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All Things Home

spraying paint again…

When I first started my decorative and painting business, buying a paint sprayer was a no-brainer.  My pieces would have a smoother, more professional finish, and I could crank out pieces much faster than painting by hand.  I did a ton of research and ended up buying a Graco HVLP FinishPro.  (HVLP stands for high volume low pressure.)  I used that thing a ton and Jeff even built me a spray booth in the basement. (Man, I can’t believe I didn’t watermark that image.) I started working with different paints and finishes and found I loved the look of a piece painted by hand.  It was therapeutic for me, too!  I was painting so often by hand that we took down the spray booth to regain the space.  A gut instinct told me to hold onto the sprayer, though.  I thought about selling it many times over, but I could

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All Things Home

card room green front door

Well, it’s been a whirlwind few days!  My brother came into town to work on my new house along with my parents.  I love that my family is all about hard work and we can accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.  We’ve been working at such a rapid pace that I haven’t even had a chance to post about all of the projects, but once things quiet down, I will take pictures and share.  It’s exciting stuff, though, and the house is already looking more like our home. When I last shared the front door, it looked like this… It just needed some color.  After holding many paint chips up to the pinkish-beige siding, I settled on Card Room Green by Farrow & Ball…   …and I had it mixed by Benjamin Moore in Rust Scat Semi-gloss Enamel. My dad and I took the door off the

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All Things Home

how to refinish a kitchen table | part 1

Before we even moved in, before we even knew this house was ours, I knew a new kitchen table would be on our list of furniture to hunt for.  We’ve been using a small pine table, which fit our last house well, but it’s always felt too small for the four of us at meals.  And it was definitely too small for this new space.  So, let me take you on the journey of finding a new table as well as how to refinish a kitchen table. (The current table was buried under there somewhere!) If the kitchen is the heart of the home, the table is heart of the heart.  It’s where the family gathers for meals, homework, crafts, household business, and devotions.  It’s an important piece of furniture and I wanted it to be solid, properly scaled for the room and how our family will use it.  I

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All Things Home

sketching tips & tools

I have had such a great couple of days of recuperating from weeks of packing. Sunday, I crashed.  My head hurt, I was congested, and I just couldn’t do much of anything.  Jeff let me sleep in.  My sister-in-law pampered me with a healthy breakfast.  And everyone gave me some time to just lay in bed and rest.  By the afternoon, I felt like I was coming around. Today, I got to sleep in again, had time to catch up on work stuff, and Jeff gave me a chance to drive around and do a little shopping.  I bought a few small things, but the point was more to get out and start to refill my creativity well. And it was awesome.  I bought a few magazines and books to digest later. It’s still going to take me a while to get back into some sort of a groove, but I

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All Things Home

when I just can’t…

I think you will agree that a before and after is more enjoyable than a before and quit-in-the-middle.  But that is the truth of furniture rehab or DIY in general.  Sometimes projects are abandoned. Several months ago, I bought two upholstery projects.  I was on the furniture-makeover-victory high from finishing the tufted sofa, so I felt like I could tackle anything.  The “deconstructed chair” that turned out not being deconstructed was one of them… It took me a few months, but I did finally finish that piece. With a happy ending, I might add.   This settee was the other one… Before I even started working on it, I received an e-mail from a regular customer asking to buy the settee once it was finished.  She loved the style and the size was perfect for her space. Oh, a buyer already!  That will be great motivation to get this piece completed and sold.

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All Things Home

finished “French twins”

Now is the time when everything I started gets finished.  Well, it’s also the time I buy new things that need to be finished, because it’s my biggest event of the year and I have to give it everything I’ve got, but that’s another post. One thing I finished this week was the sibling to my French twins of 2017… I finished one of them a few weeks ago, but then I shelved upholstery work for a while and opted to work on painted furniture. While upholstery is something I can do, it’s not something I enjoy.  I like the end result of the transformation and, unfortunately, the process has to happen in order to get to the finish line.  So, I give myself a pep talk and make it happen. They turned out great.  The second one, that I had been avoiding for weeks, ended up being a piece

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All Things Home

slipcovered settee

I usually don’t work on the weekends, but it’s crunch time as Lucketts is quickly approaching.  So, after sitting out in the rain most of the morning to cheer my boys on at soccer, my mom and I spent a few hours in the studio to cross some more things off the to-do list. My mom priced the shipment of German dish brushes, hemp twine, and fly swatters as well as the antique pieces I purchased last week.  I worked on a few pieces of furniture and styled and photographed the settee I finished on Friday… This started out as a Queen Ann settee I purchased off of craigslist.  I honestly bought it because the price was so good.  It had a nice shape, but I didn’t expect much from it.  It looked a lot like a piece that would be in the waiting room of a dentist’s office.  I was

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All Things Home

the French twins of Lucketts 2017

It has become a Lucketts tradition, it seems, to have a twin pair of French-style chairs at the Miss Mustard Seed booth!  Well, we do not want to break that trend, now, do we? As a recap, here is the pair from 2014… …from 2015… …and from 2016… And here is the pair for 2017 (before their makeover, of course)… They are a new-ish pair, so they are in good, sturdy condition, and they sit a little higher, making them ideal for pulling them up to a table.  The frames are nice as they are, but they look a little too “factory finished”, so I will most likely paint them.  I’m going to wait to decide until they are stripped and I “try on” some fabric to see what I want to do.  I always base the wood/paint and color decisions on the fabric I’m going to use. Now, I almost didn’t

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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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