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Furniture Makeovers

furniture feature friday | favorites & link party

Good evening, all!  Unfortunately, I’m feeling a bit under the weather tonight.  I’m not sure if it’s just a headache or if I’m finally succumbing to the illness that my boys had last weekend.  Either way, I’m hitting the sack early tonight and didn’t have a chance to pick favorites from last week.  I look forward to browsing through all of the amazing links posted here this week, though.  Kriste and I have a ton of furniture in the studio to work on and I always love all of the inspiration offered here!  Enjoy the party! Here are the rules for our furniture get-together… 1.) Your post has to be about furniture. Please, please, please…just furniture. If you find your link has been deleted, it’s not because I’m mean, it’s because your post was not about furniture. You can share makeovers, awesome finds, favorite pieces, furniture arrangements, or even pieces

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All Things Home

swapping chairs

Sooo…I’ve been know to rearrange, trade and swap furniture in my house.  I’ve always done that, but it’s so much more tempting (and easier) when I have a steady stream of awesome furniture coming into my possession as I’m getting ready for an upcoming antique market.  Sometimes I need to love a piece for a while before I send it off into the world.  There are other times when I trip across something I’ve been looking for and I know right away that it’s coming to my house. That was the case with these chairs… I have been looking for end chairs for my dining room for a while…over a year, I think.  The current end chairs are almost exactly like the side chairs and it looked a little “one-note.”  I felt like some really great end chairs would add a lot more interest to the space.  It’s the kind of

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furniture feature friday | favorites & link party

I had this post scheduled to go live last Thursday and I didn’t realize until a few days ago that it never posted!  Something funky happened with WordPress, but it was a holiday weekend anyway, so it worked out well.    Since last week was really busy, I asked Kriste to pick favorites.  (It’s also nice to get a fresh perspective, since I always gravitate towards the same things!)  Here she is… Hello, hello, lovely people! It’s Kriste back again for another FFF pick. I was so refreshed with all the springtime looks this week. I love how fresh and clean everything looked! There were so many pretties this week. Marian and I have been swimming through oceans of furniture in the studio over the past couple of weeks. It’s so nice to sit down and browse all the beautiful projects you have been working on. When the studio get

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Before and Afters

workbench turned kitchen island

I went to a local antique store a few weeks ago and bought a few pieces, including this workbench… Jeff was surprised at my choice.  It doesn’t have the curvy lines I usually go for and the top is some kind of wood composite.  I just had a gut feeling about it.  It had a nice shape to it and, with the right additions and changes, I felt like it could be a really special piece. And here’s how it looks now… Kriste can’t even look at it.  She is so sad she doesn’t have a spot for it!  I feel the same way, although I could make an excuse to keep it in the studio, but there are only so many tables and workbenches someone needs…at least that’s what Jeff thinks. Everything just came together serendipitously for this piece.  I was thinking about what to do with the top

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All Things Home

upholstered ottoman & painted cabinet

Sometimes when I have a huge stash of furniture to work on, I’m overwhelmed and find it hard to even know where to start.  That is definitely not the case as I’m getting ready for Lucketts this year.  ALL I want to do in the studio is work on furniture.  My e-mail inbox was being so woefully neglected because of it, so I had to pin myself down and get it cleaned out last night.  I’m really enjoying painting, upholstering and seeing the pieces transformed.  I hope you’re enjoying it, too!  There are a lot more furniture makeovers to come. I bought this stool at an antique store a couple of months ago and it’s been hanging out in the stash since then.  I was planning to make a slipcover for it, one that laced down the legs and had a short, ruffled skirt. The day was winding down last

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Before and Afters

two chair makeovers

I had another BYOF workshop last weekend.  (BYOF stands for Bring Your Own Furniture, for those who didn’t figure that out!)  I always love those classes, because I get to help people work on one of their own pieces as they learn how to use milk paint and the finishes.  Not only do they learn, but they get something done in the process.  This workshop was just two ladies, me and my mom, so it was really low key.  I even had the chance to do some painting. Both of the ladies brought chairs.  The first one was an interesting child’s size chair that doubles as a stool.  It was clearly something that was homemade for a specific purpose, so it’s really unique. The owner chose to paint it in Shutter Gray, distressed and finished with Antiquing Wax… The other chair was a farm-style, plank-bottom chair, except it’s not old.

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Before and Afters

layla’s mint dresser

I bought this dresser off of Craig’s List a few months ago when I was having a run on empire dressers.  I think I found 5-6 of them, all for under $100, within a few weeks.  It was crazy. This is one of the roughest dressers I’ve worked on, but it was the cheapest one of the bunch and I figured we could do something with it.  It has a pretty wicked shimmy at the moment and the drawers are a little wonky, but I think Jeff will be able to fix it to at least make it functional. It’s a chunky piece, but has a bowed top drawer and some turned details on the sides that add some femininity to it.  I decided to paint it in Layla’s Mint, one of our new MMSMP European colors, to make it even more soft and feminine. I did not add Bonding

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Before and Afters

boxwood empire dresser

Sooo…there is a dresser that’s been hanging around in the studio for months.  It’s a beautiful empire piece with some amazing graining on the drawers and I just wasn’t ready to paint it.  I pushed it against the wall and waited until inspiration struck. I was thinking about the dresser one evening and it hit me… Boxwood.  It would look stately and fitting for the lines and size of the piece. I’ve had some extra help in the studio the last couple of weeks.  Cari, aka “The Machine” is back to help with stripping chairs.  And, we’ve had a new helper, Megan from Mercy in the Middle.  She attended one of my painting workshops and later reached out and asked if she could come help us get ready for Lucketts.  We clicked at the workshop, so I said yes.  Anyone who volunteers to be covered in dust and splattered with paint is a friend in

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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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