Photo Gallery Wall: Part 2 (The Reveal)

If you missed the first installment of my photo gallery wall, here's a quick reminder of what our empty stairwell looked like:

Then I spray painted a bunch of different frames white and ivory for a slight two-tone effect.

Then I used frame "templates" to determine the placement on the wall. For the most part, I just eyeballed the spacing between all the frames (I prefer this method over measuring).

Then I had to decide on what photos to display. I went through a bunch of our digital pics and chose several from various vacations, a couple from our wedding, and a couple more random ones. And because we don’t have any kids yet, I of course had to include the dogs. So other than that, we probably look really conceited by having so many pictures of ourselves. But in my defense, I do have a separate collage frame in our living room with photos of our families, so that counts for something…Anyway, I now present to you several gratuitous pictures of the finished wall!

Overall I really like it, and I'm glad I chose to do both white and ivory frames for a subtle contrast. Although now I kind of wish I would have used a couple round- or oval-shaped frames to break up all the square-ness. But I must say, having all our photos displayed on this huge wall really makes a big difference and makes our house feel more “homey” (3.5 years later)!

Here's a more recent picture taken after we painted all our walls gray.

Someday -- maybe when our basement is finished -- I may add more frames on the second flight of stairs to keep the gallery wall wrappping around the stairwell. (Update as of November 2016: This still hasn't happened yet... but a girl can dream!)

Oh, and if you're curious about the cost of this project, here's my estimated breakdown:
Frames: $25 (I used several I already had, then bought a few more on sale)
Spray paint: $10
Photos: $10 (printed at Sam's Club)

So, whaddaya think?  Was it worth the wait and the 2-part blog post?

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Linking up to:
Made by you Monday @ Skip to my Lou
Make It Great Monday @ Etcetorize
Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative
Show Me What Ya Got #51

November Updates

Okay, so November’s been a little slow around here, as you can tell from my one measly post this month. Aside from being pretty busy in general, I’ve also been having some computer issues, so I really haven’t been able to blog (or check out other blogs) lately. This makes me sad, but I should hopefully be back in business soon. A few things you can look forward to:

- Photo gallery wall reveal
- New storm door on the front porch
- A Christmas project (or two…or three?)

Oh, and I’ve also finally succumbed to the peer pressure and joined Pinterest! Better late than never, right? I think I had been putting it off because I knew it would become dangerously addicting…and I was right. (I'm pretty sure I could spend days on end just pinning things.) Anyhow, I’d love for you to check out my boards and follow me! I’ll also start adding the “Pin It” buttons to some of my projects on here, so if something really strikes your fancy, you can pin it and make me feel special. ;)



In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving! I can’t believe it’s just a few short days away. Where has this month gone?!

Photo Gallery Wall: Part 1

Dry your eyes, my bloggy friends -- I'm back! But my little hiatus over the past couple of weeks doesn’t mean nothing’s been happening. In fact, I’ve been feverishly trying to finish my latest project to share with you lovelies.

Let's remember a couple months ago when I first hatched the idea for a photo gallery wall...I knew I wanted to display my frames in our stairwell, but I had to choose between the large wall next to the stairs, or the smaller wall above the landing.

Yuck, bad lighting (or bad photographer?). It's not really this orange-y.

Originally, I thought I was going to do the smaller wall above the landing. So I gathered all my existing hodge-podge frames, but my collection seemed a little sparse.

After trips to Goodwill, Walmart, and Hobby Lobby, I had acquired several more cheap-o frames in a variety of sizes. I also bought two small ledges and a decorative "D" from Hobby Lobby (for our last name). Then I laid everything out on the floor in our office to visualize how it would look on the wall.

But first… Since the frames were all such different styles, I wanted to make them a little more cohesive, but not ALL the same, so I decided to buy white and ivory spray paint. This would also provide contrast with the dark reddish-brown wall color and tie in to the white trim in our hallway.

And so began the spray painting. I spray painted like I've never spray painted before. Unfortunately, most of the dark frames needed several coats. Needless to say, I was probably high on the fumes on more than one occasion.

It was definitely an exercise in patience, but finally – after painting in my spare time over the course of a couple weeks -- all of the frames were painted. Because of the materials a few of them are made of, they almost have a distressed look to them, which I actually like. I didn't want everything to look "perfect."

At some point during this process, I changed my mind and decided to put the frames on the wall next to the stairs instead. It was just such a big wall that it really needed something on it. Plus, the photos would be more visible from upstairs then.

So to help map everything out on the wall before going crazy with a hammer and nails, I traced all the frames onto paper and cut them out to make templates. Then I used ScotchBlue painter's tape to place my paper “frames” on the wall. (I'd seen this idea on another blog before - genius!) It really helped to visualize what it would look like.

I ended up switching around a couple of the frames once they were up on the wall.

Once I was finally happy with the placement, I measured where the hangers were on the backs of all the frames, and used this measurement to place my nails in the wall. Luckily, most of the frames had only one hanger on the back instead of two, which made my job easier. Gradually, the paper frames came down, and the real frames went up...

However, I'm not quite finished putting the pictures in the frames (deciding what pictures to use is the hardest part...I'm tempted to leave some of the nice-looking fake people in them). So you'll have to wait until next time to see the final reveal! Yep, I'm totally leaving you hanging.

Look what I found!

The other day, while perusing through Goodwill over my lunch hour, I came across a rare find -- a decent, good-quality piece of furniture. Even though it was $39 (more than I prefer to spend on a piece of furniture at Goodwill), I couldn't resist. I waited until after work, however, to return and see if it was still there. It was, so I took that as a sign that it was meant to be. Check it out in its new home:

Real wood, sturdy construction, and full of potential! Oh, and extra storage space to boot!

I found the perfect spot for this little cabinet in a corner of our dining room. It's actually not that bad as is, but I still want to turn it into a fun project and jazz it up a bit. I have no idea what I want to do yet though. I do know that paint will probably not be involved this time, like it was with my console table and guest room furniture. I don't want to cover up the wood grain and knots. So maybe just sanding it down and re-staining it, or doing something cool with the inset panel in the door.

Any ideas? Other similar inspirational projects you've seen? Do share!

Pumpkins & Paint

I normally don’t do a ton of fall decorating around the house, but there is one thing that I usually have to have - pumpkins! So when I saw that Aldi had large pumpkins on sale for $2.49 each, I had to take advantage of this bargain. With my barren front porch in mind, I picked out three pumpkins.

But this year, I wasn’t just going to plop the pumpkins on the steps like years past. No, this year I had other plans.

My fondness for all things paint has grown throughout the past year, and these unassuming pumpkins would soon find themselves face-to-face with a spray paint nozzle.

Pumpkin, meet White Spray Paint:

You might have guessed by this incredibly generic-looking can that I picked up the cheapo 97 cent off-brand at Home Depot. I figured it would be a good time to try it out since this project would only be on display for the next few weeks.

Well, suffice it to say, there’s a reason it only costs 97 cents. The spray was so broad and fine that it took about 4 coats (much closer than the recommended 10-14 inches) to get all the orange covered. (I also used ScotchBlue painter’s tape to cover up the stem.)

In between coats, I also painted my second pumpkin. For this one, I chose to show some school pride with the color of my alma mater (go K-State!).

Pumpkin, meet Purple Spray Paint:

Painting with the RustOleum Painters Touch was a dream compared to the cheapo brand. It was a much more concentrated spray and only took two coats. Lesson learned, it's worth the $3.77.

Back to the white pumpkin… I had originally thought of painting big black dots on it, but then I decided to try something a little more challenging and “artistic.” Maybe along the lines of what Sarah at Hennessey House might do, but obviously not as intricate or impressive (have you seen that girl's artwork?!).

I had bought a sample of black paint at Home Depot, so I got a little paint brush and started painting… and painting… and painting. About two hours later (including a couple breaks), I had this:

Overall, it didn’t turn out too bad. My swirly vines could have used another coat to make them more solid, but at that point I had already invested enough time in them. Plus, you can’t really tell that they’re a little streaky unless you get up close.

Just for tradition's sake, I decided to keep the final pumpkin orange. (Okay, maybe it was also because it was late and I was tired of painting.)

And here are the finished pumpkins on our front porch:

So tell me, what are you doing with your pumpkins this year? Carving? Glittering? Painting? Nothing?

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Linking up to:
Get Your Craft On Tuesday @ Today's Creative Blog
Creative Juice @ Momnivore's Dilemma
Weekend Bloggy Reading @ Serenity Now

Under-the-Sink Panels: From Fake to Functional

You know what I'm talking about, right?

Yeah, those panels under your sink that look like drawers, but really aren't. Up until recently, I didn't think there was anything that could be done to make these usable. Then I saw something amazing at a friend's house. They had turned their front panels into a storage space.

So this weekend, we went to Lowe's in search of the kit that could make this happen for us, and found it in the kitchen organization section (imagine that). We needed the 14" size, which was $18.57 for two trays.

Rev-A-Shelf - 6572-14-11-52 - 14 in. White Polymer Tip Out Sink Front Trays and Hinges

See where this is going? Maybe I'm behind the times, but I did not know such a thing existed.

At first, I was determined to make this my own project and do it without any of Luke's help. But it didn't take long before I realized my foolishness. These things just go much quicker when he lends his handiness (as much as I hate to admit it). Oh well, teamwork is a good thing, right?

The kit came with a pretty decent set of instructions, which we followed for the most part.

First, we had to take out the panels and remove the pesky plastic strip things that were stapled into them.



Then it was a matter of measuring and marking where to drill the pilot holes for the hinges and tray slots, as well as the holes in the frame opening itself. The kit came with templates to help do this.

The trickiest part was drilling the screws into the frame openings, because of the tight spaces we were working with. (And during this part, it really was helpful to have an extra set of hands to hold the panel in place.) Finally, we got them all tightened up. The result? Two shiny new storage trays just begging to be filled with crap!

Now I had a place to put the aforementioned, unsightly crap that normally clutters up the sink area (scrubber, scraper, drain plugs, water softener monitor that we never use, etc.)

The whole project probably took about an hour and a half, which I think was well worth it. Our sink/counter looks much less cluttered (except for the wand scrubber, which wouldn't fit), and you'd never know the sink panels are secret organizers now. Genius!

So tell me, did you know these sink tray kits existed? Have you already turned your fake panels into functional panels?

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