a reader request...

Greetings from NEW ENGLAND!!

A request has been made for a post devoted to wall ideas, so folks, today is the day! I am actually killing two birds with one stone in this posting because a) Rosemary and Kristen (I believe it was y'all!) requested some ideas for walls and b) I am currently at my brother's house in New Hampshire where I am "playing" (as I like to call it, aka decorating) in their living room. We are currently in the process of ordering some wall shelves/ledges for the space, so without further ado...

I absolutely adore anything that is symmetrical as I've said before...so obviously I would love this picture. However, numerous things made me go bonkers:

1) the brick wall behind the pictures (adding a subtle texture)

2) the black and white pictures in the photographs

3) the simplicity of the vertical pictures rather than horizontal (I believe that most people have trouble finding vertical pictures to place in frames...is this true?)

This picture does the opposite of the one before: by taking horizontal images, it allows you to take up a lot of wall space but in a very clean-lined way.

I have seen this done before (there are tons of options for the large background image that is cut up into the smaller pieces for frames) and must say it is a cheap way to take up a LOT of space. You can go buy unpainted frames at Michaels or Hobby Lobby (these typically run around $5)...paint them whatever color you want (1 can of spray paint for $4)...and grab a poster, map, fabric, large print, etc. (a lot of times these items can be free! You just have to know where to shop around)...and VOILA! You have an incredibly strong piece of wall art that looks like it came from a designer store.

Chalkboard paint...inexpensive but makes a huge impact. And the most important part: it's fun! If you paint a layer of magnetic paint underneath the chalkboard paint, then you can also hang up pictures and notes to yourself, or let kids put up their artwork without making holes in the wall with thumbtacks.

Wallpaper behind shelves is a BEAUTIFUL touch. Even painting a different color behind the shelves makes a big impact for not a lot of money.

These last three pics are what we are gearing up to do at my brother's house (ignore the little girls room colors and look at the items on the shelves!). Since they will be getting married in November, we wanted to leave a space for some wedding pictures to go, without just placing a collage of pictures on the wall. We're still deciding about what picture ledges to order because they don't have 10' ceilings and there is a chair rail in the living room, which limits the available space above the chair rail for the shelves (which ideally I would love to see three of them!). I hope that these ideas help in some way, shape, or form for how you can fill up your walls! Please let me know other requests for blog topics if you have any!