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My House

Guest Room

guest room in the works…

After finishing the hand painted “Bavarian” guest bed last week, I could hardly wait to get it up in the space.  Swapping out the beds is a job I needed help with, though, so I had to be a little patient.  Well, I did carry up the bed myself and started swapping them out, but I ended up balancing the footboard on my hip while holding a rail on my foot.  Then I called for help.  Anyway, we got the bed in place and I took a few minutes to make the bed, try some different bedding options, and play with some fabric I had in my stash.  I love how it’s coming together. I found a vintage crystal chandelier on Etsy (the crystals were removed for shipping and I haven’t put them back on, yet.) I’m going to replace the builder-grade light that’s been in there for years with

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Before and Afters

"spackle dries in three minutes…"

Jeff and I got more of the family room wainscoting done last week and I got things cleaned up and “done” along that wall yesterday.  Here’s how it’s looking… This is where we were in December…one curtain panel (the other was on the way), the French daybed wasn’t upholstered, etc… And here’s where we are today… With the wainscoting done, I started to play around with wall art options in my head.  Do I want to leave the walls blank?  Hang something above?  Below?  I finally settled on a row of ironstone platters on each side of the window, above AND below the trim detail.  About halfway through putting nails in the wall and stepping back, I wasn’t sure if I liked it. Then I heard my dear friend Shaunna’s voice in my head.  “I mean, spackle dries in three minutes, y’all.” When she visited me a few weeks ago,

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Family Room

Family Room "Foyer"

Now that we’re getting the trim done in the family room, I feel motivated to finish off the room a bit more.  We’ve had blank walls and temporary pieces of furniture in there for a while.  As soon as the paint was dry, I moved a cane chair against the wall and a flat willow basket for shoes.  I also hung an antique oil painting on the wainscoting.  It made the area feel less like a blank wall and more like an intentional foyer space for the side door.  But then we had a warm, sunny day on Sunday and, well 40’s felt pretty warm, so the Spring nesting thing started to bubble up and I got the urge to move furniture.  I’ve been thinking for a while about moving my vanity into the family room to use as my desk.  I stopped using my vanity after we finished our

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Guest Room

Painted Guest Room Bed |

The weather has been amazing over the weekend!  Just a couple of sunny days in the 40’s and 50’s and I’m ready to throw open the windows and go out for a hike.  There’s still a lot of snow on the ground, though, so I had to settle for a walk instead of a hike.  It’s given me the shot of energy I need to finish home and work projects.  I was moving furniture around and cleaning out closets.  That’s what warmer temperatures and sunshine does for me, so I’m ready for Spring.  Bring it. So, here’s where we left the bed yesterday.  It’s fully painted, but the paint looks pretty bright and a little flat…definitely not like it was painted a couple hundred years ago like the inspiration bed. It’s the distressing and antiquing that’s going to bring this piece to life.  For distressing, I didn’t want to take

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Kitchen

painting the last bar stool…finally

Back in June of 2013 I painted the bar stools at my kitchen counter…well, two of them, anyway.  I don’t recall why I didn’t get to the third one, but I’m sure I just got busy with other things and the idea of painting one bar stool seemed a bit boring.  You can see the stools peeking up over the bar in this picture… I was getting the itch to paint some furniture and finish projects that have been abandoned, so I finally got the chair done.  I wanted it to match the other two, obviously, so I painted it in French Enamel. In my photo shoots, I use vintage brushes, ironstone mugs, silver spoons and grain sack fabric as drop cloths, but in reality, I use plastic cups and wooden stir sticks and real drop cloths. A nice thing about milk paint is that you can use it inside

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Master Bedroom

bathroomgallery

This past summer, we did a renovation of our master bathroom.  You can see the full details HERE.  The renovation was floor to ceiling. Here’s what it looked like before.   As you can see, it’s a small, regular bathroom.  It’s not one of these huge train-station-ish master bathrooms.  Since it’s not big, I wanted to make the most of the space and I wanted to pay attention to the details.  The ceiling was painted a creamy off-white, which would’ve looked grungy against all of the bright white in the new space. I went to my local True Value hardware and bought a can of bright white EasyCare ceiling paint. And I painted the ceiling before we installed the new tile, vanity, toilet, etc., so I wouldn’t have to worry about splatters, which just happens when you paint a ceiling. Warning – The process pictures in this post have terrible

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Family Room

Family Room Wainscoting

The family room is the first room I stepped into in our house and I’m sure that was planned by the realtor.  I was charmed by the 1940’s part of the house – the glass knobs, original creaky floors and plaster walls, but it was the modern addition containing the family room, kitchen and master suite, that sold us on the home.  The family room is at the back of the house and has high ceilings and lots of space.  With as much as it has going for it, the room is lacking a bit in the architectural detail department and I think a big room needs that.  Or at least benefits from it a lot. I knew I wanted some kind of 3/4 height wainscoting, but I wasn’t exactly sure of the style.  When we took a little getaway to Charlottesville, VA we stayed in a charming inn and

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My House

Office Light & Start 'em Young

What we thought would be a quiet Saturday at home ended up being a day full of comings and goings, hustle and bustle.  My parents came over to spend time with the boys, the boys had a friend over to play, we had a grocery store run, some other errands and got a few projects done. My dad likes to tinker with things, so while he was over and just hanging out, I asked if he would install the light in the home office.  And he obliged.  The light was hanging a little low for people 6’3″ or taller, so I unscrewed the finial off the bottom and will replace it with something that isn’t as long.  I’m not sure if it’s the 100% right fixture, but it’s so much better than what was there, it puts off more light and it was only $10 at a yard sale.  When

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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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