So things are starting to slowly get better for me, eating is still a struggle, but keeping down what I do eat has greatly improved. My energy level still varies from day to day. Some days I feel pretty good and I'm non-stop all day. Other days, just trying to do normal everyday things feels like a huge task. The important thing is that baby is doing great! I had a chance to hear the heartbeat through a fetal doppler earlier this week. Such a sweet sweet sound, I tell ya, it never gets old. In the meantime, I'm counting down the days when I can finally tackle some projects that I would like to complete before we move and have the baby. So today, I wanted to share a little organization inspiration. And if you're anything like me, prepare to swoon...
I told you about the lovely two story foyer (said with sarcasm), the other day. Because the walls are so tall, I have been trying to find a way to break up wall along the stairs. Five years we've been here, and I'm just now finally figuring out what I want for the wall. I've wanted a photo collage for as long as I can remember, but I could never figure out where it would look good, and I wasn't sure what our plans were for closing that space off. Since it's going to be a little while, and not having my walls filled with things I love drives me crazy, I started the long task of putting together a rough idea of what I wanted.
Using Wire Stripper
I know that the carpet matches the wall, and it just seems so neutral. We're hoping to have the carpets replaced with hardwood, eventually. Everything eventually, right? Also, mind the dog hair on the stairs. Lab hair! You can never get it out of the carpet. I also bought good quality wire stripper in UK from Amazon.
When I started this project, I made a firm decision that I wanted to have it not cost me a mint, and also have it look a bit eclectic. So I found as many frames as I could around the house, and most of the rest are from thrift stores. Save for two frames from Ikea. Most of the frames were about $1-3, and when you see the final result, you see why I wanted to keep the cost down. I have a bit of a photo hoarding problem. And I love having pictures of loved ones around me. And I like them all, so I have a hard time swapping pictures out. This is a great solution for someone like me. I did have some criteria though. My frames had to be either, white, black, or silver. Since a lot of thrift store frames are somewhat ugly and not any of these colors, spray paint was an obvious fix to this. I want to say I started this project in the fall. But honestly, I don't even remember. It's been THAT long.
First thing you want to do, is take an inventory of your pictures. I kept a list of all of the pictures that needed frames and their sizes. That way, if I was out, I didn't have to wonder what I needed. Not that you can't always use extra frames.
Once I had everything assigned to a frame (and I'm skipping a lot, because again, this was a project I did over the span of months, because it wasn't a burning project), I took some newsprint we had lying around, and started to trace every frame: Don't ask me why my paint key is sitting in the middle of the floor. It's the same reason why there's a giant stuffed bear in my bathtub and legos on my bed.
As I traced, I labeled every "picture" on the page, so I that I knew exactly which picture it was. This is an important part. If you're doing a big collage like this, trust me, you'll want to label the pictures.
Once everything was labeled and cut out, I arduously arranged everything on my wall. I used my handy Green Frog painters tape. to attach it: