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My House

All Things Home

beginnings of a potting bench

This has been the year when gardening finally clicked for me.  I’m not saying I’m great at it, but I’m trying.  I’m working at it…learning, wanting to get better, turning a black thumb to green.  Along with the interest in the garden and plants, I decided to spruce up our outdoor living space as well.  It’s not much…just a deck off the back of the house.  It isn’t covered or screened-in.  It’s just faded deck boards, a simple railing.  I’m working on it bit by bit to bring more of my interior style to the outside. One piece of outdoor furniture I wanted to add was a potting bench.  I already had an old workbench that was in the basement when we bought the house.  It still wears some spray paint overspray, but I plan on introducing those unsightly patches of red to my belt sander.  They don’t stand a

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All Things Home

evolution of my home | part 8 | the guest room

First of all, thank you so much to all of my readers who have answered my questions from yesterday!  I have been trying to respond to all of them, but I haven’t been able to keep up!  I am reading all of them, though, and I’m taking notes, writing down some ideas and I’m definitely seeing some patterns that confirm some things I’ve been thinking about.  Thanks for being constructive, encouraging, critical, and honest.  It really is helping me and I feel a new excitement about my blog and how I can make it better.  I’ll share more about that once I’ve had time to digest all of the feedback and figure out how to formulate a plan around what I’ve learned.  I am listening, though, and really appreciating the time you have taken to respond.  I was pretty bowled over.  In a good way. For those of you who have

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All Things Home

vintage-style barstools

I can’t believe that I’ve had new barstools for months and haven’t shared the details until today!  I used to document every tiny change that happened in my house, but now that I work at the studio most of the time, my house is just my house, so I don’t take pictures as regularly as I used to.  So, finally…these are the new barstools… A few months after we moved into our house, my mom and I were out shopping and came across these barstools from Target… I painted them in MMS Milk Paint French Enamel finished with Antiquing Wax, but they were originally a mid-tone wood with a glossy finish.  They were on clearance and I liked the style, so we tracked down three of them at two different stores.  I’ve been very happy with them, but one broke a few months ago and, since I bought them on

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Bathrooms

evolution of my home | part 7 | the three bathrooms

And now it’s time for part seven of the history-of-my-home tour when we look at all three bathrooms in my house. Let’s start with the upstairs bathroom… This is the bathroom that’s next to the boys’ room and guest room and it’s in the original 1940’s part of our home.  It is teeny-tiny by todays standards.  I think there’s no more than about 6″ between the toilet and the tub and you can easily reach the paper on the opposite wall from the potty.  The wide angle lens I’m using makes it look a little bigger than it is. When we moved in, we painted the walls in a pale aqua, Jeff built the shelf for storage and I made a shower curtain out of remnant fabric and then another one for an HGTV.com project.  Other than that, we left it alone.  There just wasn’t much I could do to change this

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All Things Home

a mirror, new plants & a sneak peek

When I was shopping for the Lucketts Spring Market, I found this amazing mirror at a nice price.  I think it was about $20.  I was planning to sell it, but I was just so smitten with it that I decided to keep it.  I didn’t know where I was going to put it, so I was breaking my own “rule”, but I figured I could sell it down the road if I couldn’t find a perfect spot for it.  I at least wanted to give it a try. I forgot about it after Lucketts, but brought it home during the photo shoot a few weeks ago.  The stylist asked if I had anything large to hang on the wall and this mirror came to mind.  We didn’t end up using it for the shoot, but it reminded me that I wanted to find a home for it. I decided

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Before and Afters

evolution of my house | part 6 | the master bedroom

…and now we’re at the master bedroom in this “evolution series” and, oh my, it’s a doozie.  This room made me want to hit my head against a wall for years.  It stumped me.  I kept making stupid, decorating decisions that I knew were stupid as I was making them.  I wasted so much time and money on things I wasn’t in love with…all for the sake of getting it done.  Sigh.  Tell me I’m not alone. A couple of years ago, though, after yards of fabric and gallons of paint, I finally got on the right path and I’ve been able to see it through to completion. So, let’s start at the very beginning.  A very good place to start.   Humming along? Okay.  THIS two-tone mauve wall was definitely NOT one of my favorite things.   And what’s worse than a two-tone mauve wall is adding yellow, red and green

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All Things Home

evolution of my home | part 5 | the family room

And now it’s time to take an in-depth look at the history of my family room.  This is an awesome space for entertaining and hanging out, but it’s a bit of a tough one when it comes to arranging furniture.  It’s long and narrow, with a bit of a strange traffic flow, so when I start getting the urge to shuffle furniture around, this room is usually where I start. Here’s how it looks now… …and this is how it looked when we first moved in.   It was beige, beige and pinkish-beige.  I couldn’t wait to de-beige. When I had the chance to paint the kitchen, I took the color into the family room.  I went with yellow, because I thought it would work with the green kitchen counters and the stone fireplace. I made curtains out of a multi-checked fabric, white twill slipcovers for some French chairs I

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Before and Afters

the evolution of my house | part 4 | the kitchen

And now, it’s time to walk through the evolution of my kitchen.  This is part four in a series where I’m showing how each room in my house has evolved over the nine years since we moved in. I have always loved a good before and after, but the truth is that there are usually a lot of steps between those two pictures.  In the case of my house, each room has been years in the making…pieces bought and sold, projects completed and everything eventually brought together to make each room what it is today.  I’ve learned a lot as I worked on each space and I think my decorating style has become more focused and refined in the process.  It is my hope that this series encourages you, as you see that each “after” was a slow process, not an overnight change. So, this is what the kitchen looks like today…

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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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