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My House

Decorating

shopping for a living room sofa

We’re going to talk about a room other than the kitchen today!  Now, it’s onto the hallway, dining room, and the room I’m sharing today, the living room/family room.  When we looked at this home with our realtor, we knew that the formal dining room would be reserved for my studio and that meant the den off the kitchen would be our only living/family room.  In our previous two homes, we’ve had a more formal/pretty living room and a separate family room for watching TV.  When we first bought the house, we considered the possibility of making a TV/family room in the basement.  That may still happen years down the road, but the truth is after living here for a year, we don’t really feel like we need it. But, making this room a combination of our semi-formal living room and our casual TV/hangout room is a bit of a

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1970 home renovation

1970 kitchen renovation | little finishing touches

We still have a few more finishing touches to do in the kitchen (touch-up paint, building a shelf by the side door, and building a cover for the doorbell), but I wanted to share a few details I added over the past couple of weeks.  I think it’s taking longer to get all of the little things finished up than it did to do the big stuff, but I think that’s how it goes with makeovers and renovations.  You start to lose a little steam and what’s done is beautiful that it’s easy to look past things like a naked doorbell hanging over the doorway to the hall.  We’ll get there. One thing I had on my shopping list for a while was a towel bar to install on the end range end of the antique baker’s table.  I felt like it would be a nice place to hang a

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1970 home renovation

vintage brass “turtle” grater & a button fern

As I’ve been visiting second-hand stores in the area with my mom I’ve, of course, been looking for some fun pieces for my kitchen.  Admittedly, I didn’t really “need” anything, but it’s been fun to hunt for things that are special.  I did get a little overenthusiastic, but I have tempered myself now.  I did find the sweetest piece for my pot rail, though.  I spotted it at an antique store and was immediately drawn to it.  Can you spot it on the pot rail? It’s this vintage brass “turtle” shaped grater.  I paid about $40, which was one of my bigger purchases of that shopping trip, but I kept coming back to it and finally decided to buy it.  I looked it up when I got home and it turns out I got a pretty nice deal on it.  They seem to run in the $70+ range on Etsy

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1970 home renovation

stainless steel trim for the range hood & range

I kept showing the range and range hood with a little asterisk.  *It’s not quite finished, yet!  We will be adding some stainless steel trim to the back of the range and around the underside of the hood.   Well, that was finally installed last week and it was just the perfect finishing touch.  For you to fully appreciate these finishing touches, you have to see where we started. Our contractor built the frame and installed the range hood, but the way he built the frame, some of the lumber would be exposed when we added the panels and trim.  Of course, painting it would be an option, but he suggested having a stainless steel frame made that he would install and seal with silicone for a cleaner look and one that would protect the wood better against moisture.  It would also be easier to clean. You can read about how

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All Things Home

a bouquet of dish brushes

When I shared this picture of the light from the new kitchen window falling on my bouquet of dish brushes by the sink, I received a comment that made me smile.  I’m paraphrasing, but it said something like, “Why do you use dish brushes?  And why do you have so many?” The answer to the second part of that question is simply because we’re talking about me and we’re talking about brushes.  That’s really why I have so many, but we do use most of them.  I like having a variety of shapes and textures in my brush bouquet for visual impact, but we do use different brushes for different purchases.  For example, the dark brush on the left has very soft bristles and it’s nice for washing glasses and other delicate things.  I use the bottle brushes for water bottles and such. Most of the brushes, though, are standard

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1970 home renovation

1970 kitchen renovation | the new/old sconces

We are creeping towards the finish line of our 1970 kitchen renovation!  I feel like I’ve said that before (and I probably have), but it really feels like we’re very nearly there.  Last week, I painted the window trim (and repainted the rest of the trim that was looking a little too yellow-cream) and we got the stainless steel trim installed on the range hood and behind the range.  I need to take some updated pictures of those details, but they look good.  Today, though, I am going to share the sconces!  These are the vintage sconces I purchased from to flank the kitchen window… I selected this style of sconce because it coordinates with my dining room chandelier and I wanted to use vintage fixtures so it feels like they might’ve been original to the house.  These fixtures were popular in the 1950s-1970s, so they make sense in this

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All Things Home

Ilve Nostalgie range review

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Ilve.  As always, all words and opinions expressed in this Ilve Nostalgie review are honest and my own. Since I first shared that I was getting an Ilve Nostalgie 48″ range, I was asked to write a review.  I wanted to use the range for a few months before I shared a review so I really had the chance to use the range, get used to it, and put it to the test with cooking and baking.  There is no doubt that it is a beautiful range, that is obvious.  But, how does it cook, and is it user-friendly? As I stated in the disclosure, this is a sponsored post, but I was given free rein to write an honest review of the Ilve Nostalgie range.  Before I even entered into this dream partnership with Ilve, I knew I wanted an Ilve range.  I

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All Things Home

collecting vintage & antique copper

As I’ve shared the renovation of our kitchen, one of the things I’ve been asked about most is my copper collection.  More specifically, I’m asked where I find it and what I look for when shopping for copper.  So, I thought I would write a blog post to answer all of the questions and share some of my tips.  I started collecting copper about 20 years ago when we lived in our first house.  It was an 1,100-square-foot townhouse in a bad neighborhood in Loudoun County, VA, which, if you’re familiar with the Northern Virginia area, you may know it is a tough place for a first-time homeowner to get into the market.  While we lived there, it was the fastest-growing county in the US and the wealthiest per capita. So, anyway, this little townhouse had a small kitchen with a box-bay window that looked out over the parking lot

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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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