Picture Rails

I have several gallery walls in my home, and I've posted about them often.  However I'm always on the lookout for a new way to display art and photos.  One thing I haven't tried yet is a picture rail.

I remember the first use of a picture rail that caught my eye was on Making It Lovely, Nicole has picture rails throughout her home.  She recently hung a beautiful botanical print from a picture rail in her living room.

Two picture rails and hooks are used here with matching teal frames.  I love this idea.  There are several online companies where you can purchase picture rail hooks.

Picture rails also make it easy to change out artwork.

Source

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The Evolution of an Art Wall

When talking about arranging art and photos on a wall, so many times I hear friends and clients say they haven't hung anything because they're scared they'll do it wrong or that it won't look good. So instead they have blank walls. But the thing is, what's the worst that could happen? You hang something and it looks bad? Then take it down and try something else. Believe me, it's very easy to fill nail holes.

To illustrate my point, I'm going share with you some really ugly wall arrangements (and crappy photos) by yours truly. One wall in my living room has gone through many changes.

This is what I hung up when we first moved in, yikes. Mostly I used items I already had, and then I spray painted a couple of thrift store finds. It's not good.


Here's what I did next, I decided I needed some bigger pieces.  Better I guess, but still scary.


After we bought our sectional, I added to the arrangement.  It stayed like this for awhile, but I wasn't truly satisfied with it.


And this is how it looks now.  Much better from the original crap fest.  But I'm sure I'll change it again eventually.






This just shows how it won't kill you to experiment a little. Yeah like me, you might go through some fugly arrangements; but eventually you'll find something that works.

Alternatives to the Gallery Wall

I'm still seeing gallery walls like the one below everywhere, and I still like them.

Source: gallery.apartmenttherapy.com via Erica on Pinterest

But you can't put a gallery display on every single wall in your house or you're gonna look like a crazy person. Here are some other ideas to fill those empty walls. Framed wallpaper.

Source: littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com via Erica on Pinterest

Enlarge family photos and frame - those are Ikea frames!

Source: daffodildesign.com via Erica on Pinterest

Display 9 matching frames in a grid.

Source: delightfulorder.blogspot.com via Erica on Pinterest

Shelves or picture ledges.

Source: cdn.decorpad.com via Adryan on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Cathy on Pinterest

Copycat Project : DIY Cloud Art

I knew when I saw this project featured on A Cup of Jo, I had to try it out.





Amber from Amber Interiors took a photo of clouds, blew it up, and framed it in an IKEA frame. Genius.

I used a photo I had taken a long time ago, and simply cropped it so only the sky was in the frame. Then I tweaked it a bit to get the turquoise color I was going for. Here is my version hanging in my bedroom.





Such a fast, easy, and cheap project!

DIY Art for the Kitchen

I helped a client with the space above her kitchen cabinets over the weekend. This is a tricky space, and brings visions of dusty fake ivy plants to many of us I am sure. We wanted to avoid that.

Here is the end result.


This particular kitchen has quite a bit of height above the cabinets so I wanted to put some artwork up there. I wanted something graphic and modern that would bring in some color; so I came up with this "EAT" sign. This is a quick and cheap project and I loved how it turned out.

Start with a piece of plywood. You can pick it up at Home Depot or Lowes, and they'll cut it to any size you want. This one is about 20x35 and I had it left over from another project.


You'll also need to print out whatever image you want to transfer onto the plywood. I typed "EAT" in a Word document in font size 600; each letter took up a full page. The font is "Fiesta" and you can download it free here. I also printed out the fork and spoon image which you can download here.

Next prime your plywood with white paint primer using a roller. This step isn't completely necessary, but I did it to make sure my green paint would be saturated enough.


Confession: I was going to have a nice styled picture for each of the remaining steps like a good blogger - but I ended up frantically finishing it at about 11:00 at night with no time or patience for pictures. This is how I do most of my projects. Whoops.

After your primer dries, apply two coates with a roller of your desired color. I used Olive Marinade by Valspar.

Allow paint to dry. Then, using graphite paper - trace your printed image onto the wood with a pencil. Lay the graphite paper, graphite side down, on the wood. Line up your printed images and place over the graphite paper. Trace the outline of each letter, and the fork and spoon, with a pencil.


Finally, fill in your traced outline with a paint pen. This is the easiest part. I'm not too steady with a paint brush, and so paint pens to the rescue. I picked mine up at Michael's.


And you're done! Really cheap, pretty easy.

A Vintage Poster

Loving these affordable prints from A Vintage Poster. They're all $14 bucks for size 11x14, and the best part is you can order them in any color. Pop them in a frame for a great Christmas gift!

Desk Top Redo

I've started to spruce up my guest room. I decided when decorating this room, to limit myself to only using the things I already have. More details on that challenge later when I post my finished (and free!) guest room, but for now here's one of the projects I did for the room.

Remember, I'm not using anything I don't already own. The problem was I needed some large scale art, and didn't have any. So instead, I pulled out this IKEA desk that has been collecting dust for awhile.



First, I unscrewed the legs leaving only the table top - which was going to be my "canvas". Next I printed out several butterflies from the free images available at Vintageprintable.com.



I printed out the butterflies in various sizes on regular ol' printer paper and cut them out. I adhered the butterflies to the desk top using Mod Podge. Then I simply attached wire to the back of the desk top and hung. Free art!

Unrelated

Here are some random things I've got my eye on.

Liking these headboard ideas from Sunset Magazine. Especially that trellis mirror, seems like it could be a DIY project. Maybe with some wooden garden trellis from Home Depot and a big mirror? Or paint a mirror with a trellis stencil?




Loving this oversized horse photo. Thinking about getting a photo enlarged at Kinkos, cutting it in thirds, and framing it in IKEA frames for the same look.

via Decorpad

Love the idea of simple floating shelves hung above a toilet.

via Decorpad

Urban Outfitters Print Shop

Was clicking around on Urban today and discovered they have a new section called the Print Shop. They've teamed up with an artist community called Society6.

From the website:
"Society6 is an International artist community representing more than 70 countries worldwide. We will continuously comb through their enormous archives to bring you this curated collection of our favorites. Any items ordered from the PRINT SHOP will be processed and shipped by Society6."

Pretty good prices for unique artwork, ranging from $25 to $55 depending on the size. Here are some of my faves.


The Elephant


Coney Island Beach


Flower Burst


Natural


Whale


Mountains


Flower Boat

And last but certainly not least:


Meow and Meow