The Great Wall of Frames

We have a problem.

It's this huge, white, bare patch of wall hanging out in our hallway. Not the prettiest thing to look at, is it? It's so sad and slanty. I'm not holding the camera crooked, that's just the way our apartment slants. Well we've successfully looked at this for two years and we are sick of it! We played around with the idea of hanging a giant map and putting pins in it to mark the places we've been. Mary even found a great old map but try as we may, it just wasn't working out. Then, one day we stumbled across a little something on younghouselove.com that would be perfect for our bare patch.  Side note: Mary and I are HUGE fans of John and Sherry Petersik. HUGE FANS. But not in a creepy way. Well, I'll let you be the judge of that later in this post.

Anyway, back to my point. So we were looking at YHL and they did this beautiful frame wall. We saw it and it was love at first sight. So naturally, we decided to copy them.

It actually ended up being a lot cheaper than we expected. We did buy a few frames from Ikea but a lot of the frames were just ones we had lying around the house. We liked the idea of the frames all being a little different but in the interest of cohesiveness (did I just make up a word?) we decided to paint them all the same color. All it took was one container of acrylic paint from Michaels to paint them all.

Then we had this. 

That is one big pile o' frames that needed filling. Next up we went though our pictures and knick knacks looking for anything we wanted to hang. It was actually a lot easier than we expected and the best part is that we can switch out the contents of the frames at any point for an entirely different look. Here is a sneak peak of a couple of our favorite frames.

This is a piece of artwork Mary created in kindergarten. I'm not sure what's going on, but I like it!

I have been collecting movie tickets since the dawn of time so I selected a few oldies but goodies to display.

Now comes the hard part. The semi-random yet aesthetically pleasing arrangement. More to come on that later. All we know is that this beauty is going to hang out somewhere towards the middle.

What's that? Oh, just a signed letter from the Petersik gang! Ok, so we are a little creepy. But we figure we copied them, so we might as well pay them a little homage, right?

Somewhere to start

When I was approached by our friend M to create arrangements for an event for her work, I jumped at the opportunity. Have I ever made floral arrangements for an official “event” before? No. But I find that my friends can have the confidence and urgency that I might need to replace my worry or lack of experience. Do I love flowers? Yes. You’ve got to start somewhere right? Well, this is my starting point.

My guidelines were: two large arrangements, one small, floral, and “she likes things symmetrical”. I took this and ran with it. I know that M’s work colors are blue and white, so I decided hydrangeas would be the flower of focus. On to Michael’s I went...

I found two “wreath stands” that I dismantled to become “Styrofoam ball stands”. Then comes the Styrofoam balls, hydrangeas, ferns, and thin wooden spirals. To be honest at the time of purchase, I was not one hundred percent sure of what would come of all of these items, but that’s half the fun, right?

After a few hours of separating, spacing, and altering I couldn’t be happier with the final product!

                                                   

The Dungeon

This was our bathroom.

Notice the use of the past tense. There are definitely a few things wrong with this picture (Besides all those weird spots. What's that about?) I mean first of all, where is the natural light? There should be some kind of city ordinance that demands at least one real window in every room of a house or apartment. It doesn't help that this "window" (if we can even call it that) faces another brick wall. It also doesn't help that it's  located under the roof of our back porch. Oh and I'm sure the super dark pink walls in the tiny, tiny bathroom didn't help. I'd love to tell you that they were that way when we moved in. I'd love to tell you that someone else looked at that barely-a-bathroom, really-more-like-a-closet and said, "Hey, you know what would look great in here? Dark pink walls." But alas, I cannot tell a lie. I don't know what we were thinking except that we thought it would be cute and spunky with the zebra curtain, and there was something about Sharpay in there too. (If you don't know what I'm referencing, well...good for you)

Well, all that to say, it didn't take very long to see the error of our ways. Even while we were painting it I was making a face like this.

(That's not me, FYI.)

But you know what they say, you live, you learn. So we decided it was time to right our wrongs and find a new color palette. So off we went to Target for inspiration. We started with the shower curtain because that really sets the mood for the whole room. We knew we wanted something bright and sunny so it's no surprise that we laded on this cheery yellow shower curtain. 

Once we had the curtain picked out we knew we wanted a color that would calm the yellow without subduing it. So we both decided that a purplish gray was the best bet. All our walls and cabinetry are white(ish...It's an old building) so we were really excited about giving the room a soft and airy feel. 

We settled on this color from Mauve Mist by Behr.

We liked the calming effect it had on the yellow curtain and the fun hints of stone gray. There is nothing better than a fresh coat of paint, am I right? 

Also, while we were in there with the ladder we decided to see if the room would be brighter if we removed the old bulb cover. And look what we found?

This bulb belongs in the lab of a mad scientist! First of all, it's  40 watts. Seriously? Second of all, it's purple. So we climbed right up there with a nice, bright 60 watt bulb. And check it out?

Big change, right? It's so much brighter and airier. We switched out our black shag rug for a tan one and voila. Done. We're really happy with the improvement.

Welcome to sawyer|three!

Allow Us to Introduce Ourselves...

I have a distinct memory of coming home from kindergarten, finding my bedroom to be completely renovated. Walking in I thought to myself that this is the most amazing idea anyone, anywhere, has ever had. The room felt so new, organized; optimistic! Yes, these thoughts are coming from the four year old with a blond fro of curls who would iron her clothes with a wooden iron. This was the beginning of my love for decoration and design. Years later, I continue to love to design, create, arrange, rearrange; the list is endless... My name is Mary, and I could not be more excited for the opportunity to document the creative activity at SawyerThree. This is only the beginning...

Thanks for stopping by sawyer|three! I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Sofia and I’m addicted to blogging. Mary and I have been playing around with the idea of this blog for months and we finally decided to sit down and get’er done. We're very excited about this new adventure and we hope that there’s at least one person out there who will enjoy reading about our feats of creativity. If not, we’ll just continue to talk to ourselves. I’ve always loved to write and I’ve learned a thing or two about crafting/DIY from the great home improvement bloggers that have gone before me. I’m by no means an expert but I am an enthusiast! Does that count?