While rearranging furniture (again) this past weekend, Rhett noted, ever so subtly, that there are rooms in this house really could belong to anyone. In fact, there is nothing uniquely “us” about the front room, the living room. The furniture is subtle and classic. The placement is formal, but not too formal. The colors are beautiful, but not overwhelming. Yep, this room could belong in nearly anyone’s house.
What to do? Grabbing a sharpie and writing “Scarlett and Rhett’s house!” in bold all over the walls would be a quick fix. So would slapping a coat of fire engine red on one wall (Ha! I’ll show you what’s unique!) But…Rhett’s not big on quick change or deviating from the traditional, so those ideas were axed.
Instead, I chose to hang some family photographs this weekend. I’ve got my eye on doing a picture gallery down the main hall, so I needed something different (and large!) for the living room space. Luckily, we brought with us some super cool early 1900s windows from our previous bungalow (we did leave windows for the current owners, I promise) and we both loved the idea of using the heavy windows as architectural art in our new house. But how was I going to get pictures in there? And what pictures should I use?
Confession: Rhett and I don’t have a wedding album. Not that we didn’t love our wedding (we did!) and not that we didn’t have a photographer (he was there- promise!), but we both loathe posed pictures, generally. Rhett’s a little better about them than I am, but unless we’re making a game face with my 85 year-old grandmother, I would choose a candid over a posed shot any day. (Does anyone actually like posing for group photos?) In fact, our Christmas card from last year was intentionally done to look like it was out of a photo booth- see above. We just goofed off and our friend Micah snapped away. So fun!
Anyways, we had a lot of great pictures from the big day, but I just never got inspired to put them in some book that would sit on our coffee table and gather dust. And who needs a fuzzy, angelic shot of me staring into the great unknown? Bleh. Here’s the thing though, the photographer did do a good job, and we have a bunch of great pics- both candid and posed. And we got married in an old milking barn in East Tennessee (I was barefoot!) so what better to display our wedding pictures but in some vintage windows with peeling paint!
I scurried to the fabric store and snagged 3 yards of industrial burlap for 2$ a yard. I am loving burlap right now and have really no idea why. But when you find what you’re loving at 2$ a yard do you ask questions? Heck no! We then ordered the pictures in varying sizes- 8x10, 5x7, and 4x6- and all in black and white and got them from Costco for under 20 bucks. I picked up some thick poster board for 4.59 a sheet at Walgreens and a few hours later our once-generic living room had some personal details. Okay, Rhett hasn’t hung the windows yet, but they are sitting in the living room.
If you’re considering this for your own house (I’m so happy I inspired someone!) we’ve got plenty of extra windows (really- we did leave the current owners of our old house some windows…they’re just plastic. Kidding!)But seriously- we have about 12 more sitting in our attic. Anyway, here’s what you need to know before getting started on this project. Getting the pictures aligned correctly on the burlap was pretty tricky, but with some glue and a few prayers, it worked well. If industrial burlap is too rustic for your taste, ask the fabric store employees for more options (the guys at my store had about 4 variations), but do know that the nicer variations are a bit more expensive. As for the pictures, find a bunch that you like and don’t be afraid to order way more than you need- you’ll want to play around with them so have plenty. Also, you’re going to need a putty knife and some Glazier points (dudes at Home Depot can help you out) to secure the poster board to the windows. As far as order, I’d measure the poster board first, then fit the burlap around it and seal it on (glue gun? Stapler? I used masking tape!) and then finally fix the pictures to the burlap. We could only find thick BLACK poster board, but with the shadow behind the frame, black worked better than white. So if you have a choice, choose black.
Now that it’s all done, I can’t stop walking through the living room. Turns out we needed some (wedding) pictures up on the walls after all, even if some of them are posed.
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