The Ugliest Wall in My House

This is the first wall you see when you walk in my house.  I'm standing near the front doorway taking this pic

You probably recognize it from from last year's slipcovered sectional post.

This is what the wall looks like with nothing on it

Seriously?!  Who designed this?  I'd like to have a little talk with him.  We spend a lot of time in this room... it serves as a foyer, mud room, living room, family room, play room and sometimes craft room.  I would like it to be inviting, but what do you do with a wall like this?  We left the wall blank for a long time because nothing of substance fit there.

Then one day the hubs was cleaning out the car and asked, "What do you want to do with this old atlas?  Can I just throw it away?"  I understand we live in the age of GPSs now, but I couldn't part with my atlas.  It had been on many a road trip with me and had such a special place in my heart.  I love maps, so how was I expected to throw away an entire book of maps?

That's when the idea hit.  My husband and I have lived in a lot of different cities, so I decided to frame all of the cities each of us has lived in since we were born.  The arrangement seems to hide some of the ugly features of the wall.  Who knew a repurposed atlas and some dollar store frames could make such a big difference?

So now these are much less of a nuisance

And I love this wall, because it is ours.

Do you have anything built into your house that is super annoying?  Did it force you to come up with a creative solution?  I'd love to hear your story in the comments!

Blessings,
Jamie

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script> This post is linked here:  Today's Creative Blog Blue Cricket Design Kurtz Corner Mommy by Day Crafter by Night Cherished Bliss Lines Across My Face Southern Lovely Bear Rabbit Bear French Country Cottage Craft Junkie Too DIY Home Sweet Home Saved by Love Domestically Speaking Funky Junk Interiors Homemaker on a Dime Eisy Morgan The Answer is Chocolate Making the World Cuter Craft-O-Maniac lolly jane 504 Main I Heart Naptime Singing Three Little Birds mad in crafts House of Hepworths Somewhat Simple Chic on a Shoestring Keeping it Simple Be Different Act Normal Sew Can Do Sew Chatty Pinkapotamus The Girl Creative Flamingo Toes Tatertots and Jello Sisters of the Wild West Reasons to Skip the Housework Giggles Glitz and Glam Tip JunkieThe Trendy Treehouse Ladybug Blessings Night Owl Crafting Tea Rose Home My Girlish Whims Allie Makes Gluesticks Thrifty 101 Momnivores Dilemma A Little Knick Knack Miss Mustard Seed Freckled Laundry kojo designs A vision to remember Primitive and Proper 733 Rook no 17 Home Stories A to Z Naptime Crafters Whipperberry delightful order blissful and domestic elizabeth and co diy by design gingersnap crafts>my repurposed life

Stairway Gallery Wall

Merry Christmas everyone!  What's that you say?  I'm a few days late?  I know I have been MIA for a while, but I can't wait to show you all of the things I've been working on.  I kind of overcommitted myself this December, but I am so happy with the way our family got through it.  More on all that in future posts...

For now, I want to show you what I did yesterday at my mom and dad's house

My mom has been bugging asking me to help her hang pictures for over a year now.  Seriously, I was happy to do it, but I knew it would take a major time commitment and some concentration to get it done.

Here is what her stairway looked like before.  It's beautiful, but needed something.  Ignore the Christmas garland.

I'm sure you've seen tutorials before on how to go about assembling a gallery wall.  I took a few of my favorite techniques and merged them for this project.

We started gathering all her favorite frames.  We decided to include both a cherry stained wood and painted black styles of frames, some with and without mats and a few mod podge photo canvases that my sister and I made my mom for Christmas.  For now we weren't concerned with what was going into them, just the shape and size of each frame.

We laid everything out on the floor to get an idea of how everything would look on the wall.  I took rough measurements of how tall and wide it should be and went to work.

We started with the biggest pieces, which we wanted to use as focal points, and began arranging around them.  I approximated 2 inches between each frame and tried to be sure not all the frame edges matched up exactly.  We didn't want it to look sloppy, but we didn't want it to look like a team of mathemeticians put this thing together either.

Next we got our tools for hanging the frames:

2" blue tape

hammer

nails

ook hooks (for frames with a wire or hook on the back)

level

picture-hanger contraption thingy

this thing was awesome and we couldn't have done the project without it.  I first saw the idea at the Scrap Shoppe blog.  She used a clothespin; we knew we would need something longer and flatter so we used an old piece of wood.  You hang the frame from the nail on the wood, lightly tap the frame to make a small hole where your nail hole needs to be, and then take the frame away and hammer your nail into the wall.

The big frame went up first and we worked our way around it.  I took the photo of all the frames laid out on the floor and used it as a basic reference.  We used the blue tape as spacers between the frames.  It ensured everything was approximately 2" apart.

Here it is as a work in progress

closer

and done!

Let me know what you think!  This was a gargantuan project compared to the gallery wall in my son's room.  I think it was worth all the work, though!

Thanks for stopping by; I'll be back soon (I promise)!

Blessings,

Jamie

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Kid Room Gallery Wall

A little.  More.  Progress.

I busted out the red spray paint yesterday and redid some old frames

This was from IKEA.

It used to be here (the one at the bottom).  The red frame makes it much more fun!

I added a ribbon to this plaque to balance out the color on the wall.

You can find the tutorial for the photo plaques here and the subway art canvas here.

One more view

2 more projects to complete and I can leave this room alone for a while!

Thanks for sticking with me through this drawn-out room redo.

Blessings,

Jamie

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This post is linked here:  Today's Creative Blog Blue Cricket Design Kurtz Corner Mommy by Day Crafter by Night Cherished Bliss Lines Across My Face Southern Lovely Bear Rabbit Bear French Country Cottage Craft Junkie Too DIY Home Sweet Home Saved by Love Domestically Speaking Funky Junk Interiors Homemaker on a Dime Eisy Morgan The Answer is Chocolate Making the World Cuter Craft-O-Maniac lolly jane 504 Main I Heart Naptime Singing Three Little Birds mad in crafts House of Hepworths Somewhat Simple Chic on a Shoestring Keeping it Simple Be Different Act Normal Sew Can Do Sew Chatty Pinkapotamus The Girl Creative Flamingo Toes Tatertots and Jello Sisters of the Wild West Reasons to Skip the Housework Giggles Glitz and Glam Tip Junkie
The Trendy Treehouse Ladybug Blessings Night Owl Crafting Tea Rose Home My Girlish Whims Allie Makes Gluesticks Thrifty 101 Momnivores Dilemma A Little Knick Knack Miss Mustard Seed Freckled Laundry kojo designs A vision to remember Primitive and Proper 733 Rook no 17 Home Stories A to Z
Naptime Crafters Whipperberry