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All Things Home

the bergere chairs & design ramblings

Well, the bergere chairs are finally done!  They were some of my earlier upholstery subjects.  I was still at the stage when I would take apart a chair and then I would wonder what in the world I was thinking and how I was going to get it all back together.  At the time, these were the most complicated pieces I had worked on, so I chickened out and didn’t take them apart all the way.  That meant the fabric on the seat back and arm interiors was just tucked in at the bottom.  Now that I’ve gotten better at upholstery, I redid them in antique hemp sheets and grain sack…double welting and all.  And here they are… It makes me a little sad, but after several years of enjoying them, I’m ready to let them go to a new home.  They will be for sale at the Lucketts Spring

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All Things Home

cottage dresser & checked chairs

Before I get into today’s post, I wanted to announce the winner of the Sailrite sewing machine giveaway.  A big congrats to Missy Bun!  (I sent you an e-mail with the details on claiming your prize.  Enjoy!) Now, onto the furniture makeovers! I will start off by saying that I am totally in love with this little cottage-style dresser and those chairs.  Trust me, I tried to mentally find a spot for these in my house!  Hard.  I couldn’t, so they are getting sold. Here is how this dresser started… It really was lovely just as it was and I even considered not painting it, but I decided to in the end.  It had a glossy poly that was applied at some point, after the piece was stripped of its old layers of paint.  It wasn’t the original finish, so I didn’t feel too bad about painting it.  I did

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All Things Home

making a new table look old…

 Before we get into the process of making a new table look old…  I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!  We spent a much needed Saturday at home.  Between sickness and traveling over the past few weeks, we were all behind on our chores, laundry, cleaning, mowing, etc., so we took a day to take care of those things.  Picking up toys turned into organizing the basement and picking out toys to give to younger boys.  That turned into hours of great playtime with toys that had been buried and forgotten.  So, it was a balance of work and fun and a great lesson on the joys of being able to actually find your stuff! Sunday was a bit more restful and involved church, some light yard work (the day was gorgeous), errands and dinner out with my parents.  It was a nice break from the frenzy-that-is-my-life in the weeks

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All Things Home

Sailrite Sewing Machine Giveaway

I have a really, really awesome giveaway today…just so you know. But, let me start from the beginning.  A couple of years ago, I was upholstering a channel back chair and I found the end of my rope with my $150 run-of-the-mill sewing machine.  Don’t get me wrong.  That inexpensive machine has served me so well (and it still does), but I was just asking too much of it and it was starting to choke on 6 to 8 layers of hemp grain sack fabric.  Understandably.  So, I started shopping for a proper machine for upholstery. If you’ve ever looked around for one of those, you know that it’s pretty overwhelming.  Most of the upholstery machines I came across were over $1000 and were HUGE!  It would definitely not be mobile or easy to camouflage in a room, which was important to me, since it would be in my house and

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All Things Home

how to gold leaf a frame

 When I was out shopping for the upcoming Lucketts Spring Market last week, I was looking for artwork for my living room as well.  I was really hoping for a pair of charming paintings, but I didn’t have any luck.  I did find two vintage Currier & Ives prints, though.  They were sweet farmhouse scenes and I thought they would work well with a new frame and mat.  The frames they were in looked a little dated and didn’t showcase the prints very well. I had a couple of black resin frames I bought on clearance a few years ago that were the perfect size.  The black looked too dark for the prints (and my room), so I decided to gold leaf them. This is what the frames looked like before.  They were a bit dusty, so I cleaned them off to get them ready for the sizing. When applying

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All Things Home

swapping chairs

Sooo…I’ve been know to rearrange, trade and swap furniture in my house.  I’ve always done that, but it’s so much more tempting (and easier) when I have a steady stream of awesome furniture coming into my possession as I’m getting ready for an upcoming antique market.  Sometimes I need to love a piece for a while before I send it off into the world.  There are other times when I trip across something I’ve been looking for and I know right away that it’s coming to my house. That was the case with these chairs… I have been looking for end chairs for my dining room for a while…over a year, I think.  The current end chairs are almost exactly like the side chairs and it looked a little “one-note.”  I felt like some really great end chairs would add a lot more interest to the space.  It’s the kind of

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All Things Home

upholstered ottoman & painted cabinet

Sometimes when I have a huge stash of furniture to work on, I’m overwhelmed and find it hard to even know where to start.  That is definitely not the case as I’m getting ready for Lucketts this year.  ALL I want to do in the studio is work on furniture.  My e-mail inbox was being so woefully neglected because of it, so I had to pin myself down and get it cleaned out last night.  I’m really enjoying painting, upholstering and seeing the pieces transformed.  I hope you’re enjoying it, too!  There are a lot more furniture makeovers to come. I bought this stool at an antique store a couple of months ago and it’s been hanging out in the stash since then.  I was planning to make a slipcover for it, one that laced down the legs and had a short, ruffled skirt. The day was winding down last

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All Things Home

installing a stair runner

I shared several weeks ago that I wanted to add a carpet runner to our steps.  We have 1940’s stairs that are shallow, by today’s standards, and entirely wood.  That combination has led to more than one topple down the steps by pretty much everyone in our family.  Adding a runner wouldn’t help with how shallow the steps are, but it will at least cushion any future falls.  It also makes the pokey stairwell look more like an intentionally decorated space. I started with three Stockholm Dash & Albert 2.5 x 8 woven cotton runners.  They have so many beautiful patterns to choose from, but the colors in this design worked best in my space. I received the runners a while ago, but wanted to wait until the upstairs bathroom tile was completed before I installed them.  The weather was not being very wet-tile-saw-friendly, so the tile had to wait.

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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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