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restyling the dining room hutch

When I restyled the shelves in the living room (you can find that post HERE), I ended up raiding the dining room hutch.  Doesn’t accessory or furniture shuffling always cause a chain reaction?  One thing gets crossed off the list and you end up adding two or three more things to the list! Here is how the dining room hutch looked before I raided it… Since I removed almost all of the antique blue and white transferware, I was left with white ironstone and some reproduction jadeite pieces I purchased at Walmart (links are below). I knew I wanted to use those pieces, but mix in some other elements…perhaps wood, silver, or glass.  So, I started playing around, bringing in different elements and sitting them on the shelf to see what looked right to my design eye.  I wanted it to look harmonious, but collected.  I wanted these pieces to

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All Things Home

Fabrics & Wallpapers | Rochester House

I shared my paint colors last week and decided to share the fabrics and papers I’ve used so far in our MN house.  I’m not asked about them as often as the paint colors, but I probably get a question about my curtains or some other fabric about once a week. The fabrics in my living room and eating area are probably my favorites!  The large-scale check used on the sofa and bergere chairs is Check Please in Lakeland.  I first spotted this fabric online, used on a reupholstered chair, and it was love at first sight.  When we moved, I knew I wanted to use it in our house.  I bought it first to use on a pair of chairs I purchased off craigslist that were upholstered in a red paisley fabric.  You can read about that makeover HERE. It was fortunate that had the exact fabric available as

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All Things Home

My Paint Colors | Rochester House

One of the most commonly asked questions on social media and here on the blog are about my paint colors, so I thought I would share them all in one post!  That’ll make it easy for me to refer people to one source, especially because some of the colors are custom-mixed.  I’ll also take this opportunity to talk about what it means to have a color mixed at 50% and why I like utilizing that option. All of the colors are Benjamin Moore unless noted. For the walls, the type of paint I used is Aura in a matte finish.  For cabinets and trim, I used Advanced in Satin. Let’s start with the color I’m asked about most – Stonington Gray!  I have typed that response so many times that my phone auto-fills the words for me!  It is definitely a blue/gray, but the color is a bit of a

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All Things Home

styling the living room shelves

As I was fiddling around with the accessories in the living room, I finally decided to rework the built-ins on the right side of the fireplace.  I painted them white shortly after I moved in and filled them up with one thing I have plenty of – .  (You can read about painting the built-ins HERE.)  It was just easy, pretty, and something I could call “done” when I had so many other things I wanted to work on in the house.  But, I wanted to revisit styling these living room shelves… I have wanted to add some warmth and interest there for a while, but even though it’s a fairly small project, it was too much to do when I was having issues with my shoulder.  Earlier last week, I started just moving things in the space…a few books, a couple of pieces of blue and white transferware, just

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All Things Home

Other Living Room Plans

Sometimes I have trouble sitting back and enjoying what I’ve accomplished in the light of the size of my to-do list!  I’m sure many of you can relate!  I realized as I was putting this post together that there is a to-do list a mile long made up of all the little and big projects I want to do in the house.  Some of them are as simple as repairing a tear in a cushion or slipcover (I have a few of those) or as involved as installing wainscoting and crown molding. But, I just need to remember that #1 – it’s not a race and #2 – that list will shrink one project at a time.  Little steps to get big things done. So, one thing that I want to do is change out the fabric on the backs of the French chairs.  The fabric worked great in my

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All Things Home

foyer refresh & slate update

Before I get into today’s post, I wanted to share that Mustard Seed Mentoring is now open to new members!  You can get all of the details on group and one-on-one mentoring HERE.  I am offering an early bird gift to those who JOIN TODAY – a pocket-sized version of my favorite journal/notebook.  It’s the one I use every single day for notes, sketches, and journaling.  It’s a leather notebook that can hold three inserts, which can be changed out when they are full.  It’s just a little bonus from me. I’ll be sending out e-mails about Mustard Seed Mentoring this week and if you are not starting/running a creative business, you can opt-out of those specific e-mails at the bottom of each e-mail.  Opting out will not unsubscribe you from my blog feed.  I want to let people know about it, but only the people who need it and

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All Things Home

Arhaus Outerbanks Sectional

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Arhaus.  All words and opinions are honest and my own. It’s here, it’s here!!  Well, if you follow my Instagram Stories, you know it’s been here for a couple of weeks, but I wanted to get Christmas cleaned up before I took pictures of the new sectional and shared it here on the blog. Back in the fall, I ordered the Outerbanks Sectional from Arhaus in a beautifully textured blue & cream checked fabric (called Ponder Lakeland) and it was delivered just a few days after Christmas.  Leading up to the delivery, I had the usual doubts that come with ordering such a substantial, cornerstone piece off of the Internet.  Would the check be too busy?  Would the sofa be quality and comfortable?  Despite measuring, would it fit in the space?  Would it fit through the front door??? I’ve ordered pieces through Arhaus before,

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All Things Home

Styling the Studio Bookcase

Some of you might remember when I purchased this pretty oak hutch to act as storage in my studio… I filled it with my decorating and design books with just a small handful of art books mixed in and I remember sharing that I was hoping to build my art resource book library about the time this photo was taken. Well, I made short work of that goal!  I’ve collected dozens of books on the masters, oil painting, impressionism, watercolors, sketching, portraits, figurative work, landscapes, clouds, plein air, still lifes, and books filled with reference images.  The collection has grown to fill most of the first two shelves of the large bookcase in my studio. I pick them up here and there.  Some are new from bookstores (even a few from Shakespeare & Co and the Musee D’Orsay in Paris), many are bought used off of Amazon, and a few

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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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