So this poor neglected blog… well, it’s fallen victim to the “just not enough time in the day” excuse, as well as, a little case of the winter blues. I find myself watching a bit more TV than I have in many years. I think it’s a combination of being tired from all the day to day things I’ve got going on right now and being motivated to update my home decor.
What’s the perfect remedy for these miladies? The HGTv channel, of course! I’m especially fond of Candice Olson’s new show, Color Splash and Dear Genevieve.
When we moved here I decorated this house by shuffling around objects and furniture I already had, plopping them where they seemed to fit and called it done. Recently, it has been feeling kind of tired and boring. I had a professional decorator friend come in and give me some advice. (I have a dear friend who used to live in the same town as me and we would re-decorate each other’s houses constantly and how I miss having her near me. I’m certain that not having her around to share the joy I had in decorating with was a big factor in my complacency.)
One of the things the decorator suggested was that I needed to edit some of my tabletop frames. She validated what I had realized just recently, that I had way too many frames. On nearly every surface in my house there were photos in frames. (I’m sure you’re not surprised.)
My solution (because there was no way I was getting rid of my photos) was to create a photo gallery wall. I’ve actually been wanting to do this for quite some time, but was not committed to investing that much time to doing it if we were going to be moving.
Since clearly we’re still here after almost 4 years, it is time for me to think more permanently about where we live and how the house is decorated. I must say the process of creating the photo wall was just as challenging as I predicted, but extremely satisfying. (I did use the paper template suggestion I’ve seen floating around the internet and it’s good for figuring out placement, but it’s not very realistic on where to put the nails. There may be a few extra holes behind these photos.) 😉
I have a few changes to make in the actual photos you see here, but every time I get a glimpse of this wall, I smile. 🙂 Almost all the frames were ones I had either in a closet waiting for me to do something with or a few of them where tabletop varieties that I converted to wall mount. Other than a can of spray paint and the cost of the prints, I didn’t spend more than $10 on the wall. (Well, that’s not entirely true, because I did purchase the lamps, so that they would be small enough to fit under the frames.) Seeing this photo now is making me think I could keep going a few more frames, what do you think?
Here are a few other things making me happy. This Saturday Richard demolished the wine rack at the end of our island. It was completely useless to me, other than being a great dust bunny trap. I’m not really keen on storing wine in a rack and I know I would much rather have shelves to fill with my collection of cookbooks. So with jigsaw in hand, out it went!!
I went to a local hardware store to have some wood cut to fit the shelves perfectly and wouldn’t you know that I got home and one of them was cut so crooked it didn’t fit. So that project is on hold until I can make it back to the store to have them cut it straight.
After church on Sunday, Richard and I worked on the wing back chair project for Emily’s room. (This is why I’ve held out on sharing photos of her room re-do.) I needed an extra pair of hands to stretch the jute webbing to reinforce the sagging seat. Yeah for power tools!!!
I’m hoping that the rest of this project will go smoothly. I feel certain that I can finish the rest on my own now, if we can just have some warmer weather. (It was really still too cold for working in the garage even this weekend. Our fingers were frozen by the time we finished the top and bottom of the chair.)
All this progress on my projects is making me happy. I just got to keep the ball rolling.
Thank you for subscribing to Paper Daisy Designs. Please continue reading on the blog. I appreciate having you as a reader.
Yay!!! Funny, I had a dear friend like that once too!!! hehe
I always thought you should have been a professional decorator since it seems so natural to you.<br /><br />Great job on the photo wall.
I love the photo wall! I take so many pictures, but I've neglected to hang them on the wall! This is inspiring!