.  Distressed and finished with Hemp Oil. I love how you can still see bits

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Artistic Endeavors

photo shoot at the retreat

Let me go back to the Lucketts Spring Market a couple of years ago.  Suzanne, the owner of The Old Lucketts Store and Design House, came and sat with me on a slow Sunday afternoon.  We were chatting about all of the business opportunities we’re working on and the things we’re dreaming about.  And she shared about a manor house she purchased and was renovating. She told me, “The woodwork in this house is so beautiful, it’ll make you cry.  I just couldn’t pass it up.” It would be a vacation rental, a venue for small weddings and events and a place for creative retreats.  And, it would be something that could be finished.  Suzanne has described the antiques/home decor business as an “ice sculpture.”  You find/finish pieces, put them together, they are sold, the room is picked over and emptied, and then you have to start over again.  Again and

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All Things Home

book page dresser tutorial

Remember the dresser that was being a total jerk? Well, he has improved upon acquaintance.  He’s a bit of a Mr. Darcy and I dare say that he is now dashing and (almost) ready to sweep someone off their feet.  This dresser is sort of like that… Here’s a simple video tutorial on how I did it… The dresser is painted in MMS Milk Paint in Marzipan. The top was stripped to the bare wood and finished with Hemp Oil to hydrate the wood and protect it. The hardware was so pretty, but it was a little fussy for what I envisioned, so I removed the backplate and just used the clapper pulls.   This allows the book pages to be the real star. This book was from the 1870’s and the patina on the pages is so pretty. It was a pretty tattered book and I bought it for just

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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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