It is amazing what a difference hanging framed art or photographs can make to a room! We're renting and so sometimes it is hard to make the effort to decorate and really get settled as you don't feel like your home is yours. It took us almost a year to fully unpack! We have finally finished hanging art on the walls and it really has made our space look bigger, taller, more put together and more personal. Here are some of the things we've put up:
This was the first up. It's a shadow box frame that I got from my mom at my bridal shower and I used to to hold some wedding momentos and photos. The cork is from our honeymoon and the ring is the fake one we used in the ceremony for me to put on Andrew's finger as his actual wedding ring had been stuck on his finger since we bought it a few months before. It's a good thing we liked it. The photos are held up with the same "pearl" topped pins that we used in the boquets for the wedding. This is in the kitchen above the sink.
Here is a another wedding related arrangement. This is in the living room above the couch, it has been growing for a year now. The two 8x10's are close ups of our wedding attire, the one with the thick frame is of some of our wedding party before the ceremony, then there's a picture of our shoes when we finally got to take them off, a photo of the reception area before any guests had arrived and two photos of me getting ready before the wedding one with and one without Andrew. I like how the whole collection is kind of mysterious as you don't see our faces in it. It highlights the feeling of the wedding rather than the actual event, which is why it feels more like art than family photos. Some of the frames we bought new, some were dollar store finds painted white and some were value village.
These are not wall art I realize but I had to show the frames. The lighter coloured one was from Real Canadian Superstore and the other was from N.O.O.D. (New objects of desire). They are on a side table by the couch.
This guy is in the bathroom and he made the biggest difference to how "finished" the room felt. Not bad for a cellphone picture on printer paper!
These are above our bed and we obviously took a different approach to hanging them. Since we can't afford to go out and buy a bunch of huge new frames we just hung them unframed (with sticky tack!). They are various drawings that Andrew and I have done and even though they are unfinshed looking they add dimension to the room and a focal point aswell.
This is on the dresser that is directly opposite the drawings above the bed. It is a white Ikea Malm dresser with a huge white framed mirror resting on it (found at a discount at Winners because it had a huge chip in the corner.) The white frames are actually covering said huge chip. One is just a group photo from the wedding and the other is a little project I did:
I made a word document with a bunch of vows or sayings I liked that I feel relate to Andrew and I and then added with a sharpie the first initial of our last name. It is a really attractive and personal alternative to photos and you could do it with anything on any scale.
(We also have an extensive collection of large mirrors just leaning up against walls here and there. They make a room look much bigger and brighter as they reflect light. We always keep an eye out at Winners or Ikea for damaged ones that you can get super cheap. For exampe we have a grey framed one that was originally $50 that had a teeny scratch in the frame and was on for $18 because of it!)
We also use the mirror for storage, there is a bunch of papers and old art hiding behind it!
