On the flip side, I try not to take home any new treasures that I do not have a specific use or place in mind for before I purchase them. So the walls of my home are pretty well covered but there have been a few naked spots waiting patiently for quite a while for their turn to display treasures.
I haven't had much of a desire or ability to go treasure hunting over the past couple of months...been kinda preoccupied with having a baby. :) My fear of walls that are empty was temporarily replaced by my fear of corners that were not! Thanks to a severe nesting instinct during the last few weeks leading up to my scheduled c-section, my mind and time were pretty much focused on preparing the house for the baby to come home. My goal was to eliminate all the corners of clutter that had been accumulating over the summer.
Tucked between piles of last season's clothing (that actually got put away before I snagged a picture of the embarrasing disaster)...
...stacks of paperwork...
...boxes and bags of books, workbooks, and schooling supplies...
...corners of vases...
...and mountains of toys and games...
...I slowly uncovered various treasures that I had collected over the summer but had not yet displayed or put to use. Motivated more by my extreme urge to nest than my bare-wall-phobia, I got busy swinging the hammer and finally covered up some of my patiently waiting blank wall space.
First I contemplated where to hang this:
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| I framed this bird's nest greeting card (found in Maine) in a simple skinny black frame from my box of yard-sale and/or previously used frames I keep stashed in my basement. |
I originally thought I'd somehow display it near this yard sale bird art in my family room:
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| See the scary bare wall space to the right of that picture? It's been haunting me for almost 2 years. |
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| I originally thought I'd set this aside for about a year until baby #3 is old enough to have her first silhouette done so I could arrange it with those of my first two girls. But I just couldn't wait that long to put it out on display. |
So I considered putting both the bird's nest and children silhouette together somewhere instead, at least for now. On the living room wall adjacent to the bird print was still an option, but I really prefer to keep with mostly brown frames in that room instead of bringing in more black.
As I looked around the house for other options, I realized I had 3 nails on a blank wall in my bedroom. Many months ago I'd taken down a set of prints I didn't like anymore but never put anything else up. That frighteningly blank wall is across the room from our doorway so its what you see when you glance in. I walked over with both frames and figured I'd throw them up on the outer-two nails just for the heck of it to see how they looked. Although they are not the same width, they do happen to be the same height, so it could work but they needed something else between them. Then I remembered another treasure I had that just might do the trick - a little vintage black and cream purse I had picked up at a yard-sale or Sally's years ago. I've used it a few times as my "little black dress accessory", but I've always wanted to display it somehow when its not in use because I think its so pretty. So I hung the little purse on the middle nail and found myself loving the final ensemble:
Hmmm...I just might be on to something...My bedroom has been long overdue for a facelift so maybe I should head in the direction of a new black & white/cream color scheme??? Which brings me to the next black and white additions to my bedroom...these three hooks:
I originally purchased these at Marshalls about a year and a half ago with the intent to hang them behind my front door as coat hooks once I eventually repainted. And that's exactly what I did. The first two went up fairly easy but after three or four attempts to hang the 3rd one level and equally spaced with the other two, I had to give up. For some reason "measure twice, drill once" didn't work so well for me. I'd screwed so many holes in the wall that there was no way it would work unless I moved them all slightly higher or lower, and that wasn't going to happen! So for months I intended to take the other two down and replace them with another plaque full of hooks I had in order to hide all those holes. Meanwhile the third hook that wasn't in use got hidden in a clutter pile.
Uncovering that third hook during my nesting rampage reminded me that I need to make that switcharoo. (And when you're nesting, these things suddenly become urgent priorities!) I still wanted to use the three hooks somewhere because I really liked them so I figured I'd make use of them in our bedroom. Our "master bedroom" is the size of a postage stamp so we don't have the luxury of a chair or valet stand to throw clothes on. We just will never be the kind of people that immediately put worn but clean clothes back in the closet or drawers. It's so stupid - what does it take, 30 seconds to put something away? No, we'd rather just toss the clothes somewhere (usually on top of my basket of clothes that need ironing) so that 2 weeks later when I can't stand the insane pile anymore, I spend what feels like an entire evening finally putting them all away, annoyed with the wrinkles. Are we the only ones with this nasty habit??
So this time I measured about five times before hanging all three hooks to the left side of another large scary bare wall in our bedroom...immediately adjacent to the closet door. :)
Its illogical, I know. If I can drape a pair of pants over a hook right next to the closet door, I might as well open the closet and hang them on a hanger, right? No, no, that would
Here are the hooks I replaced the black ones with behind the front door:
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| I've had these hooks for a long time. I got them for free as merchandise I "earned" from hosting an At Home America party many years ago. The plaque was originally black & I'd painted it a green to match my kitchen at the time where it hung before we moved. That shade of green doesn't exactly match where they are hanging now...an eventual re-paint project. |
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| Is there such a thing as too many jean jackets? Not when they all came from the Salvation Army...J. Crew, Gap, etc. |
Another little treasure I uncovered as I eliminated piles was a little vintage piece of feathered bird art I got during my Maine getaway with hubby. I didn't exactly cover up scary bare wall space with it, but I hung her above her "sister" in this corner:
So on to another little stack of treasures I unburied from below a large pile of paperwork - a set of flowering herb plates found at a yard sale, as previously posted here. I bought them with the intent to hang them in my dining room, and that's what I did. There were two sections of bare wall in my dining room on either side of our built-ins, but they were small enough not to be scary. They certainly didn't need to be covered, they were just an opportunity for the right treasures...like these plates. :)
I opted to display only 3 of the 4, leaving the purple chives out. Here they are on the wall to the left of the built-ins:
I also added a few treasures to the wall above my chest and mirror in the front un-named room. When I originally blogged about this furniture against that wall I predicted that it was just a matter of time before I put something above and/or around the mirror. A couple months ago I found this "Home Sweet Home" piece at my all-time-favorite Bernat Mill Antiques:
I love how it combines embroidery, cross stitch and French knots it such subtle neutral tones on a linen background. I ended up placing it above the mirror:
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| Eeek! The mitten-scarf-hat-sweatshirt basket is overflowing! |
I also fiddled around with where to hang the type-set letters I also snagged on our Maine getaway. I ended up resting them on top of the mirror:
Lastly, I uncovered this tacky earing holder I'd gotten at a yard sale to eliminate some of my jewelry clutter. I just cleaned it up and filled it up with earings. I tried to pry off the gold cat with no luck. Oh well. For 10 cents, function overrules beauty on this one:
(To be in full disclosure, no I don't have time to put together long posts like this these days. I completed 90% of this post before baby was born. Just trying to publish before they are too old.)
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