The Mommy Project

Project: Create a Boldly Simple Piece for Over the Bed

The wall over my bed has been blank ever since I moved in. That would be about seven years ago. The wall real estate required something big and bold but I've never found something I felt was right that wasn't a gazillion dollars. Then a couple months ago, I found a big gold frame in the basement of my father-in-law's house. I remembered a post from Design*Sponge I saw a while back about someone who made vintage framed chalkboards on Etsy. I love chalkboards— I used chalkboard paint on the back of my front door so we can keep to-do lists on it and that remains one of the best ideas EVER as far as I am concerned.

My bedroom is shades of gray and purple with bold hits of white so I decided to spray paint the frame a white satin, paint a piece of plywood with chalkboard paint and then nail it inside. All that was required was a trip to Home Depot to buy and cut the wood and about an hour of time (note: Home Depots within Manhattan will not cut wood). Spray painting takes 10 minutes— 5 minutes for each coat with some waiting time inbetween. Then you just use little nails to nail the board into the frame and VOILA! Ornate framed chalkboard. 

The hardest thing was making the decision of what to write and then figuring out how to write it precisely how I wanted. The thing with the chalkboard paint is once you write on it and erase it (even with water), it's never really as good as new.  That's fine for something that you are going to be using as an actual chalkboard, but if you are going to use it as art as I did, then you really want to write on it only once. I decided to write "sweet dreams..." centered and small so it wouldn't get too cartoony. I practiced a couple of times on the back of my front door and then crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

It's not very complicated as far as DIY projects are concerned but I'm much more interested in great ideas with super easy execution. Otherwise I don't have the skill set and I'll never find the time. Below are the before and after shots as well as some more angles of my bedroom.

Project: Create a Bathroom Photo Gallery

I've always wanted to have a photo gallery in my apartment but I have limited space and a lot of artwork so there never seemed to be the right place for it. Then one day it occurred to me to put it in the guest bathroom.  Three years and a baby later, I finally made it happen. 

First, I decided to hang a black and white wallpaper as a backdrop for the pictures. Truth be told, I ordered the paper online and thought it was a much smaller pattern. I'm still not convinced that I shouldn't have sent it back and bought another but the wallpaper guy was already scheduled to come so I just went with it. I had an ornate hot pink frame that I had gotten as a gift that I decided to make the centerpiece of the gallery. Then I used my best trick— I went to CVS and purchased a bunch of cheap wood frames in whatever finishes were available and spray painted the whole lot of them with a semi-gloss black finish.  

Then the frames sat around collecting dust until I finally conceded and packed them in a box to be dealt with at a later date. When I got pregnant, the plan was put on hold indefinitely. About nine months later when the baby was down for a nap (at the beginning they can sleep through anything) and I was on maternity leave, I saw my opportunity to start the process of hanging them.  

Hanging a photo gallery is harder than I thought and I quickly realized I wasn't going to be able to wing it. I ended up tracing each of the frames onto a piece of newspaper and then hanging the newspaper exactly where I wanted each photo to go using an art tape that wouldn't leave any residue. With the newspaper as my guide, I could finally hang the actual frames. Fifteen to twenty naps later, the project was complete.

I'm happy with how it turned out and it's always a nice surprise for guests. But I still wish that wallpaper print was smaller. But I'll get over it. Eventually.