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Dining Room
1970 home renovation

Landscape Mural Design & Colors

I’m getting things lined up to start “dining room mural take two.”  I painted the mural in my last dining room with very little planning.  I just had an idea in my head and used MMS Milk Paint and some acrylics that I had on hand.  I was just going to throw the paint on the wall to see how it worked.  It’s just paint after all and I could always paint over if it wasn’t working.  I kept it very loose, drippy, watery, and light, so I was able to finish it in just a couple of days. For this mural, I decided to use Farrow & Ball paints so there is cohesion with the paint colors (Light Blue and Card Room Green) used in adjoining rooms.  I also like the idea of having a palette of colors instead of mixing my own colors.  I’m sure some amount of

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August 6, 2024 15 Comments
All Things Home

dining room curtain options

Last week, I shared inspiration and some plans for our dining room.  You can find that post HERE.  In this post, I wanted to share the fabrics and colors I considered for the curtains and which one I selected. We have already had these windows replaced, but I’ve been waiting to nail down the curtains until I figured out what I wanted to do on the walls.  This room is a game of dominoes and I have been hesitant to commit to knocking the first one down.  It’s easier to paint before hanging curtains and I obviously want the paint and curtains to make sense together, but I need to paint the ceiling before I paint the walls… You can see how this goes. Full-length curtains will add so much to this space, though, so I can’t wait to get them done.  They’ll frame out the window and visually give

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August 5, 2024 14 Comments
1970 home renovation

dining room inspiration & plans

While the walls of our dining room are still only primed, I’ve been giving it a lot of thought lately and would like to start making some progress on it over the next few weeks.  It would be very nice to have it done before the holidays.  If it makes you feel any better about undone projects, these walls have been wearing primer for over a year and I have felt a little paralyzed about getting started on this room.  I don’t usually drag my feet so long when it comes to painting a room, but I have waffled about what I want to do with this space. With our last dining room, I sort of plowed forward, starting a hand-painted mural one morning in my pajamas.  It’s still one of my favorite rooms and was completed on gut instinct and whim.  Instead of continuing to overthink, I just need

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July 29, 2024 18 Comments
All Things Home

Christmas Dining Room 2023

I have just one more space to share for Christmas this year – our dining room.  The dining room is still just wearing primer on the walls (we had the wallpaper stripped earlier this year and it’s next on my list to paint), so I debated even decorating it, but we’ll be eating our Christmas brunch in there as well as doing puzzles and playing games, so I just couldn’t help myself!  When we took walls down during our kitchen renovation, it also opened the sidelines, so it’s nice to see a decorated dining room from the kitchen, foyer, and even living room. First, I have to share the view into the dining room from the kitchen. We built that shelf to hang by the side door a few months ago (You can find the details HERE) and it’s worked so well to make a little landing area for hanging

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December 21, 2023 21 Comments
Before and Afters

the vintage Drexel dining set & recovering a chair seat

A few of you noticed the new dining room set when I shared the fall tablescape earlier this week.  We bought an antique dining set last year just a few days before Christmas off of Facebook Marketplace for $40.  I had been searching for a dining set since we moved into the house and I just wasn’t finding the one.  I was feeling a bit bummed about not having a table and chairs for the dining room for Christmas, though, so I jumped at the chance to get a set for $40.  That was less than we would spend on a dinner out for our family so it was worth it. We made a few initial repairs to some of the chairs as well as to the stretchers on the table and it was good enough, but the table was just a little bit too wide for the room and

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September 27, 2023 25 Comments
All Things Home

fall entertaining with Walmart

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Walmart.  As always, all words and opinions expressed are honest and my own. Last week was the first week that felt like fall and it was glorious.  I mourn that the pool has become a polar bear swimming experience, but that is about all I’ll miss about summer.  I love it when cooler weather comes in and I can don my hoodies and slippers.  I also love decorating during fall and winter perhaps more than any other season. I don’t do a ton of specific holiday decorating, but I love seasonal decorating with elements that speak to that season as well as natural items. I did a bit of shopping on Walmart to find some new items to mix into vintage and antique finds as well as some natural seasonal elements.  I usually show finished tables, but I thought it would be fun to

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September 25, 2023 22 Comments
All Things Home

green velvet seat covers

While I had the sewing machines out and my mom’s help, I decided to make seat covers for the barrel-back French chairs I’ve had for years.  I have wanted to cover the vintage cushions on these chairs since I first bought them.  They were cream, but the leather was dingy and there was no amount of cleaning that would make them look nice.  Since they are cream, though, they weren’t too offensive if you didn’t pay close attention to them, so they were easy to ignore.  And that’s what I decided to stop procrastinating on them. I covered them in a yummy green velvet fabric that I traded for some furniture before our move.  It was such a great fabric that I knew I would find a use for it down the road.  I have earmarked it for the dining room curtains, but I had enough to use some for

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September 19, 2023 16 Comments
1970 home renovation

doors to the dining room & dining room updates

One of the details I loved about this 1970s house when we first looked at it was the doors leading to the dining room.  It’s one of those architectural details you don’t usually find in newer homes.  But. a house built in 1970 is bridging the formality of homes in the first half of the 20th century (with front and back entrances, rooms for guests and entertaining, and ones strictly for practicality, etc.) and the modern, open floorplans that became popular through the 1970s and 80s.  I love that this home leaned a bit more into old-fashioned choices along with upgrades that were modern for the time. The doors are just slab doors, but I painted them Card Room Green and added (instead of cabinet knobs) and they look so sweet. I still need to paint the dining room walls (they are just primed at this point) and give the

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September 11, 2023 33 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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