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All Things Home

hiding ugly office stuff & hanging sconces

Before I go into today’s post, I have some exiting news!  Free Spirit Fabrics has been acquired and that means my fabric lines will still be produced! That means I need to hunker down and start working on colorways for the second collection again.  I’m so excited that Bunnies Birds & Blooms will be available, but I’m even more excited for this second collection to launch.  The wheels are turning again… Now, onto today’s post… I’m still chipping away at my office here and there.  I have been looking for baskets for the top of the cabinet to use for storage and to raise the visual height of the piece.  I also wanted to hide the internet modem and Orbi unit. My no-spend February turned into a low-spend February when I bought the cabinet off of craigslist and since then, I’ve stuck to the spirit of my low-spend challenge.  I

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February 28, 2018 38 Comments
Before and Afters

craigslist cabinet progress

With school holidays and snow days, this week has been a short one, but I have managed to get some things checked off the to-do list.  One of the main things I wanted to work on was the cabinet in my office. Since I knew it would be a time-consuming painting project (with having to paint the shelves, turn them over, paint the other side, seal them with Tough Coat, etc.), I decided to work on one side at a time.  So, I got the left side completed! The first thing I did was replace the hardware with a pair of antique latches I found on Etsy.  The ones that were on there were not original and made more sense for drawer than cabinets.  When they arrived, though, I saw that the “keepers” and latches didn’t really match.  They did, but they didn’t originally go together, so the finishes were

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February 23, 2018 38 Comments
All Things Home

making way for hardwoods | ripping up carpet

I’m sharing everything in reverse when it comes to the office makeover, but that’s just how it goes sometimes!  I usually write about what is most “at my fingertips” and sharing progress on the room was a lot more fun than talking about ripping out carpet.  But, it’s an important bit that some of you might want to know more about, so I’m circling back to share the details on removing carpet. Here is a before picture of the room, so you can appreciate how far it’s come… …and how it’s looking today… (Yes, I’ll work on the cord situation, but curtains will help a lot with hiding those!) Obviously, the first step is to take out the carpet and padding, which is surprisingly easy, although it does take some muscle!  Just pull up a corner and, in most cases, it comes right up.  Jeff did this before I even

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February 22, 2018 27 Comments
All Things Home

One of the top home investments you can make…

This post is sponsored by James Hardie®.  All words and opinions are, as always, honest and my own. I’ve already shared that our new house in Minnesota has amazing bones.  It has a functional and intelligent floor plan, it has many brilliant features (like outlets in the soffits for Christmas lights and in-wall night lights that go up the staircase.)  The changes that we’ve made to it, with the exception of replacing some of the appliances and “guts” of the house that were at the end of their life, have been largely cosmetic.  They were changes to customize the house to suit our tastes. And, almost all of these changes, are ones we talked about before we moved in.  One of the changes we talked about was replacing the siding.  Even when I first looked at the listing, before we knew we would move to Minnesota or buy this house,

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February 20, 2018 113 Comments
All Things Home

home office progress

I’m so excited to share the progress we’ve made in the home office!  Initially, this room wasn’t going to get attention for a while. but when we talked about putting hardwoods in the dining room, we decided to have them done in the office at the same time.  Both rooms are right off the foyer (one to the right and one to the left), so it’s nice to have the consistency in the flooring and both carpets were tired-looking from being off the foyer.  I suppose people walked in there with boots/shoes still on? As an aside, we’ve always been a come-as-you-are home.  No reason to leave your shoes at the door.  In Minnesota, though, everyone takes their shoes off and we’ve learned that’s for good reason.  Your shoes get so dirty from the slush, salt, sand, ice-melt, etc. and it really will destroy your carpeting.  So, we’re getting used

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February 19, 2018 46 Comments
Dining Room

putting the dining room back together | craigslist cabinet update

It’s been a busy week and somewhat of a mixed bag, so I felt like I needed to push into a to-do list today.  Productivity always acts like a pick-me-up.  So, I cleaned and did laundry, worked on the shelves for the craigslist cabinet in the office, did some painting in the studio, worked on e-mail, etc.  I even shampooed the traffic path on the carpet in the living room.  I was on a roll. And, I finally took some time to put the dining room back together again… It was nice to get all of that ironstone and transferware back on the shelves in the primitive hutch. And now, I can give some thought to how I want to finish off this room. I’m considering built-ins for the wall with the hutch on it now or perhaps even painting a tonal mural!  I’m just going to linger in the

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February 16, 2018 27 Comments
All Things Home

dining room wood floors

Before we even moved into this house, before we even saw the house in person, I let Jeff know I had my eye on the carpeting in the dining room.  For a room that is the “most formal” in the house, carpeting just didn’t work for me.  I also do a lot of photo shoots in my dining room for this blog as well as freelance articles, so it was important to me to have the larger surfaces of the room (floor, walls, etc.) looking just how I wanted. There was also the practical side of things.  The carpet is 13 years old and, although you can’t see it in the picture, it was looking a little tired.  Wood floors would be easier to keep clean, especially since the dining room is right off of the foyer. The dining room flows into the kitchen/eating area, so we wanted the floors

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February 14, 2018 29 Comments
All Things Home

living room curtains

Man, it has been a long, productive day and I am pooped!  Of course, I decided to start exercising the day I had a bunch of physical work planned.  That was brilliant.  I use the word “exercise” loosely, though, because it was pathetic how out of shape I am.  I am still babying my shoulder and about 10 minutes into interval training, modifying everything, feeling stiff as the Tin Man, I realized I just needed to stretch and work on core strength.  I switched gears and did some Pilates and that felt great, but I have been sore all day as I painted window trim and shoe molding and moved furniture back into the dining room and my office. I still have a lot of work to do on those two rooms and a lot of cleaning up to do after having the entire contents of two rooms dumped into

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February 13, 2018 46 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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