Giant Wall Map

Grant and I used to fancy ourselves world travelers.  In the year or two before we got married, we each went on trip to Europe.  Mine was a guided tour of Austria and Germany, built around dance performances at some amazing locations.  We danced at a 13th century castle... pretty awesome.  Grant's trip was a backpacking adventure with his best friend, complete with some hefty beards and a short stint in an Italian jail... no really...

Anyway, our traveling ways have died down a bit since we became parents... and poor.  (Poor is all relative I suppose.  Technically we were poorer in college, but didn't seem to care or realize...)  But we're still haunted by some serious wanderlust.  For years, we've talked about putting up a giant map of the world and putting pins on all the places we've been, lived, and dream of going.  

So for Grant's Father's Day present, I finally did it!  I bought a map on Amazon, see here.  It was about $40, but you could probably find one for cheaper at a garage sale/Craigslist/your parents basement, etc. The map measures 73"x49" so it fills a good portion of the wall.  It also came laminated which hopefully will protect against some inevitable "Will-age" over time.  (It already has a small hole in it due to Will throwing a lampshade clamp at it... nice.)

I built a custom frame out of 1x4's which was pretty simple for a go-with-the-flow builder like me.  If I had wanted the frame to be perfect, it would have been very difficult.  But I decided to embrace the flaws and imperfections so I love it.

I cut the 1x4's to size with a miter saw, stained them with a vinegar and steel wool wash, and basically nailed them together with finishing nails.  I tried to glue the frame first, but I didn't have a suitable strap or set of clamps so the glue didn't hold.  So I held the ends together the best I could, used enough nails to make it fairly sturdy and ignored the fact that it didn't line up quite right...

It probably wouldn't survive a cross-country move, but it's holding together just fine on the wall.

Grant loves it! We still need to order pins to mark all of the places.  I'm thinking metallic pins like these to match the vintage feel.  And maybe flags to map places we've lived? 

The bonus: the map covers up the huge holes in the wall left after we decided to take down the giant television.  (Can I add, I love being a no-tv family!  We're certainly not device-free, or even portable dvd player-free, but Will seems to be a little less whiny for television, and family time seems a little easier to achieve.)

And did you notice the couch change and new side table?  I'll be posting soon about this room and the changes we've made.

Entry Way Dresser Table

Our little entry way has been empty since we moved in 18 months ago (I can't believe it's already been a year and a half!).  I've been keeping an eye out for the perfect piece to put there.

I ended up going the Craigslist route and got a beautiful mid-century modern dresser!  This was an unusual purchase for us because the piece didn't need any work.  Usually, we'll buy/inherit/pick up on the side of the road... a piece of furniture that need a little love and a lot of sanding.  It's definitely a lot more work to build a home this way, but it's also significantly cheaper than buying something new.  I feel like it is also a lot more rewarding to put in the sweat equity and create something that's uniquely you.

But mid-century modern is so popular right now that all of the pieces are hard to find.  You have to scour estate sales and fight off "pickers" to find something worth investing in.  So I found a lady on Craigslist who buys mid-century pieces from a picker and revives them to their former glory.  She works out of her house, (a beautiful home in West Wash Park area, built in 1892, ahhh), and sells the pieces on Craigslist.  It ended up being $180; not a steal, but what I felt like was a pretty fair price considering it was display ready.

I bought it in the afternoon and Grant took the trailer that night to pick it up for me. (Thanks babe!)  Luckily he liked it too as Grant tends to be a lot pickier than I am.

It has beautiful lines and looks awesome in the space. It's a nice low profile next to our giant canvas.  It also adds some nice warm wood tones into a room that's mostly cool with cream, grays and blues.

I'm still working on styling the top of the dresser.  I've really never had a piece of furniture that was purely decorative... yeah.  Never a coffee table, never a side table; so styling something like this does not come naturally yet.  But I have a few pieces that I like so far.  The frame was a $10 garage sale purchase.  We're planning to fill it with the builder grade mirror that's currently in the powder room once we find a cooler mirror to put in there.

The frame is a really pretty gold/pewter with a neutral cream fabric inlay.

I also have this elephant that I picked up at a garage sale last week for $2.  I originally wanted to spray paint one of Will's big dinosaurs and use it on the dresser, but this elephant just seems right instead.  And Will loves him too.

And then I have this brass bowl that's half spray painted white... I think it started raining last summer when I was working on it so I never finished.  Nice...  Any ideas on what to fill it with? Well, after it's finished being painted...

What do you think of the dresser?  Any assistance for the clueless in terms of styling?!

Gallery Wall

We finally got around to hanging a few picture frames, and decided to do a gallery wall.  Gallery walls are all the rage right now, (see here, here, and here), and we're not ashamed to jump on the bandwagon.  The wall we chose is only a few feet across and connects the kitchen to the family room as well as the small hallway to the front of the house.  

 We went the newspaper rough draft route to avoid extra holes (or drama).  

We folded or cut out newspaper to the size of all the frames we wanted to use and then played around with different formations on the wall, keeping in mind which frames were white, gold, silver, etc.

Got your tickets?.... to the gun show?.... the Tanner gun show?!

We labeled all of the papers so we could remember which frames they belonged to.  Eternal Bliss, Tres Felicidades (that's definitely correct grammar...), you get the idea.

Then we measured where the nails would sit on the frames, hammered those puppies right through the newspaper, ripped off the paper, and hung the frames.  Bam and done.  We've yet to find the right pictures for a few frames, but we like the organization despite the emptiness.  My favorite is the top right frame displaying three of our homemade cards.  (A bike from Mother's Day, a Nacho Libre from V-day, and a Teen Girl Squad "Cancered!" from my birthday.

We still have a lot of empty walls in our home, but it's nice to have at least one more wall decorated.  I love how the frames camouflage the light switch, doorbell, and air conditioner.