There are a lot of beautiful homes in the world and there is no shortage of images to take inspiration from. But some images will strike you more then others, and you can't get those special-to-you ones out of your head. This happened to me the other day, when I saw this beauty:
{If you love what you see, head over to the blog
where the talented owner talks about this room and wall in detail.}
When I saw this image, I had an aha-moment. Sure, the room in general is layered to perfection and mixes so many textures, finishes, and colors that you would be kinda nuts not to want to hang out in that space, but that wall of frames is what really stopped me in my tracks.
Since we've moved into our house, I've spent lots of time parked on our couch, nursing Quincy (TMI?). And any woman that has nursed, knows that it involves a lot of sitting. And sitting. And sitting. You can really only look at your oh-so-perfect baby before you get a bit bored and your eyes start to wonder. And from my vantage point on this couch, I've been staring at a massive wall in our living room. I kind of hate this massive wall. I haven't talked a lot about our living room yet, and you're about to find out why:
OMG. So embarrassing.
It looks like this is where hand me
down furniture and baby gear go to die.
But it's not. IT'S OUR LIVING ROOM.
But lets ignore the mess that is our current furniture and carpeting and discuss the wall. She's big. She's unadorned. She is dressed with some hideous lights. She has an outdated door (that door leads to our small mudroom). She's got very little going on for her in general. And because this wall is one of the biggest expanses of wall in our living room, uninterrupted by windows or TV, she holds so much potential. So I think about her a lot. Like too much. I've considered all kinds of options for her; a gallery wall of family photos, a mixed gallery wall of artwork and collectibles, a few large prints, library style built ins, etc. But all of the sudden, after one glance at the image above, I think I know which direction that I may go in. Enter my behemoth wall board:
Let's break it down, shall we:
1) I'm dead set on adding white planking to this wall. It's just so much wall, it really needs some character. Jon and I have been mentally game planning for the planking in our bedroom and we're finding that because we want to do it right and not opt for a cheap looking, may-not-stand-the-test-of-time option, the wood is going to get pricey. But even still, I think it will be completely worth what it adds to the room.
2) Them lights. Them beautiful oil-rubbed bronze swing arm wall sconces. Them's is out of my budget. Like $315.00!!!! EACH!!!, out of my budget. But I loves them and I can't find another comparable option anywhere.
3) A single pane french door painted in a fun green tone. The day we walked into this house I knew I wanted to put one in. The biggest challenge will be figuring out the exact shade of green that I want. Oh, and the other challenge will be the cost of the door.
4) For that little half window, I want to add bamboo blinds and a curtain from Ballard Designs. Those curtains deserve a post all of their own, but to sum them up for you, I have been web stalking them for months. I love them, just haven't pulled the trigger on them yet (or determined what color that I want them in).
5) That expanse of wall is long, like 9'-10' long. I still haven't determined what kind of furniture placement that I want to go with. I'm wavering between a long leather couch ($$$$!) or two over sized chairs in a great print. These buffalo print chairs are the perfect stand in for my mock up planning. I loves me some buffalo check.
6) And finally, the idea that inspired the whole post, a wall of botanical prints. Lots of botanical prints. I would love to utilize Sierra botanical prints to reflect us a bit more, if I can track them down. I'm thinking I'll probably need to do three rows of nine or so, so I'll need about twenty seven prints. My plan is to nab a book of botanicals on ebay and cut the pages out to create my artwork. For as big as that expanse of wall is, that will probably make for a really affordable display. The designer in the image went with frame less frames (oxymoron much?), which was pretty ingenious. I would never have thought that I would be attracted to that type of frame, but maybe it's time for me to push myself a bit. She mentioned that it took her husband days to hang them all (if not done correctly, it really won't have the intended impact), which sounds like the perfect concoction for some marital frustration.
The reason that it was super easy for me to commit to this idea, is that for the past year, I've found myself loving two things, over and over again: symmetrical frame arrangements + botanical prints.
The symmetry speaks to my OCD side,
while the botanicals are understated.
They infuse subtle color.
They bring in the outdoors.
Grouped together,
they provide big impact.
They add some history,
which all homes (especially new ones) need.
They provide some calm
in a room of bright toys, baby bouncers, and dog toys.
Ironically enough, when I celebrated my birthday this month I received a totally unexpected and thoughtful gift from my aunt. My aunt lives in the sierras, like us, and gardening is one of her past times. She has seen our garden and I've asked her lots about the types of plants that we have, etc. Well low and behold she sent me the most awesome little book of hand drawn and painted sierra flowers. I was already planning on using many of the pages framed somewhere in our house (our half bathroom? Quincy's room?). Unfortunately the pages are far too small for the scale of our wall, otherwise I'd get to work now on framing them. Here's a peak inside:
Oh, and please note, all plans are completely subject to change.
Do you have a wall that's unadorned? A wall that you hate staring at? Do share!
