Wednesday 1 August 2012

Art Installation

We've been in our house for almost 3 years now and I can finally say we've HUNG SOMETHING ON OUR WALLS!!!  I know I can't be the only person who has trouble commiting to hanging things on their walls...right?

In our open concept living/dining room, we have a fairly long expanse of uninterrupted blank wall...

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This is just the dining half, but the living room is a bit of a mess right now so I'll spare you that view

Not very interesting to look at, eh?  Part of the reason I found it so tricky was because we couldn't decide what to hang.  Until I finally stopped trying to look for the perfect piece of art, and started thinking more about the things that were important or special to us. 

Months ago I started compiling all of the things that meant something to us and slowly a nice little collection began to form.  As with many projects in our house, we get them started, then stall out or get distracted with something else.  So the framed artwork sat on a chair in our living room for a couple of weeks.  Two weekends ago we finally got to putting them up! ... And now I'm finally getting to posting about it haha

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Tracing the frames onto paper makes it so much easier to get the placement of a gallery wall just how you want it.  Not a step to be skipped, I say...

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Crazy how different the paint colour looks from night to day!  The window in the middle is the original window from our kitchen. 

Here's a closer look at it all...


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A cute engagement card from a family member that I backed onto some cute scrapbooking paper

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One of our "congrats on your new first home" cards (it got a little beat up in the drawer it was banished to over the last 3 years, but I think it's sweet)

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A special picture of my sister and I as kids sharing a towel at the beach

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My sweetest little niece, Lily - her frame came banged up!  I'll have to get a little paint on there to mask it

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An old fish scale Darryl picked up at a consignment shop, and a horseshoe I inherited from my Great Aunt Bobby

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The next three pictures are of some super cool things we found hidden in the lath and plaster during demo.  The above picture has some bread/milk/egg notes for the home deliveries that used to be left in our milk box.  I wish those services still existed here...Also, a Modish Fur Co. business card and a Thank You/Merry Christmas card from the local paper boy.  Everything is backed on some old sandpaper we also found.

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This frame is filled with a bunch of Toronto Star payment stubs (aside from the few my Papa wanted as nostalgic pieces), ranging from 1952-1964 - also backed on some of the same sandpaper as above.

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And what makes it even more super cool is that at our garage sale last month, we got to chatting to a customer who turned out to have lived in our next door neighbour's house for a few decades and she knew the lady who lived in our house from 1930 until at least the 70s.  That lady is Mrs. Martin, which is so funny to me, because it is just one letter off from my last name!  Coincidence....or meant to be??  So these are Mrs. Martin's bread and paper stubs.  Coolio.

Hopefully we'll be able to add a few more things to the wall as we go along!

What kind of art do you have hanging in your house....any favourites??  Do you have commitment issues to hanging stuff as well!?


2 comments:

  1. We're slowly working on hanging stuff. At the moment the only things on our walls are a mirror in the hall, one piece of art in the kitchen, Halle's bookshelves and shoe shelf, and a couple empty frames over our bed haha. I have a long list written out of the other things that need to go up, hopefully B and I can take care of some of that this weekend! :)

    Love the stuff you guys found in the wall hanging up. I love that idea! :)

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  2. You've been in BC only a few months and are blowing me out of the water with what you've already managed to hang up! lol Good for you guys! Can't wait to see what else you hang up :)

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