SnapShots & WhatNots

USA push-pin map DIY(ish)

I’ve been searching for something  just righto hang in the large empty space above the bed for a couple of weeks now – and despite some interesting suggestions from Kathy (a 5 ft Buddha painting…which, in fairness, was pretty cool), I just couldn’t find something that felt right so it’s been blank for ages now.

Then on Friday evening we were visiting friends and spotted their beautiful personalized map of the world and figured that a map would be perfect….except have you seen how expensive those things can be? Plus I knew I wanted to stick pins in it and there’s no way I was going to stick pins in a map that cost over $100.

I definitely wanted a much cheaper option. I figured if we end up loving it we can always upgrade it later. So while randomly browsing in target yesterday we found posters on sale. Unfortunately there we no world maps left but they did have a 22x34” USA map for $5.99. Next up was how to hang it – I thought about framing it and leaving the glass out, or getting cork or foam board backing for it. Then I spotted a framed cork board that was 23x35” for $10…..perfect. We also grabbed to packs of push pins – neutral wood colored and a mix of black, white and grey for about $5 a pot.

The neutral push pins we used to show places we have travelled to together – as you can see we’ve covered a fair bit of the south east on our travels over the last two years. The white pins are places that Kathy has been to but I haven’t….like the Grand Canyon, black pins are places I’ve been but she hasn’t… like California, and lastly the grey pins are places we’ve both been but not at the same time….like Boston and Las Vegas.

I’m really happy with how it turned out, and especially happy with it only costing about $25….now to plan more trips so I can add more pins!

IKEA splurge

Creating a beautiful bedroom space has been on my today list ever since I moved into this house – it was on my list of 28 goals. I hated the space – it was dark and dreary feeling with tan coloured walls and a dark blue carpet. I ended up choosing to spend money updating the living room from too small thrift store furniture to permanent furniture that better suited the style and size of the room. No regrets there – the living room is the heart of the house for us and where we spend the most time. Having it look “perfect” and be a happy place to spend time in was worth the still unsightly and blah bedroom.

That is until I found out that we would be staying in SC for at the very least another year. We thought about moving into a nicer more expensive house/apartment but the pros of this house – close to work, big yard for the dog and the price of rent meant it was a no-brainer to stay put. So instead it was time to change the niggling things that annoyed me about the house – like the bedroom.

I chatted with the landlord and he agreed to allow us to paint the walls (an approved colour) so step one in the bedroom transformation was huge! Farewell tan coloured walls and hello soft creamy yellow (the same colour as is in the living room). This step in itself was a game changer. However, after much thought, planning, saving and a mammoth shopping trip to IKEA there is now a real bed in the room too – my first solid bed rather than a boxspring and mattress. Add in some new bedclothes and pillows and it’s already a world of difference from where we started.

Things are not complete yet – I want to change out the bedside lockers, hang some art above the bed and buy a dresser for storing sports gear and knitwear – but guys it’s finally looking like an actual bedroom!

A mini update on the bedroom makeover - a locker makeover

I’m more than a little embarrassed to show this picture because now the secret is out about what a cluttered person I am. That’s right no matter how hard I try (which I’ll admit is probably not as hard I should) I always seem to amass piles of clutter. This is what my bedside locker has looked like for the past few weeks months.

Shocking right? Let’s see shall we? In addition to my painstakingly sewn patchwork pillows thrown carelessly down the side...there’s at least 6 books, 2 dvds, a huge tangled pile of jewellery, 14 hair ties, a dog toy, a cable needle for knitting…and numerous numerous other things piles of documents and let’s face it…junk!

I decided enough was enough and decided to do a small little update (and a massive spring cleaning) and $13 later I have a pretty and functional bedside locker again.

I picked up a serving dish in target for $3 and it’s perfect for keeping my earrings under control. I hung the rest of the jewellery on my mini-mannequin that Kathy got me for Christmas last year. The basket  $8 and photo frame $2 were a steal from World Market because of a sale and coupon combo – I love it when that happens.

The bedroom makeover needs a lot of work still, and honestly it’s the one area that A) has the least furniture and B) gets the least decorating attention but now that the rest of the house is coming together nicely it’s time to start thinking more about the bedroom décor again.

Look at how empty the walls are…they are crying out for some big art work and perhaps a photo collage of sorts, I’d also like to hang up my PhD degree certificate because it seems a shame to have it hidden away….and what about a large potted plant in that space between the wall and locker….what do you think?

I finally hung the gallery wall

I've be-moaned all the unfortunate attributes of my bedroom design before, it's dark, gloomy, painted an unusual beigey colour that photographs just as awfully as it looks in real life. It's also a rental so I can't repaint it - I honestly wonder who looked at the dark blue carpet and thought "a dark yellow beige will look great here"........

But I've taken a massive leap forward redocrating the cave bedroom. The walls are no longer bare yay! I hung up all the pieces I've been working on and found a really cool print from this etsy shop. That is the "as the crow flies" distance from Columbia, SC to my home town of Dublin, Ireland which I think it pretty cool.

The canvas photos I made look great now that they're finally on the wall - I'm really pleased with how these turned out and I've already got plans to do this again with more photos - I'm thinking of doing a colour pop on the edges perhaps.

I mixed black and white tones with metallic gold and glitter - I feel as if this works with and actually helps the wall colour look less awful. I also used a mix of canvas and framed art, but mostly canvas because it was so cheap to produce.

The white and gold stencilled artwork looks pretty good in the middle and I'm really grateful now that I took the time to wrap the stencil around the edges of the canvas because I'm really liking that effect.

The glitter canvases have just enough whimsy to them to keep this collection fun and I'm happy to report that the glitter is staying really well on the canvases. Now that they're hung on the wall the stripes is becoming my favourite of the three.

Last but not least I added a lyric from my favouite song. It's from the song "Heroes or Ghosts" by the Coronas, an Irish band who usually sing in English but recorded a version of the song as Gaeilge and from the moment I first heard it I fell in love with it - love!

It roughly translates to: It's going take a lot of time and a little bit of luck. It's become my life motto - I've applied it to so many life situations already, my mother's recovery from cancer, getting my PhD, moving and settling in South Carolina and it's going to be even more appropriate as I move forward with my life over the coming years, jobs, house, starting a family and all that jazz....they'll all take time and luck (and effort) to get.

The gallery wall has given the room as massive boost and I love it. However, the room is nowhere near finished yet, I'm still on the look out for a cheap second hand dresser, I'd love a simple bookcase and a chair to create a little reading nook. I also want to try my hand at adding a pop of colour to the curtains in the form of a trim on the edges, or perhaps turning them into full length curtains.

So many plans but at least its a pretty good start compared to the before pictures

 

DIY canvas art - black white gold and Glitter

I’ve been super busy the last while making loads of different art work for my bedroom wall. In case you missed it before my bedroom is a bit of a bare gloomy space at the moment and it’s in need of some light and definitely some fun art work on the walls.

Hello mini glitter art canvases – these were so fun and messy to make. Really messy, I tried hard to keep the glitter all in one place but I still managed to go into work the next day with at least 3 pieces on my face (why is it always the face?). But messiness aside these are probably my favourite quick painting project yet because of how simple they were.

I didn’t really have to much of an idea of what design I was going to do when I started besides knowing that I wanted them to be black, white , gold and glittery. Black white and gold because that fits perfectly with the rest of the art work I’ve made for the bedroom and glitter because, well honestly glitter is fun so why not.

Using painters tape – I almost running out at this stage! – I taped off several different diagonal sections across the canvas and painted on gold and black strips leaving some sections unpainted too. For this project I didn’t bother to prime the canvas so the white is just the bare canvas. Once dried, I removed the tape and applied a thin strip of modpodge to each end of the canvas and all across the middle section and then poured glitter all over. I tapped off the excess and I had to lightly scrape the canvas with my fingernail to remove some stray flecks of glitter. Then it was set aside for the glue to set.

In the meantime I started on the second one. This was even simpler; I free-handed some circles oval(ish) shapes of different sizes and then painted them with gold acrylic paint. The needed about 3 coats of paint to get the metallic sheen. I used modpodge to fill in some circles and coat the edges of others and poured on the glitter.

The last one is my favourite though. I really love how it turned out. I free-handed a tree silhouette, painted it black then added some highlights with glue/glitter. This one is a lot more subtle than the others, which is perhaps why it’s my favourite but regardless of why I like it, I’m smitten.

Here they are all together, awaiting the command strips that I will will buy soon so that I can hang them on the wall, but for now here they are all together on the kitchen table.

Hopefully this weekend they’ll join the canvas photos and stencilled canvas on the bedroom wall. I'm so excited to finally see something other than blank walls!