This is my bedroom as of September 2013, enjoy!
All photos are courtesy of Ashley a. Photography, thanks Ashley!
Right now this painting is just leaning against my bedroom wall but I have a few ideas about how to spruce this guy up.
Idea #1:
Paint over the existing painting with new colors. I saw this on Pinterest awhile back and thought it was such a creative idea. It’s basically a play on paint with numbers. It’s unique and cheap and could potentially be easy. Although, let’s be honest a lot of these types of projects look easy and I over-confidently think I can do it but then I get into the project and… it’s a mess. But I’m just crazy enough to keep trying projects like this.
OR
Idea #2:
I actually reference this idea in my last attempt at DIY art (here). I like this project because it is extremely simple. Stick letters on canvas, paint over letters, dry, peel, and done! I’m not sure what I could write on such a small canvas though…
What would you do? I’m leaning toward Idea #1 but I’ll see what my mood is when I decide to start this project. For now, it will just be a weird little painting in my room.
It is very possible that I love this trend so much because I can’t paint my front door. I know what you are thinking, why can’t you paint your front door? It is because I live in a historical home in a historical neighborhood and we are strongly encouraged to leave any original exterior elements as is. My front door is lovely so I shouldn’t complain…
On Monday, I shared my little dining room corner make-over. Here is the process I used to hanging the large old windows on the wall.
A few summers ago I bought two large windows. Why did I buy windows? I don’t really know. I had a moment where I was feeling very shabby chic-y apparently. Actually, I think I had just gotten Pinterest and I was in that fever of seeing all these new projects with old windows for the first time.
Anyway, for several months the ones I bought just sat around doing nothing. Then I got an idea. What if instead of putting small pictures behind each pane (which is the most common thing people do with windows like this) I printed one large picture instead? I thought maybe it would look a little more modern that way. So I found two pictures from my trip to Paris that I thought would work and had them printed. I used Snapfish and got the pictures printed in the 20″x30″ poster size for $18 each. That seems expensive now but at the time I thought it was reasonable. When I got them I taped them on the back of the frame.
3) Attach the hanging wire. I used 9′ of hanging wire on each frame. That sounds like a lot but these suckers are heavy and I wanted to be extra careful. I pulled the wire through the loops three times.
After trimming the ends, the back looked like this.
Are you into the old window look? Have you ever had to get creative when hanging stuff on the wall?
I’m itching for spring which makes me want to do drastic things. Thankfully, my bank account doesn’t allow me to be too crazy but since I am craving change I’ve compiled a list of zero to low cost home updates. Hopefully doing a few little tweaks around my house will appease me until the sun decides to come back out and stay.
Washi Tape
So washi tape is definitely a thing now. I remember it was about this time last year when I first heard of it. My friend was planning her wedding and she used it on her invitations. I thought it was cool but I didn’t think too much about it. Then suddenly, it was everywhere. Washi tape has many uses but I never thought about using it on my walls. Thankfully, there are people out there that are more creative than me to think of it.
This garland would be a cute and simple way to incorporate this trend.
This is the image that got me thinking about this trend. I love the bright yellow. This would be a basically free project (you could use whatever paint you have on hand) and it would have such a big impact.
I’m not sure if that back wall is wallpaper or a stencil but either way I like it. Double like for it being mixed with the bold stripes.
This is actually an IKEA hack. The medicine cabinet came plain white and they painted a Swiss cross on it. Since this cross is an international symbol of health care it’s funny that it’s on a medicine cabinet.
Sometimes when I talk to people about this blog they say, “Aren’t you going to run out of projects at your house to blog about?” Because my house is small and for the most part completely decorated, I understand their question, but the answer is always ‘No.’ A few weeks ago I did a post showing the ‘before’ and ‘current state’ of my house where I listed out what I’ve accomplished so far and what I hope to do in the future, but that isn’t where the list ends. I don’t consider myself an artist, but allow me to use the analogy that I’m an artist and my house is my canvas and for that reason I don’t think I’ll ever be able to consider this house finished. So here is a run down of what looks done but in my mind is not done and may never be.
Bedroom bookshelves:
Or this:
Do you feel the same way about areas of your house? Or am I just too picky?
I really hate to break it to you but chalkboard paint is sort of a sham. Don’t get me wrong, I love the look and I don’t regret painting a chalkboard wall in my kitchen but it is only a “chalkboard” in the sense that IKEA furniture is “wood.” At least that is what I’ve been thinking since I painted it about six months ago (here).
Remember those green chalkboards from elementary school? I loved those. I especially liked it when my class job was to de-chalk the erasers which involved just going outside and banging them together so that the dust flew everywhere. There is no comparison between a real slate chalkboard and something painted with chalkboard paint, but I finally figured out a few tricks to make mine work better.
The problem I was having is that whenever I tried to erase a message it doesn’t really erase. See how you can still see my previous message underneath the current one?
Here is what it looks like after I tried to erase (with a dry paper towel):