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Running a Business

Photography

process of styling | part two

If you missed the first post on my styling process, you can find it HERE. In this post, I’ll talk through how we styled this hand painted piece as a buffet as well as sharing my camera settings. This is where I started with the styling… I’m shooting in my studio and I am working with a white wall as a backdrop. I like shooting against white, but it feels a little stark without anything on the wall. I used wooden breadboards to add height and warmth. The wood chairs tie into the wood of the boards. The white ironstone suggests this is a buffet and the green moss adds some color. I was pretty happy with the way it looked, but called Kriste over for a second opinion. She felt like the casserole was getting lost on the white wall, so she moved the breadboards over. We also

September 22, 2014 22 Comments

Artistic Endeavors

getting my house back

As many of you know, we put our house on the market back in April and it didn’t sell. We didn’t even get an offer. So, we decided to stay put, work towards some goals and look for a commercial space to use as a studio for our business. We found an awesome one and moved into it a couple of weeks ago. Getting all of the business stuff out of the house and getting some separation between the two has been amazing and eye opening. I knew the business was taking over the house, and we have the empty spaces now to prove it, but I didn’t realize how much it was affecting my decorating decisions and/or lack of decisions. I wasn’t viewing my home as just a home, but a backdrop and studio and work space and it was just too much. It’s great to have multi-functional spaces,

September 14, 2014 30 Comments

Running a Business

balancing business & creativity

There are days when I feel a little buried in business. When exciting things and growth happens, more business comes along with it. E-mail, bills, paperwork, conference calls, things that can’t be ignored. I want to be painting furniture or trolling Pinterest or glittering something. I want to just be creative. So, it’s a constant balance between the two. Kriste worked today on getting orders packed up and getting about 1/3 of the look books unboxed and ready to pack and ship tomorrow. (It was a little strange seeing so much of my face piled up all over my living room!) After some meetings (which are super exciting) and some e-mail, I informed Kriste I needed to do some creative things…just for my mental health. We camped at the dining room table, pouring over creative things to do with milk paint and ideas for the next look book. We pulled

August 20, 2014 12 Comments

Running a Business

enter Kriste…

Today, I spent several hours brainstorming and working on creative things. As my business has grown, I find myself getting pulled away from those things more and more. I have to solve problems, review contracts, be on conference calls, stay on top of my e-mail, reconcile accounts and make sure the business side of things is running smoothly. With each creative endeavor that is launched, more business comes with it. Thankfully, I have an amazing team of people who make me look really good. They cover everything from branding, managing MMSMP retailers, distributing products, technical stuff, social media and more. They all play such a key part in my business and I don’t know what I’d do without them. I’m learning, though, that I need even more help creatively. I need a fresh way to look at my products and I need help executing some of the creative projects I have on my list.

August 2, 2014 10 Comments

buying & selling antiques

tips on styling a retail space

While it’s fairly fresh in my mind, I thought I would answer an e-mail question I received about styling a retail space. A couple of weeks ago, I received this e-mail from Allison of the Golden Sycamore. “I was wondering if you could give me a little advice. I feel like I’m pretty good at styling photos. I know I still have a ways to go, but I feel pretty confident about it. My booth, however, is a different story. It just looks so bland and boring. And nothing really seems to go together. I think I’ve kind of figured out part of my problem. I can style things at home with random home decor stuff I have around the house, but that stuff never comes to my booth, so I get my furniture there and it just kind of falls flat. How do you (did you) balance having accessories for

June 13, 2014 22 Comments

Before and Afters

the unpainted desk & hemp chair

Despite what some may think, I don’t paint everything. Most of the furniture pieces I buy are in need of some help. They’re tired, worn, spotted with water rings, sporting chipped & bubbled veneer and have seen better days. Because of that, I don’t feel the slightest hesitation about painting them. Some pieces, though, are just perfect as is. Such was the case with this oak desk… The wood and finish were in beautiful condition and the vintage glass knobs were perfect. We did have to add some new stops to the drawers to keep them from sliding all the way to the back of the desk, but that was a quick fix. Usually, I feel that painting a piece brings out the details, but the graining of the wood made the details, like the cubbies and carved embellishments, really shine. So, the only thing I did beyond adding drawer stops

May 24, 2014 32 Comments

Before and Afters

Antique Pine Table Makeover

Would you believe I still have several furniture makeovers from Lucketts to share? The past few years, I got too busy to take before & after pictures and I really kicked myself for it. This year, I made myself grab the camera and take a before of every piece AND made sure I had an after picture of each piece before it was loaded into the truck. This antique pine table was one of my favorite pieces. I guess I had a lot of favorites this year, because this is like the fifth piece I’ve called one of my favorites! I found it on my shopping trip to Virginia. It was one of the pricier pieces I bought, but I really loved it and thought it would make a nice “focal piece” in my booth. Plus, I loved it so much, I didn’t mind if it didn’t sell. It wasn’t purchased

May 22, 2014 28 Comments

Before and Afters

Wardrobe Makeover & 2014 Lucketts Recap Day 2

Before I get to a recap of day two at the Lucketts Spring Market, I thought I would show a before and after of one of the furniture pieces I sold there this past weekend. This is how the piece started… It was in pretty nice condition and could’ve been used as is, but I felt that paint would bring out the details of the piece much better. Cari painted the interior in MMSMP Shutter Gray and the exterior in Grain Sack. I then came in and added Ironstone to the details, lightly distressed the edges and finished the entire piece off with Hemp Oil. It turned out so sweet and I love the wood details against the painted finishes. It looked great in the space and sold fast! And that’s the whole point! In contrast to the frenzy of day one at Lucketts, day two is more relaxed.

May 21, 2014 31 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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