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Furniture Makeovers

All Things Home

Hand Painted Mora Dresser | Part 1

Last week, I finally got around to painting a dresser that’s been hanging out in my garage since October!  I put it off originally because the winter weather set in, but then this spring has been busy and it’s been out of sight, out of mind.  Jeff cleaned out the garage a few weeks ago and I promised I would paint the dresser and get it out of there. Well, I finally did and I made a video of the process. So, here is how the dresser started… It’s a pretty little piece, but the finish was a bit dinged up.  A part of me wanted to sand it all down and do some kind of a whitewash or bleach the wood or something, but a reader of me asked if I would paint it specifically for her.  Since I was just going to sell it, anyway, I was happy

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All Things Home

a new latch & knob for the pie safe

On Friday, I took care of another annoying project that was so small it hasn’t even been on any to-do lists. The pie safe in our foyer needed a new latch… Ever since I bought it several years ago, it’s had a hook and eye latch on it that was functional, but it looked out of place on the old piece.  It’s one of those things that you notice each time you use it and then promptly forget as soon as you walk away.  More pressing things require attention, so the metal, hook & eye latch stayed. Over the past year, it’s been rocked in the old wood so often that it’s started falling out of its holes.  And, without the latch closed, the doors will swing open, exposing the mess inside. Today, I finally decided to add a knob that looks more fitting on the piece and a magnetic

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Furniture Makeovers

Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint turns 7

On April 27, 2012, I announced to the world (well, to my blog readers), that I would be launching my very own line of milk paint.  That makes this Saturday, April 27, 2019, the official 7th birthday of the Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint line!  And we’re celebrating with a walk down memory lane and presents!  We’re running giveaways on the MMSMP Instagram and MMSMP Facebook pages and we’re running a giveaway on this post, too! When I introduced the line in that post, I introduced it as my “pie-in-the-sky-dream-come-true”.  Having my own line seemed so outrageous and out of reach.  But, I had this idea of giving milk paint, a paint I had come to love for furniture, a fresh face.  It needed to be freed from the paper bags, colonial color palette, and the dusty shelves of antique malls.  It’s an amazing and unique product and someone needed

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All Things Home

farmhouse white dresser makeover

While at Junk Bonanza, we decided it would be fun to shop for a piece, paint and finish it in Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint products, and then offer it up as a giveaway.  We did it last year and it went so well that it was worth an encore.  So, Wednesday evening, after our booth was set up, I wandered around looking for a good candidate to paint.  I found a few pieces that were nice and within my $150 budget, but I decided to keep looking. And I was glad I waited when I spotted this gorgeous late 1800’s dresser with unique hardware and trim for $125… I bought it from The Tinker’s Ware. There were actually several pieces in that booth that were good candidates to paint, but this one was the one and my heart was set on it.  We settled up and moved it upstairs

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All Things Home

milk-painted washstands reveal

I told you I was going to reveal these on Thursday, but I ended up reminiscing about my 41 years on this earth!  I loved reading your comments on that post and you brought back some memories of things I forgot from my childhood.  Thank you also for all of the birthday wishes.  My DMs on Instagram blew up with all of the messages and it gave me the warm and fuzzies. I’m sure no one was holding their breath for the reveal of these, but sorry to make you wait all the same! And here is how they turned out… They were painted in MMS Milk Paint in a custom mix.  You can find that recipe HERE. I decided to replace the ring pulls, which were most likely not original to the pieces, with glass knobs.  They seemed to work better with the soft blue paint color and the

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All Things Home

mixing a custom color & fixing too much chipping

The first thing I have to say about painting these two antique washstands is that I didn’t follow my own advice. But, before we get into that, let me show you how the pieces looked before… I painted these pieces in MMS Milk Paint in Linen a few years ago for our master bedroom in PA.  They were the perfect size for that long and narrow room, but they looked dinky against in our new home’s higher ceilings. I knew I was going to sell them when I found replacements for them.  As I was working on the guest room, I found two dressers to flank the bed and that meant I needed to get this pair ready to sell.  I could’ve sold them as-is, but some of the paint rubbed off during the move and I felt like they could use some freshening up.  Chris, my Junk Bonanza booth-mate,

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All Things Home

the bookcase & the hardware cabinet

Today, I wanted to show you how the marriage between the hardware cabinet and craigslist bookshelf look in the studio now that the piece had been organized and styled. When I first sketched out the idea, I thought it might work and it was at least worth trying.  There was some doubt, though! When the bookshelf was set in place on the top of the hardware cabinet, it confirmed that these pieces at least worked together.  The wood tones and the patina on the pieces looked like they could’ve come from the same place. (As a note of safety, the first thing we did was attach the bookshelf to the wall with L brackets at the top.  You can see the edge of one sticking up on the right side.) And now that I’ve moved in, I am sold. Even the lamps and ironstone milk pitchers and brushes worked just

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All Things Home

hand painted bread sign

Let me start off by saying this was supposed to be a tutorial, but it won’t be.  The reason is that I mindlessly deleted all of the process photos!!  Ah!  I try to keep my camera card “uncluttered”, so I delete all files once they are uploaded.  Well, I got a little overenthusiastic in my decluttering and deleted these files before I put them on my computer.  Not only did I delete these pictures, but also pictures for a freelance tutorial.  I redid those because I had to, but this will just be the tutorial that wasn’t meant to be. Anyway, I’ve been looking for something to hang over my range, but I just haven’t come across anything that is just right.  I even did some thorough shopping of my house and tried a few different platters, trays, breadboards, etc.  I would hang one and leave it for a day

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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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