buying & selling antiques Archives | Page 5 of 23

buying & selling antiques

Artistic Endeavors

shoe cart reproduction

In case you missed them over the weekend, I listed a few more antique hemp sheets in the online shop! So, remember this antique shoe cart I found and sold last fall? It was such a neat piece and so functional to use for retail display. It’s lightweight, the shelves are removable (and can be configured in a variety of ways), and it can easily nestle over a dresser, so it doesn’t take a up a lot of room in transit. Despite all of these things, I sold it. And…I sort of regretted it. Not because it was such a special piece, even though it was, but because of how functional it was. That regret tapered off when I realized it would be pretty easy to make something just like it. Jeff and I were planning to design and build a couple of them and then I received

April 12, 2016 15 Comments

All Things Home

the zinc-topped table goes home…

I’m starting to wonder what I posted about before I had all of these furniture makeovers… Today, we’ll take a break from the before & afters and I’ll tell a little story about a table with rickety, uneven legs. He had one thing that made him really special, though – something that kept him from being a run-of-the-mill old table. He wore a zinc top that had a perfect patina. The problem was not one of his legs was the same size as another, so he sat at a wonky angle and, even though I tried to sell this table, no one wanted him. So, I took him back to the studio and gave him a little TLC. I sealed the chipping, flaking paint with Tough Coat… …evened out the legs and added little casters to the bottom… You can read the full makeover post HERE. He looked so much

April 6, 2016 29 Comments

Artistic Endeavors

controlling the studio chaos…

As you may have guessed from all of the furniture reveal posts lately (and there are still more to come), the studio is getting pretty full! We have a lot of space (about 2500 square feet), but we have “areas” for different tasks…shipping, storage, sewing, a counter and our desks, workshop area, and a work/staging/photography area. I just realized as I’m typing this out that I should do a video tour! It’s on the to-do list now. So, the work/staging/photography area is the side of the studio that receives the best light and it’s where we are most often. It’s where all of the painting, upholstering, refinishing and staging has been happening and it’s gotten a little out of control over the past few weeks. Okay, a lot out of control. It’s quite the maze. Kriste has been getting twitchy just looking at it. She’s the girl who usually puts all

March 31, 2016 48 Comments

Artistic Endeavors

the studio is full of possibilities

I was down to just a few things in my to-do stash and that lasted for about two minutes. Kriste and I went shopping on Monday and brought home some great pieces AND my dad scored a few things on craigslist AND I received a few shipments. You know when you get home from the grocery store and dump all of your bags on the kitchen floor? Now, imagine that with furniture and boxes and bags of antiques and home decor. That’s what the studio was like today – stuff all over the floor and in no particular order. It was a little chaotic, but it was exciting, too. And, oh, the possibilities! From our shopping trip, we brought home this pretty oak buffet… It’s almost exactly like one I bought and painted for Lucketts last year… We also got this sweet highboy. It has such a pretty and

March 17, 2016 85 Comments

Artistic Endeavors

busy as bees…

It’s always exciting when the studio starts filling up with goodies. We have quite a bit finished for Lucketts already and I’m enjoying arranging it all for pretty photos and to give myself a sense of what I have and what I need to look for. If pieces are set up in “rooms” and vignettes, then I know if I need some chairs for a table or another dresser to round out an arrangement. Just as the theme helps me focus my buying efforts, making these arrangements helps me as well. And, I must admit, it’s just fun. Kriste and I are pretty much ready to move in. A few of you asked to see the inside of the old kitchen sink and here it is… See what I mean? It would hold a lot of dirty dishes!! Or, it would be a pretty amazing utility sink for a mudroom or laundry

March 8, 2016 19 Comments

All Things Home

keeping & letting go

I was going to go shopping for more antique goodies today as well as some supplies for building pieces, but instead I stayed home to get some “stress-relieving stuff” done – computer work, e-mail, paperwork, cleaning & tidying up the house, etc. It was all much needed. Unfortunately, in all of my tidying up on my computer, I somehow managed to remove all but 400 photos from my Lightroom software. I would call it a disaster, but it’s not really a disaster in the grand scheme of things. It’s an epic inconvenience, though. I still have all of the photos, but they are in their RAW, unedited state, so if I need the photos, I need to edit them again. All 8,000+ of them. So, that stinks. I suppose it will force me to go through the pictures and weed out ones I won’t ever use again. I am a

February 27, 2016 28 Comments

buying & selling antiques

running a creative business | buying power

It’s been a while since we talked about business-y things and today seemed like a good day for it. I was actually planning on a day in the studio, working on furniture, but my boys had another snow day, so we just hanging around the house. I dug through my “things to post about when I’m not sure what else to post about” folder and found this comment… “Marian, I so love what you are doing with your pieces, paint, fabric and everything. I want to do something similar but in a coastal style. How did you get to the point where you could go shopping and buy items for Lucketts and other shows? I really don’t have any income to back what is burning in my heart to do and I don’t want to borrow money to do it. I remember reading in one of your posts that you were on a limited

February 16, 2016 37 Comments

All Things Home

“farmhouse” finds

When shopping for a retail space or event, I used to just buy whatever I liked and felt I could make a profit on. A few years ago, I learned that it was easier to focus my shopping/making/painting efforts around a loose theme. This year, in homage to our new MMS Milk Paint Color, the theme for Lucketts will be “Farmhouse White.” Kriste and I have been developing the idea a little further, since it’s fairly generic (in the world of antique markets) and also not all that distinct from other booths I’ve done. As we’ve talked through the theme, some more focused ideas floated to the top. Obviously we’re going to have lots of white and plenty of pieces that have a more humble, farmhouse feel. We want to balance that out with bucolic landscape scenes that we’re going to introduce to the space in a few different ways. We’ll

February 10, 2016 34 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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