Dressed-Up Walls

To me, making a house feel like a home means adding personal touches here and there that represent you, your style and your daily routines. I'm a big advocate for filling up white space. Empty walls have an uncanny effect of making me feel claustrophobic. I love being surrounded by familiar things that spark fond memories, make me smile, and convey a sense of my personality, hobbies, and interests. Since moving last month we have mainly focused on the large items that make up a home: furniture, kitchen supplies, bedding, etc., but I've recently had the chance to experiment with the details, like new drapes, a fun throw pillow, and a display of photographs on the wall, the latter of which you can see below:

For this project, I started with a long narrow shelf and positioned it over our couch. I selected a combination of photos that were saved on our computer, making sure to mix in landscapes and artistic shots with personal portraits. Some of the ones I chose include a picture from our engagement, Golden Gate Bridge and a cherry blossom tree that remind me of San Francisco, a black and white photograph that Steve captured of himself in the reflection of a window, and a winter portrait. In addition to selecting a variety of photographs, whether they be from a random adventure or a memorable trip, it is also important to have a good selection of frames. I chose ones of different size in white, silver, and birch (Ikea is great for this!). I rearranged the frames on the floor until I found a layout to my liking. One thing I highly reccomend not skimping out on is printing, especially if you are planning to blow up your photos to larger scale. We printed ours at Toronto Image Works and learned that even with our Cannon 7D the maximum dimensions we could print our photos at was 12x18. It's important to take these things into account when printing digital photos or you could end up with a pixellated disaster.

Here are some other great wall art installations currently inspiring me. I especially love the idea of framing fabric or craft paper - so simple and so easy to change-up once your grow tired of a pattern or print.