Feeling Crafty: Wall O’ Frames

Now that the holidays are here and I’m in full ‘off season’, slothlike turkey-gobbling mode, I’ve been focusing more on the state of my small Chicago apartment. I’ve lived in the same apartment for 14 months, which is 2 months longer than I’ve stayed in any Chicago apartment (the post-grade live suits me just fine). When I moved from my last apartment, I ditched and pitched a ton of furniture, clothing, and other belongs that just didn’t suit me anymore. But I mostly got rid of those things because of how small my current apartment is. At 800 square feet, it doesn’t have large, airy spaces that promote afternoons of creativity and inspired thinking. But I’ve managed to keep it sleek, modern, “clean”, and (most of all) just right.

Beyond hanging some artwork and some of my favorite posters, I painted a huge accent wall in my living room bright, tomato red. I absolutely love the color and it does so much to brighten up my living room/kitchen area. But the wall opposite this red wall has been bare for the past 14 months and I thought it was time to change that. So, over the past few weeks, I set out to gather a small collection of frames to cover the wall behind the couch, with the following Pinterest finds as inspiration.

Lovely cropping handiwork by @LindseyPoore1 (http://www.about.me/lnpoore)

I’m all about saving money where I can and I knew I’d be able to find frames that would work at Goodwill and Salvation Army. I bought a total of 8 frames and spent less than $15 total. I knew I’d be painting them so I wasn’t really concerned about the ‘state’ of them or whether or not I liked the color of the wood. The color theme of the living room is tomato red, turquoise/teal, and white. To match the stainless steel appliances of the adjacent kitchen, I chose to add silver as an accent color.

Before pics of the lonely, empty wall behind the couch:

See? Isn’t it sad looking?

So, after letting the project sit for far too long, I took my cans of spray paint out to my building’s parking lot (sorry building management!) and sprayed the frames in each color.

Yes, I smuggled spray paint from Indiana to Chicago this past weekend… Gotta do what ya gotta do!

Again…sorry building management! Hope you don’t mind the colorful parking spots!

I bought Command “easy off” photo hanging strips for each frame to avoid poking holes in the wall, as well. I may be here for the next 9 months (at least) but that doesn’t mean I want to pay to have tiny holes fixed or stuff toothpaste in them to avoid a fine. One of the strips can hold an 8 x 10 frame that weighs 3 lbs so I knew they’d work well.

The next step was to arrange them on the wall. I have the tendency to overthink these kinds of things, but I really wanted to put them up and just see how they looked (another advantage of the Command photo-hanging strips!). It didn’t take long at all to hang them and I think it turned out really well.

It’s only a matter of time before I start collecting more frames to add to the wall. I want to add a lot of different sizes to make it look a bit more ‘eclectic’ or less thought out than it is now.