Wednesday, August 7, 2013

That time where I did a photo wall like a boss.

The fun thing about being in a new house is that I have a canvas in which to do some of the Pinterest projects I've been obsessively pinning for no real reason. There comes a point in time where you have to have a serious conversation with yourself and decide to either do some projects or shut this shit down because you will waste your life away pinning for no reason.

I don't want to be a pinner with no point, dammit.

So I have vowed that I am actually going to make a real effort in doing projects, cooking recipes, and trying to look somewhat styled and put together. And the first thing I wanted to do (other than paint) was to do something with the upstairs landing.
 See how naked and blah it is? I don't like naked and blah home spaces. It's just a fact. So I decided to continue the really great gray color I have downstairs to the upstairs. Not just because it would look nice but yet again Home Depot tells me I need double the paint that I actually need so I had a spare gallon. Oy. So we painted the walls gray and that's a start. But then I thought- I am going to do a photo wall. But I can't afford actual frames because the ones I like are expensive. So I sat on that for a few days UNTIL. I find the most amazing canvas art at Hobby Lobby. Instant love, even at $30. I liked the words, I liked the font, I liked the colors, everything about this was love and I thought hell yes- this is what I'm going to do and I'm going to carry these colors in other areas of the house because I love them so.
 So what I did was buy a bunch of cheap wood frames at Michaels. They are $1 a piece but they don't come with glass so if you're fine with that, get these. In bulk. LOVE. I know from scrapbooking that things in 3 look best so I went with nine frames and three paints that would match my art. Now, the teal color is not in the art, but my bathroom is now teal (that's another post) so I thought- WIN because the wall will tie in with the bathroom. So I painted two coats of acrylic paint (all $1 per bottle) with foam brushes (.39 a piece). THEN I thought, hmm.... too blah. So I decide to bust out some white acrylic paint I had and with a dry foam brush I kind of gave it a whitewashed/distressed look to all of them. It's imperfect, but I like them.
 Then since I had the art hanging on my wall and was too lazy to go get it, I used one of my 12x12 paper boxes to be my pretend art and I moved frames around until I liked what I had. Then I had to find pictures. Which turned out to be a nightmare because I don't have that many vertical pictures, apparently? I need to take more of those.
 Once I got my pictures printed, I put them in the frames and made sure I liked my arrangement.

THEN I had to get them on the wall. First I tried nails, only to discover that shockingly, there are no studs in that wall. Like, at all. I don't want to know why there are no studs and while this is alarming, I had to think of a better solution. Which reminded me of something I used for my front porch project (blog post soon).

I have bought over 20 packages of these things in the last month. No, I am not joking. Command strips that are velcro are probably the best thing ever invented. I love them a lot. I feel like buying them just in case because I love them that much.
And BAM. Finished product. I bought the dresser from a friend and I was going to paint it but then thought no, I like the black. I'm going to buy a different basket that's a little more functional though. Then I got the vase and tulips on clearance at Michaels. But doesn't it look awesome?
It looks kind of amazing at the top of my stairs.

So that's one of my Pinterest projects conquered. I cannot WAIT to show you my front porch. I have a few finishing touches to add but it's coming along nicely.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

That turned out so cute! I have been dying to do a photo gallery in our stairwell, but it still feels like a daunting task.

Brenda said...

Holy doodle--that looks awesome.

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

That is a great looking wall. Love it!

Steff said...

Oh that's so cute! I have so many pictures I want to hang up but don't...maybe I just need to move? haha I like the color of the dresser with it!