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My House

All Things Home

hanging a butcher’s rack over the stove

When I received another box of goodies from Maria of Dreamy Whites, one box contained a long metal rack with pointed hooks.  I wasn’t sure what it was, so I asked Maria and she told me it was a French butcher’s rack used when making sausages.  No matter what it was once used for, I could pretty quickly envision many different uses for it in our home. The most obvious one was hanging it above our stove.  It looked like it might be the perfect size and I have always wanted to hang something there.  It seemed like it needed something.  I’ve tried signs, ironstone platters, breadboards, a tole tray, and a large silver platter and none of them seemed to work right.  I had always wondered about the idea of hanging a small rack to hold a few small copper pots, but I wasn’t sure how I would mount

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All Things Home

Delta H2Okinetic® In2ition® Shower Review

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by .  As always all words and opinions are honest and my own. Last summer, I gave the boy’s bathroom a refresh.  It wasn’t a total overhaul, but simple, inexpensive changes that made a huge difference!  While I would love to do a custom-built tile surround, install a deeper tub, and a few other things, that isn’t where we want to put our decorating dollars.  Given that my middle school boys don’t really care about the state of their bathroom, I wanted to make high-impact changes that we could do ourselves. As a reminder, here is how the bathroom looked before… And here is how it looks now… …on a good day! We already changed out the crusted builder-grade fixtures with  Faucets and they might be my favorite part of the room.  I always admire the soft curves and cross handle accents when I clean

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All Things Home

tidying the sewing room

I was hoping to post about our cloud-painting class on Friday, but it is taking an eternity for the videos to upload and process, so that’ll have to wait until tomorrow.  We will be having another class this Friday and a special cloud-painting class on Instagram Live with Megan Gray Wednesday, April 22, 2020, at 2:00 CST.  I’ll share more details in tomorrow’s post. So, today, I’m going to share the tidied-up sewing room!  This was one of the projects I worked on last week to get ready to work on bigger projects over the coming weeks.  The sewing room, also known as the “cat room” and “Sebastian’s room”, had become a dumping ground.  We loaded up on kitty litter before Minnesota was under a stay-at-home order, so there was a healthy stay of litter buckets randomly placed on the floor.  While cleaning other rooms, stray home decor pieces were

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All Things Home

“Boxwood” Green Studio Doors

Last week, I took some time to work on the studio doors.  It’s been on my to-do list for a while, but it’s one of those projects that isn’t urgent, so it kept getting knocked down the list in favor of more exciting or pressing endeavors.  With everyone home, trying to juggle school and work, feeding four humans and three animals all day, etc. it has been even more important for me to set out some small, tangible goals and get them done.  It’s good for my own mental health to celebrate small accomplishments! So, I worked on the studio doors.  I reinstalled the trim we removed to see if installing a new door was going to be a doable project, touched up the paint… …and then repainted the doors in the custom Boxwood green I used on my butler’s pantry, the kitchen island, and the cabinets in our laundry

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All Things Home

studio DIY built-in shelf dimensions & cut list

Reminder – Always use caution and common sense when using power tools on all DIY projects including this built-in shelf.   There are some projects that go beautifully as planned.  It’s smooth sailing and there aren’t any hiccups or bumps.  This DIY built-in shelf was not one of those projects!  It wasn’t a disaster, but it sort of felt like that when we were in the middle of making it. The calamity that happened while building this shelf came down to a lack of precision, not following my own good experience, and being impatient while trying to build it in a messy garage on a cold and dreary day.  I just wanted to knock this thing out and that’s usually the mindset that leads to mistakes. You wouldn’t think it to look at the finished shelf, though, so all is well that ends well. Several people asked if I would share

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All Things Home

productive decorative play

I was in a real funk on Saturday.  I think it had a lot to do with the dreary weather.  It was gray and our daily walk was shortened by a cool wind and a spittle of rain.  (Jeff’s second walk with Sebastian was shortened by a downpour laced with hail!)  The weather was just not conducive to a cheery day.  On top of that, I was just feeling down.  I wasn’t focusing on gratitude. I did something I rarely do and just sat on the sofa and watched a movie on my iPad, tuning everyone else out with headphones.  I reconciled my bank accounts because it was something that needed to be done anyway.  And Jeff gave me precious time alone in my studio to listen to music and make color charts. It was just what I needed.  I focused on mixing colors and applying them to a grid

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All Things Home

organizing the dining room

If you’re going to join my live painting class/demo, I’ve scheduled it for Friday, April 3, 2020, at 2:00 CST.  HERE is the event in Facebook to let me know if you’re joining live.  It will be recorded and you can watch it later if you’re not able to make it. Remember, this is just for fun.  No pressure about having all the supplies or the right supplies.  We’re just going to paint and learn.  It’ll be my first time doing a live oil painting demo, so we’ll muddle along together! I’ve had “organize the dining room” on my to-do list for a loooong time.  Months.  It hasn’t hung out on the list because it’s a big project, it’s hard, or even that I’m avoiding it.  It’s just not that important when the mess is behind closed doors that I don’t open very often.  I only go in them when

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All Things Home

Tidying the Laundry Room & Bottling Cleaners

A few weeks ago, I was in a cleaning and organizing mood.  I am the sort of person who’s in that kind of mood pretty regularly, but this was on another level.  It started with getting all of my cleaning supplies sorted out and turned into reorganizing the laundry room shelves.  I keep cleaners, sponges, brushes, etc. all over the house, so that cleaning is easy.  Under the sink of each bathroom is a bottle of glass cleaner, toilet cleaner, a toilet brush, sponges, a couple of rolls of paper towels, all-purpose cleaners, scouring powder or paste, paper towels, a few clean microfiber dust cloths, and a small box of garbage bags.  (I share some of my favorite cleaners in THIS POST.)  In the master bathroom, I also have dishwasher tabs and a big bottle of white vinegar for cleaning the jet tub.  In a three-story house, this means I

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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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