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My House

All Things Home

studio transformation | part 1

Believe it or not, we’re not trying to get the entire house completed in two weeks!  We are making a push, though, to get a bunch of big things checked off the to-do list.  One of those big things is painting the studio…all of it.  The walls, the floor, the ceiling, the trim.  Buckets and buckets of paint.  And painting like that is better done with help. But first, this is a room that wasn’t insulated or climate controlled.  That’s just not going to work when it’s 2 degrees outside.  The climate control is coming, but earlier this week, we had it insulated.  The floor and ceiling were both easily accessed, but the walls under the window had to be removed, insulated, and replaced.  This may have been a more advanced DIY project, but we decided to hire it out, so it was done quickly and professionally. The wall on

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Living Room

butler’s pantry, hutch swap & all of the ironstone

As I’ve been unpacking and settling in our new house, there are days when I can make a large push to get things done.  Other days, the bulk of my time and attention is required elsewhere, so I just have to sneak some work in here and there.  On those days, I’ve been working on small areas that I can pick at where there is time. The butler’s pantry is one of those small projects… It quickly became the dumping ground for breakables when we started unpacking and I was eager to get it tidied up.  Over the course of two busier days, I just took a little time here and there to get things in a somewhat organized fashion. I’ve loved this built-in from the moment I saw it.  It’s more cabinet space, which is awesome, but it also provides display space and some great character.  I am definitely

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My House

my new work spaces

As most of you know, I started my business out of my home in Pennsylvania and worked out of the home (mostly the unfinished basement) for years.  As the business grew, though, it started taking over more and more of the house until we had palettes of look books and boxes of Milk Paint filling the living room and corners styled for photoshoots all over the house.  It was out of control. I finally have the opportunity to move into a 2,000 sq. foot studio that was about a mile from my house.  It was a perfect space for that time.  I had lots of room for photoshoots, workshops, to have a large stash of furniture, a shipping area, etc.  And I needed it and used it! In the past year, though, I started taking on more design and freelance work.  Aside from when we were getting ready for Lucketts,

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All Things Home

working with your house

Every home has a personality.  It might be quirky, conservative, playful, regal, humble, sleek…  The home brings something to the table.  While there are some homes that need to be stripped to the bones and entirely reworked, most homes just need for you to cooperate with them – let them be what they are and bring out their best qualities. As I’m working on this new home, first of all, I’m falling more in love with it every day.  I was admittedly a little disappointed that buying an old house wasn’t going to happen at this season of life, so this house felt like a compromise.  A really good compromise, but a compromise none-the-less.  As our family and belongings have populated the space, I have come to realize I was selling this home short…misjudging it simply because it was young. One of my wise readers put it well, “All old

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Exterior

New House Tour | The Front Porch

Everyone knows that the best color to use to make a good first impression is the pale beige that has graced Band Aids for generations. Not really, but that’s what my front door is saying at the moment. I don’t know what is up with this color, but it’s blah and it’s going to change. I held up dozens of paint swatches to pick a color that would work with the beige siding.   I originally thought of a blue/gray, but the ones I tried weren’t working with the siding that has warm, pink undertones.  Too blue and it made the siding look mauve, too gray and it looked flat. I decided to sway towards the blue/green/gray family.  Bringing green to the mix worked much better. I settled on Farrow & Ball’s Card Room Green… If ever I feel overwhelmed with picking a color, I switch from the large paint

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Living Room

new house tour | living room

If you missed a tour of my new kitchen earlier this week, you can catch it HERE.  In today’s post, I’m going to take you on a tour of the living room.  We’ve had some debate about what to call this room – the living room or the family room.  I think we’ve settled on the living room and the family room is downstairs.  You know how room names morph.  In our last house we had “the little bathroom” and we just all knew which one that was (even though they were all little!)  We’ll see if that name sticks, but let’s go with it for now. Here’s the living room… Since this room is open to the kitchen and “eating area” (breakfast nook that’s not really a nook), it will be a prime spot for entertaining and hanging out.  It needs to be comfortable, but it’s visible from the

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Kitchen

new house tour | the kitchen

I must confess that as I looked at this big, empty house, I felt a little intimidated by it.  When we bought our PA home, there was a lot of obvious work that needed to be done.  This house, though?  It’s beautiful.  Would my chippy, crusty antiques look like junk?  Would my ironstone look completely out of place? The moment of truth came Saturday morning when an army of people from our church showed up to help unload our truck.  Before we talk about the kitchen and how my stuff looks in the house, I have to give public kudos to all of the people who showered love on us on moving day.  The 28′ truck, that was packed floor to ceiling, was completely empty in 45 minutes.  And once the truck was empty, many people stayed to help with everything from putting together beds to removing shrink-wrap from furniture,

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All Things Home

but first, toilets

Warning: This post contains pictures of toilets that some readers may find disturbing.  Reader discretion is advised.   If you know me at all, you know I am bursting to break out some paint in this new house!  But I’ve learned from a few moves that a place feels more like home once the toilets are cleaned to my satisfaction. Sooo, before we talk about all of the fun stuff, I’m going to share about these toilets!  Yep.  A whole new house to blog about and we’re talking about toilets. This house has hard water and it’s been vacant for a while, so there was an ugly build-up in all of the toilet bowls and who knows when they last had a good scrubbing.  Our last house had hard water as well, so I learned how to clean it up lickety-split and I thought that would be helpful information for

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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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May 20th, 2026 at 1pm EST

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