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Furniture Makeovers

Furniture Feature Friday – Favorites & a Link Party

Oh my word, girls!  I am normally really inspired by all of the links to FFF, but last week was bananas.  I had so many pages of favorites open it was insane.  I had a very hard time narrowing it down to only three, so I just had to pick three and go with it.  Here are the ones I decided to share this week…  (For some of my other favorites, check out my FaceBook page.) This fall vignette from Momma Hen’s Coop is so creative and beautiful in its simplicity.  I love the use of the French chair frame and the “fire place” made out of old wood.  It’s just stunning.  Janet from Shabbyfufu shared her gorgeous dining room with a homemade farmhouse table and Craig’s List French caned chairs.  Who says great style has to be expensive?  Work it, girl.  Work it.  Pamela from From My Front Porch

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Furniture Feature Friday – Favorites & a Link Party

As I looked through the projects from last week, three jumped out at me almost immediately.  Usually I have to go back and forth between ones I love to narrow it down to three, but last week…there were three that I instantly loved.  Here they are… Christie from Three Pixie Lane lovingly painted this secretary and the end result is so worth the effort.  Not only do I love the way she painted it, but the styling is perfection.  That Nordic bunting is so pretty.  Maple and Magnolia found this surveyor’s cabinet on Craig’s List and tackled the chore of refinishing it.  The result?  Killer.  This girl slayed this cabinet in the best possible way and the styling is spot on.  Love, love this.  I want one, now. Little Miss Penny Wenny used one of my dressers as her inspiration for this piece, but I find her piece inspires me.  I

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the french armoire – before & after

Some of you have been waiting a long time for this one. Trust me when I say that I have, too. Back in March or maybe April, I was browsing Craig’s List.  I looked all over my area and didn’t find one thing that was of interest to me.  Hating to spend all of that time searching and only to come up empty, I decided to expand my search.  I looked in metro areas where I had family, including the Orlando area where my parent’s live.  And, I came across this French armoire for $150.  “Um, Dad…will you pick up an armoire for me?  Pretty please?”  Batting eyelashes don’t translate over the phone, but my Dad melted at my sweet, angelic tone.  Not only did he pick up the armoire for me and spotted me the money until I sent him the check, but he stored it in the garage and then packed it up and drove it

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a poor paint job

I used to shudder at pieces of furniture that were poorly painted.  Drips, major brush marks, streaks and chips.  I felt like my paint job would only be as good as the previous paint job and I needed to sand it baby bottom smooth to make it right.  Well, I have had a change of heart.  I no longer see problems in poor paint jobs.  I see texture.  Amazing texture just waiting to be highlighted and put on display.  For example…this piece was poorly painted. It was streaky, drippy, chippy and not in a good way. The drawers worked perfectly, though, it’s solid wood, has the original hardware and a great shape.  Instead of stripping or sanding it, I just painted straight over it with a mixture of paint (I’ll get into that in a minute.) Once the paint was dry, I sanded it heavily to bring out all of

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Furniture Feature Friday – Favorites & a Link Party

It’s always tough choosing my favorites for FFF and narrowing it down to just three, so I’m going to start featuring some runner-ups (runners-up?) on my FaceBook page.  That way I don’t have to choose just three.  So, “like” my page if you’re interested in seeing what catches my eye.  Here are the three I really loved from last week… Amy from Whisper Wood Cottage deconstructed this French chaise and it looks amazing.  It’s a gutsy move to leave a piece like this and I think it’s heavenly.  Jaime of Craft Happy Scrappy gave this card catalog some love and now it looks fabulous!  I love the size and scale of this piece as well as the warm wood.    Jillian from The Virginia House made her own hand painted Restoration Hardware inspired “Grain Sack” chair.  In her post, she points out the flaws of her 3am project, but I think

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French Poem Dresser

I’m so sorry, girls.  I have totally gotten lazy about taking “after” shots of my furniture.  I have to haul it up from the basement, move the furniture around in my house, gather props, stage the photo, take the pictures and then put everything back.  It’s very time consuming and I have to have good light and an extra person on hand to move the furniture.  Well, after today, I think I’m going to start going through that trouble again.  I finished two dressers last week and I have lousy pictures of both.  So, be prepared to be underwhelmed.  Despite the poor photography, I really love this dresser.    It was painted in glossy green and gray oil based paint.  I took this picture after the paint from the top was removed.  Mini Mustard Seed painted it in ASCP’s Cream, which is sort of a very pale yellow.  Once it was dry, I

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Furniture Feature Friday – Favorites & a Link Party

Thanks so much to everyone who has asked about our safety.  We are in the middle of all of the flooded areas and our schools were closed today, but we’re not seeing anything that bad in our immediate area.  It was much worse in the spring…and we had about 8″ of standing water in our basement that time.  Please keep the families in the Susquehanna Valley in your prayers.  They are the ones who have been hit hard.  Closed schools definitely threw a kink in my day.  We ended up hiring a babysitter, so we could head out to deliver some new pieces to my space at Lucketts.  I actually ran into a reader there, which is always fun.  She hiked all the way up to the third floor just to see my space.  So sweet!  One last thing, if you notice some strange things happening with my website or

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my home – before & after

I am tired today. It’s a pretty rare thing for me. I’m always tired at the end of the day, but I woke up grouchy and I’ve been tired all day. I didn’t even want to go out to yard sales this morning.  I spent the day hanging out with my family, cleaning my house and chipping away a little bit more at my office/craft room purging project.  Since I don’t really have anything new to share and I’m too tired to write an involved post about anything, I decided to share some before and after pictures of my house.  If you’re new to my blog, you may not have seen these and if you’ve been around for a long time, I’m sure you’re the sort who appreciates a good before and after (even a regurgitated one.)  Not all of the angles are the same, but you’ll get an idea

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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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