Artwork switcheroos

The artwork in this house is in flux again. I guess that's what happens when you bring new things in; some old things have to rotate out.

I took down my paint chip artwork. I was getting pretty tired of it, but the people on Pinterest never seem to get tired of it.

I added a couple of recent thrifty purchases (dogs & whale) and my framed psychic postcard. In fact, I'm noticing now that four of the pieces are from antique malls and the other one is a found object in a thrift store frame.

Let's move to the hallway where I had a similar arrangement of frames going on. Some things had been moved over the course of a few months, so the before photo isn't 100% accurate. But more or less, this was how it looked.

And now, not a whole lot different. The addition of a few recent thrifty finds. It's not a major change, mainly because I didn't feel like hammering in a bunch of new nails. In fact, I only moved one nail. 

I removed the whole bottom row of frames. They kept getting knocked off the wall. I should show you the baseboard underneath them. Totally chipped up and gross.

Honestly, one of the big reasons I'm even showing this minor change-up is so you can see I do actually hang up my thrift finds... eventually. Like the Disneyland plate above and the ski photo below.

Like many spaces in my house, this is a horrible spot to take a photo. The hallway's only 2-something feet wide, and I can't get any distance on the wall. Plus, it's dark and gloomy, so this was the best photo I could get on the whole arrangement. Sorry for the glare!

Visit the aquarium: WPA poster

I was looking for something to fill a space in our hallway when I remembered this woodcut poster I found a few years ago in the Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs Online Catalog. I loved it, but never really found the opportunity to use it anywhere before.

I cropped the image, cleaned it up a bit in Photoshop, printed it on some brown paper and popped it into a frame I already had. The print was created in 1937 by an artist named Robert Muchley for the WPA. The terms of use for this image state, "no known restrictions on publication," so I'm assuming it's probably safe to print and use it at home.

The Library of Congress archive is full of wonderful images like this and many are free to reproduce without copyright restrictions (though the LoC states "Rights assessment is your responsibility").

What Rushmore needs is an aquarium!

Dan loves aquariums and this print reminds me so much of one of my favorite films, Rushmore. Maybe because of the font that it used. (Looks like the font Wes Anderson always uses, Futura, but probably isn't actually Futura.)

Hallway mini-makeover

It occurred to me that I never posted photos of our hallway mini-makeover. I say "mini" because a hallway just doesn't have that much to make over, but almost every inch of it has been re-done.

Before from before we moved in

This hallway needed an overhaul. It was dark, the carpet was that ubiquitous beige stuff, and we hadn't gotten around to painting the walls. So when we renovated the bathroom, I decided to re-do this space too.

We installed a new ceiling light where there was not one before. So much brighter now! The vintage sconce on the wall before was so dim and just wasn't adequate for the space. Because it was original to the house, I hesitated to remove it. But then it shorted out and I was sort of happy we got to get rid of it.

Before

It was a little pretty, but don't be fooled. Someone had painted it with gold spray paint. Don't do this kind of stuff, people! Seriously!

I patched over this hole, but it was impossible to match the texture of the old plaster.

And believe me, I tried.

In the end, I fixed the problem by hanging a picture over the patch job.

Before, the walls were kind of a dull, green-tinted beige (what my mom would call "dead bug brown"), so I repainted them a lighter, warmer creamy color. I used the same shade as in the living room and dining room, but in a semi-gloss version because it's a high-traffic area.

I still can't get over the $18 price tag for this new carpet! It's commercial grade, but the vintage-looking floral pattern gives it a homey feel.

Ever since we moved in a little more than two years ago, I wanted to hang artwork in the hallway, but was waiting on the paint. After the paint was up, I got right to it!

I love how our hallway no longer looks like an afterthought. And even though it's a skinny, transitional space, it still has some character.
...........................................................................

Related Posts
Hallway carpet: done!
A story about carpet tiles and a $200+ savings
Hooray for the new hallway light
Artwork
  A somewhat orderly grouping of small artwork
  Giving old frames some personality with wood appliques
  Scrapbook + Shadowbox = Scrapbox
  I've been thinking about my doorbell...
  Today is the Day!
  Butterfly shadowbox
  Repainted key plaques

Linked to: Thrifty Decor Chick: Before and After Party

A somewhat orderly grouping of small artwork

I have a lot of smaller pieces of artwork and our newly painted hallway seemed to be the perfect spot to showcase them. The hallway is approximately three feet wide, so the close proximity to the viewer suits smaller pieces.

I wanted to hang them in a cluster, but didn't want it to look overly messy or cluttered. I hung the pieces in along three straight vertical lines to give them some order.

Anytime this many pieces are assembled with a variety of frames, colors and sizes, things are going to look somewhat jumbled. But I think that simple bit of structure keeps the grouping from looking too out of control.

Hallway carpet: done!

I'm so excited our hallway carpet is done! I laid every last inch of it myself and have the dull carpet knife to prove it.

The base molding still needs to be replaced and I need to get some of those metal strips for the edges. The carpet tiles have a heavy backing and they don't require any sort of threshold strips, but I need to hide my raggedy edges.

Amazingly, I didn't take a photo of the carpet before we ripped it up. This is the only photo of it I could find, though it proves it wasn't much to look at. Boring, beige, matted. Please ignore dazed kitty.

This is what we found when we pulled up the carpet and padding. Strange tile. Not quite sure what it was exactly. It wasn't linoleum. Let's hope it wasn't something toxic.

After my dad scraped off the tile, we discovered the hardwood floor underneath wasn't in that great of shape.

There is a large ugly patch job, which I'm guessing was once a return air vent? It's either that or there's treasure buried beneath the plywood.

Before I laid down the carpet tiles, my dad put a bunch of screws into the wood to try to minimize some of the outrageous squeaks. It didn't eliminate the squeaks entirely, but they are much quieter.

I didn't think that I would be able to match the pattern of the tiles at all. The whole process was like putting together a puzzle when I wasn't even sure I had any matching pieces, but I found enough tiles that "connected" to run a long stretch down the middle. I decided to run the turn the tiles along the baseboards 90 degrees. There was no chance to match the pattern, and I thought it might look more purposeful if the tiles were turned.

After spending more than 30 minutes cutting around one piece of molding, I got smart and made a template from some scrap paper and scotch tape.

They make a tool for this purpose, but this poor man's version worked OK.

I traced the template onto the back of the carpet tiles with a Sharpie and it definitely sped up the cutting.

I think it looks pretty great for $18! I don't even think I could have bought a runner for $18.

Kitty and baby love the new carpet!

Check it off the 101 list!

A story about carpet tiles and a $200+ savings!

On the hunt for carpet tiles for the basement office, I made a trip out to Hood's, a local home improvement outlet store. They have a huge 99-cent carpet tile section with pallettes full of Mohawk and Interface carpet tiles. The only trouble is, you have to sift through to find ones that match and finding enough to cover a whole floor can be challenging.

A really nice man who worked there helped me find enough of one style and just as we found the last little bunch, I realized we had been collecting two slightly different designs. Same colors, same general pattern, but one had the floral pattern I was after and the other had leaves. I had spent nearly an hour sorting through tiles, so I figured, for a dollar a tile, close enough. I'll figure it out in the basement.

Floral

Leaves

When I got the tiles home, I organized them into two piles: floral and leaves. I thought I bought mostly floral, but the leaves stack kept growing. The final score? 40 leaves, 18 floral.

The stack of floral carpet tiles was sitting there and I had a thought... "I wonder if these would work for the hallway?"

Final installation will not include overlapping.

I quickly layed the tiles over the carpet in the hallway, just to get an approximation of what it might look like (and to check if I had enough). Good on both accounts!

We were planning on replacing the hallway carpet with carpet tiles from FLOR (the fancy designer division of Interface, the same brand as the tiles from Hood's), and I had even ordered samples. The total cost for the number of tiles we need for the hallway added up to more than $250. The cost for the 18 floral tiles from Hood's, $18 -- nearly 14 times less than tiles from FLOR.

Can you believe the two different types of tiles I chose are the exact same colors?

I must really love that shade of brown.

I like both styles of carpet, but do I like the FLOR carpet 14 times more than the floral pattern? Hmmm, no. This makes the choice very easy.

Now I just have to install them, which is going to be a big pain in the booty with all of the cuts around the doors. There are five openings in this hallway! And I also have to go back out to Hood's to find more carpet tiles for the basement office. Hopefully I can find more of the leaves or at least something that coordinates with the leaves.

What lies beneath... the carpet

Yikes! This is the tile that was underneath our hallway carpet. Who would have guessed?

I'm going to take the week off from posting to work on this and some other big projects. See you next week!

Hooray for the new hallway light!

When the walls and ceiling of the bathroom were opened up for the renovation, I coerced my dad into installing a ceiling light in the hallway where there was not one before. It's a good thing too, because the single sconce that used to light the hallway shorted out with all the rewiring going on.

It's been up and functional for a couple of weeks now, but I just patched some holes and painted a bit of ceiling that was previously under a smoke detector. Done!

I've been thinking about my doorbell...

I'm gearing up to give the hallway a makeover - new paint, new carpet, new artwork. (All of these tasks are part of my 101 list too.)

Our doorbell speaker is on one wall, and it's kind of an eyesore. I wanted to cover it, but it still needs to "breathe" because we still need to hear the doorbell.

I tried a variety of boxes and packages on for size, and finally hit the jackpot with this little wooden crate. I think it came from the packaging of some fake apples. Yes, I own fake apples.

A perfect fit, but it needed some prettying up.

I found an image I wanted to use and resized it to match the dimensions of the bottom of the crate. Then I flipped the photo so it was a mirror image and printed it on inkjet iron-on transfer paper.

After that, I trimmed off the excess paper.

I found some cotton fabric I had on hand, and measured and cut a piece that would be big enough to wrap around the bottom of the crate with some excess to fold over on the inside.

I ironed out the wrinkles, centered the transfer on the fabric and followed the package instructions to iron the transfer on the fabric.

Next I peeled the paper off the transfer.

After that, I was ready to attach the fabric to the crate. I draped the fabric on the bottom of the crate, sort of like a miniature tablecloth on a tiny table.

Then I flipped the whole thing over, wrapped the fabric around the edges and began stapling the fabric to the inside of the crate, first starting with a staple in the middle of one side, then in the middle of the opposite side. (And continuing on to the third and fourth sides.)

I pulled the fabric taut and stapled the fabric on each side, working my way out from the middle staple to the corners. Next, I dealt with the corners by folding the fabric over the edge and stapling.

Then all that was left was to test to make sure we could still hear the doorbell once the cover was on the speaker. Perfectly audible!

Now onto the rest of the hallway projects!