The Gallery Wall of Cards

I’ve been reeeally wanting to give our master bedroom a makeover for a while now. It’s perfectly fine the way it is – nothing wrong with it, really. It just looks like it could belong to pretty much anyone, and I hate that. I want our home to tell our story. For guests to walk in and get a sense of who we are immediately. Our master doesn’t do that – not even in the slightest. It’s blue, tan, and chocolate brown. A pretty combination, yes, but I’m over it. I noticed the bedrooms I pin on Pinterest have one thing in common, one thing that our current bedroom completely lacks: color. I completely adore color. I mean, yellow? Could never get enough. Coral? Forgetaboutit. Aqua? Sends me over the moon.

So it’s time to do something about this. It’s not going to be a major makeover, because the walls are staying the same (for now;). The furniture placement will stay exactly as is (although there *may* be some painting goin’ on). Really it’s about getting rid of the brown and throwing in pops of color here, there, and everywhere. I’m going to use my Canvas Art as a starting point. I love all of these colors in here, so I figure, why not pull from that inspiration?

On a whim this Saturday, I decided to start my very first little project towards colorfying (like that word?) the bedroom. It was rainy, the kids and Paul were sprawled all over the family room playing legos, and before I knew it, I was pulling pictures off the wall and giving them a coat of paint!? I’m crazy, I tell you. But you know this already.

Here’s what I’ve had up there for 7 years:

By the way, HOW did I not see how crooked they are?! These are lovely pictures, they just don’t speak to me. Or about us. Know what I mean?

So I took them down. Found some more frames in storage (*tip: ALWAYS pic up inexpensive frames at yard sales. I have a ton, and they’re perfect when I get one of these spur of the moment ideas and need a bunch of frames!*).

Mixed up some white chalk paint and started painting all of them.

Took a little piece of fine sandpaper and just distressed them a bit.

{Sorry for the blurry pics – I took these with my phone for some reason!?}

The entire time I was working on this project, I honestly had no clue if it was going to be total cheeseball or very cool. See, I found a ton of old cards Paul and I had sent to each other – some from back in our dating days, some a few years ago, some not too long ago. I set them aside, thinking I’d find a perfect use for them someday. What better spot for them than our bedroom? I thought I could fill the frames with scrapbook paper, and hot glue clothespins onto the glass, and hang our cards. We could change them up whenever, or replace a couple of them with favorite pictures, anything. Tons of possibilities. But when I placed the scrapbook paper in, it looked a little too youthful or something. Couldn’t quite place my finger on it, but it wasn’t working. So I had some large scraps of a canvas dropcloth here…thought it might work better. Turns out, it did!

And here’s how it turned out!

What I love most about this project isn’t how it looks. It’s how I feel when I look at it. It just reminds me of our history, how we began, and how far we’ve come. With such busy lives, raising three kids, work, etc, it’s nice to have that gentle reminder.

I think the canvas-y dropcloth material was the way to go, especially since I’m just in the very beginning stages of this makeover – it allows me to go in any direction, color-wise, and I’m not tied down to anything with this neutral.