Entertainment Wall

See this bad boy here:

Not my adorable 2 year trying to get in to the DVD player, but the entertainment center.  When I look at this, I see so much potential of what it could be.  With the way it is now I feel like it looks a little outdated for my taste.  We'll hang on to it though for some later DIY-ing!!  Anyways, this picture was at our old apartment.  In our house though, this was placed against an 11'x12' wall.  Talk about disproportionate!! This so-called beast looked tiny and I was sooo over the fat back television that weighs more than I do! So off I went to the drawing board (ok...so maybe it was the wall? I like to call it the lifesize board)

So apparently a 32" TV looks tiny on a wall that large.  Who would have thought?! (I talked him out of the 40"... I said it would look too big. my bad!)  After lots of markings on the wall and lots of internet searches for ideas, we decided to go with something simplistic.  Time to call in the big guns!  Jesse and our wonderful neighbor followed my wiggley-lined sketches and started our entertainment wall for me! WOOHOO!

We purchased L brackets at Home Depot for about $2 each and hung them in the studs in the walls.

Then, we (when I say "we" I really mean Jesse and Shannon, our neighbor) took 3 - 4"x10"x12' pieces of wood and planed them down so they were smooth.  We placed them on the L brackets to make sure we didn't want to make any last minute adjustments to the placements.

##for some reason my computer is sucking and not letting me add the picture.  I'll fix that later...##

After making sure the placement was where we liked it, it was time to stain the wood.  Both of us love the look of stained wood so there was no debate there! Minwax: Deep Walnut.  Perfection.

##insert great photo of the stained wood##

So like I had said before, I get anxious with this whole home makeover project/disaster/cluster we are creating... and, well... it's not actually done yet.  Sorry guys!  The wall is painted a wonderful blue, the wood is stained and hung in place, and thennn... they are empty.  Looks like I know what I will be doing this weekend: creating amazing things to put on the empty shelves!! maybe some apothecary jars? I'll keep you posted on what creations I come up with!

Collage Wall

I am totally in love with photo collage walls! My mom (who by the way is a fabulous designer) came over to my last apartment and put together a perfect one for me.  Well, unfortunately, I wasn't thinking during the moving process to take a picture of it.  So here I am, starting from ground zero!  My last collage wall was all black frames, with color photos.  I'm thinking this time around I will be adding some spray paint to those frames, along with a few more frames I have been collecting along the way, and throw some black & white pictures in the mix.  All this pre-planning got me thinking about what pictures I might want in the frames and OH NO! I realized we had not yet taken a family picture with our 7 month old son.  I've snapped a few candid shots here and there, but I have definitely slacked in the chaos of the move!!  Well I had to fix that fast.  Lauren Brimley, a friend from my childhood, apparently sensed that (ok or maybe she just knew it was about time for everyone to start christmas pics?)...but she posted a reminder on her facebook that she takes photos.  amazing photos.  I totally adore her vintage style and eye for capturing natural moments. We were so excited to have her photograph our family yesterday!  Thank you again :) You can check out her work on her blog here.  It just felt wrong to put anything up before having pictures of our youngest in the mix, so that project has been put on hold.  Plus I have a very LARGE wall to fill, so I think some more frames need to be collected and maybe some cute H's or a cute quote?  What do you think? I'll be sure to document the entire process as I work my way through it!
I'm thinking something similar to this:

but not as closely bunched together.  I like to be able to see part of the wall between the frames, we have a gorgeous blue color as our background!

And we're off...

Alright everyone, here it goes! My first ever attempt at a blog.  I've been completely impressed with all the other blogs I've been seeing floating throughout and must admit: I've been terrified to actually start my own blog!  I've never excelled at the whole creative writing subject AND if it doesn't have to do with a word document or searching on the internet then I SUCK at working on the computer!  Plus, what on earth do I do that is interesting enough to put out there for the rest of the world to read about?! Well... I do a lot more than I give myself credit for, and attempting to transform our new (well, new to us) house into a comfy, loving place my family can call home is one!  We bought our home the end of July this year and didn't waste any time on starting all the fun projects.  I may be missing some before pictures because of that inability to control our anxiousness to make it feel like our own, but the second I decided I would do a blog I stopped quickly and snapped some pics to share with you guys. So.. here it is. I'm facing my fears and entering blogland! (...please excuse the disaster as I learn all the handy tips and tricks!)