Fun Home Decorating

So, I have been SLOWLY working on getting some things up on our very bare walls.  It has truly been slow going considering all of the birthdays and holiday happenings that have been going on these past few months.  Raspberry Rain has also been busy getting in all of the family christmas pictures, so all of those excuses to say that I am just now really starting to work on mi casa.  Well, if there is one thing that Joey and I have decided when it comes to our style is that it must be cheap.  Haha!  Well, I guess it works well then that I love old weathered things that bring some history and stories into our home, because typically I find these beauties at resale shops or junk sales.  It all meets the cheap requirement.  Another reason that we have been slow to add things to our walls is because Joey really wants everything that we hang to be something that has some meaning or was made by us.  Now, as you can imagine, that does not make for quick decorating.  Coming up with ideas, executing said ideas, and being happy with the finished product, especially for a perfectionist like me is no easy feat.  Well,  we have this awkward large wall space by our fireplace that remained empty until now! Yay!  It makes me so happy to finally have an empty wall filled. 

This is what we came up with.  It is a subway sign that has all of the places that have been special to us on it.  It has both of our birth places, both of our favorite places to be in the whole world, our parent's birth places and even the city where we met.    

All we did was get a 4 ft by 4 ft. piece of plywood, painted it all cottage white, stenciled on the letters and numbers, and then began the time consuming task of painting this perfect grey color around all of the letters and numbers.  Side Note: You know, it was time consuming but really it was almost stress relieving to just paint. Well, once the painting was done, we got to do the fun part....using the power sander!   Ahhh....so much fun to use!  Once distressed as desired I used an antique glaze to make it look less 'brand new' in color and then sprayed the whole thing with a sealer.  Voila!  

We think it fits us perfectly and had a perfect home on this large wall.

I also just printed these pictures for our hallway this week.  I love the graphic black and white square prints.  And of course they are of my two favorite boys.  I ordered them on a thicker backing so they can just 'float' on the wall.  Super easy...cheap...and again, no artistic talent needed.  

I think they look great, but I am thinking I need three more! :)  

So, these are a few of the things that we have added to our house.  They make our house a home and hopefully there will be more to come soon.  The point of this post is to show that even if you are not artistic, you can get a little creative to personalize the little space of world you inhabit.