Some Sunroom Art
From the moment we painted that brick wall in our sunroom, we were itching to get some art hung. And we finally found time to get ‘er done after returning from a six-flights-in-four-days blitz on Friday. It’s weird how much more “lived in” a room feels when you slam some art on the walls. Seriously, I know the feeling of dragging your feet on the hanging of the art, but after nearly seven years of house-fixing-up, it never ceases to amaze us how that little step makes such a difference.
In continuing with the general theme of this sunroom design, we’re trying to spend as little money as possible and just use things we’ve already have around – at least for the meantime while we save our pennies towards things we might want to invest in down the line. We’re currently saving towards tackling Clara’s furniture-less big girl room and a guest bathroom that we haven’t touched as well as a front porch and carport makeover). So not purging money in the sunroom makes sense to us – especially since we have piles of to-be-hung art cluttering up the to-be-cleared spare room.
So that’s exactly how this little eclectic asymmetrical arrangement came to be. We decided it would look a lot better on the wall than in a pile on the playroom floor. Oh and the wood side table on the right looks a little heavy right now (even with the wooden art on the left side of that wall that we added to help balance things out) but we have plans to make it work a lot better down the line, so stay tuned…
We basically brought in a bunch of frames / art-sized objects and played with them until we found a grouping that felt somewhat balanced – both with one another and with the other furniture in the room, while also subtly mimicking the slope of the ceiling. Plus, we were lucky enough to find art that tied into the colors in the pillows as well as some darker pieces to bring some visual weight into the room. The goal was a bit of an eclectic look – nothing too matchy-matchy and perfect.
And if you’re curious about how we hung everything, we put together this animated GIF to show the order in which things got added to the wall. After each one we just stepped back, held the next one up, shimmied it around until we liked the placement, and moved on to hanging that one:
There wasn’t any methodical measuring since we wanted a casual and eclectic outcome, so the good news is that you don’t always need to break out any crazy math to get a collection of frames on the wall (although that’s usually necessary if you’re going for a completely balanced grid, like the one over our sofa).
If anyone’s curious about how I created the graphic above, check out this Photoshop tutorial. And if you’re wondering how we dealt with the crazy light and shadows that we get in that room, here’s our professional technique. Yep, that’s a giant poster of our local magazine cover that I’m using (given to us after a Richmond tour event). Work with whatcha got, am I right?
The items on the right are both maps – a North America map from a calendar we’ve had for a while (with the intention of using it for art) and the other is an old map of Richmond that has lived everywhere from our first home’s guest room to this home’s kitchen. Personally I think it’s a little “Hey, look! This is the side with the maps!” to have both of them there. But of what we had around, they were our best options for now – especially since the colors in the top one work so well in the room. We’re definitely open to letting everything on this eclectic frame wall evolve though – so it hopefully won’t be a maps-only zone forever. And we’ll keep you guys posted whenever we swap things out.
The left side is an odd mix of things I never thought we’d hang together. But somehow it kinda works for both of us. Call it stepping out of our white framed comfort zone, if you will. The big brown item on the far side is doily stretcher that we got at a thrift store this summer for $4. It caught our eyes back then because it was big, geometric and (okay) cheap. So I’m glad we finally found a spot for it. Especially since it begins to sort of subconsciously balance the wooden end table on the other side of the wall.
Next to it are two pieces of painterly art (one’s a watercolor print and one’s actual paint on a wood canvas). The bottom one is a print that someone brought us at one of our book tour stops. She hadn’t done it herself but she said it reminded her of us (it’s by Sally at sadlyharmless.com). We love it. Especially Clara, who is very much intrigued by the beard, the sharks, and the boat (in that order – yes the girl loves beards). The top item in the arrangement is an amazing painting of Burger that a reader’s husband painted (we met her on the book tour too, so Sherry got to gush about how talented her husband Joe is). Does that not look exactly like Burger? He’s got the same soulful give-me-your-cheeseburger eyes.
We hung all of these at night, so it was too dark to get pics of the process. Here’s our single attempt below…
… but for those who are curious about how to hang art on a brick wall, this is the method that works for us:
- use a masonry bit (you can buy them separately for your drill) to make a plastic-anchor-sized hole into the brick (or into the mortar when you can, since that’s easier)
- hammer a plastic anchor into the hole
- screw a screw into the anchor, so it’s held strongly in place (leave about half an inch of the screw sticking out of the anchor so the picture hook or the picture wire on the back of the frame can be hung on that)
I find this method gives me a strong enough hold to hang pretty much any picture frames – I’ve even used this approach to hang some pretty heavy mirrors. And as for undoing any unwanted holes down the line (sounds pretty hardcore slash irreversible to drill into brick, right?) we’ve had some pretty great success with patching holes in painted brick or mortar – so it really isn’t irreversible at all! Just yank out the anchor with the back of a hammer, shove some paintable caulk into the hole, and paint it for a fix that’s not obvious at all thanks to the craggy and uneven nature of painted brick.
What was far less involved than hanging frames on the brick? This. It’s two prints that I coveted for a while and have finally found a place to hang (don’t mind the table and chairs under them – they’re just things we’ve had forever so they’re sitting there until we figure out something more substantial and balanced for that spot). We think a piece of furniture with storage in it will be more functional since we can sit on the daybed and the egg chair, so more seating seems like overkill). You know we’ll keep you posted…
As for the bike prints, they’re only held up with masking tape at the moment (just so we could figure out the placement) but I think I’m going to build some simple wood frames for them soon. That is, unless you guys like the raw tape look. Kidding.
We wouldn’t be surprised if some of this stuff moves around a little bit still – or gets changed out entirely (I’m talking to you, map wall) – but for now it’s a BIG step in making this room feel more lived in while buying nothing but paint so far (all of the furniture is just stuff we already have, which might not be there forever, but definitely works for the meantime). Here’s the new “with-art” view of the sunroom from the living room:
It’s really nice to sit on the sofa and actually see what resembles a room through that big slider (art on the wall = a huge step towards turning an old storage zone into a real-ish looking room). Can’t believe we just started working on the sunroom after over two years here! What are you guys working on? What rooms do you get to first? Is it the living room, the dining room, the bedrooms, and the kitchen like we tackled in the first two years? Which ones end up in the end of the pack? I guess we use those other spaces the most – so our guest bathroom, playroom-turned-storage-room, and our porch & carport are hanging out towards the back of the list going into year three…
Psst- We finally (FINALLY!) wrote about Sherry’s mom’s pre-Christmas visit over on Young House Life. Here ya go.
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Looking good! In love with the bike print. Here is an idea for hanging the prints. I know you do not want to spend any money but night be able to DIY some how.
http://tinyurl.com/axd3bom
So cool!
xo
s
I love the bike prints. They just may be my favorite part of the room!
The room looks so cozy, I love it! That room looks perfect for snuggling up with a book and some tea.
My bedroom has one measly thing hanging up, with about 5 more waiting to go up. I went to an antique shop a few weeks ago and bought the best wooden sign that looks like an old advertisement for wheat. I saw it and gasped, it’s so perfect, especially because I’m a bread baker (by hobby and profession) and I think it deserves to get out of my closet and on my walls!
The sunroom is looking good!
Right now I’m finishing up the little details of my kitchen remodel and moving on to what on the surface seems to be a simple living room fix-up – build a double desk so my hubby and I can work side-by-side instead of in different rooms, turn the desk 90 degrees so it divides the kitchen and living room [we live in a 900 sq ft mobile home], build a new media console and move that to the other side of the room, opposite the sofa, so we can sit on the sofa to watch movies together, and go through the books on our overfull bookshelves to determine what can go away and what should stay.
I’m also working on building furniture for my eldest son since the only furniture he has in his bachelor pad apartment is a bed and a computer desk with office chair and he has no money to invest in high quality furniture right now. I’m using plans from Ana White for all my furniture builds. To make it extra challenging, I also will be building all this furniture in the middle of my living room because I don’t have a garage or basement for a workshop and there is snow on the ground outside which makes painting/staining and building outdoors pretty much impossible. I WILL however be doing all my sawing outside, in the snow, on sunny days.
Sounds awesome! Good luck Pam!
xo
s
I loooove the art, I need to get me some maps in here. Not a big fan of the pillow colors though. I would go with some dark rich browns to balance all the light and cool toned colors in the room.
BTW, I just got your book a few days ago and I am so happy I have so much YHL to look at!!!
So glad! Hope you love it!
xo
s
Lookin’ good but what I really came here to say is, Cool GIF!!!!
Any advice on when to go with multiple (smaller) pieces of art, as you’ve done here (and often do) vs. one large piece? I have a chocolate brown wall in my living room, and there is a giant void above the couch just begging for art.. (particularly since the wall is dark, needs something to brighten it). For a long time (3 years!) I’m been trying to find a large piece, but I either (a) can’t find anything that I like, or (b) what I like would cost upwards of $1,000.. (not in the budget… at least not for 1 piece)! There’s just something about a large stunning piece of art that is appealing to me… but perhaps you can help convince me that a bunch of smaller pieces would be a fit (?). The 1 piece seems a bit more formal (although I hesitate to call it formal, this living room is more of a library/refined look). How do you decide your approach when ‘curating’ a wall?
Oh yes, I’m with you. Something large for above a couch can be awesome! And it’s always a challenge to find something huge for cheap. My advice would probably be to save up until you find something you love and not settle for anything (framing smaller things might fill the space but if you don’t love them it might be a waste of money when you later splurge on the large item you love). Of course trying to find something big doesn’t always have to break the budget. Maybe try a thrift store for a giant frame or even a large wooden sign that you might love? Or you can find great fabric you love and frame that in a large secondhand frame or even stretch it over a large canvas.
xo
s
The sunroom looks amazing! I love your choices of art.
The bike prints are wonderful, too. The colors are great and look so nice against the color on the walls.
Yay! So excited to see the painting of Burger up! Joe will be sooooooooooo thrilled when he gets out of work to check the blog. I am all jittery and wound up, so surreal to have had that painting sitting in my kitchen waiting to be shipped and now its on your wall!! Joe is still totally interested in a giveaway whenever you guys are ready. Yay again! It looks so good with the gray walls.
Oh Molly, we can’t even explain how much we love it! Joe is awesome and we’d love to do a giveaway!
xo
s
Howdy,
Like that art! I found these:
http://www.lowes.com/pd_86463-37672-122354_0__
for hanging items on my brick wall. They are sturdy and I can move them around all day, everyday!
Smart!
xo
s
I’m always so amazed at how much of a difference a little art makes! I looooove the wood doily stretcher – never would have thought to use it as art, but it works!
We’ve been pretty all over the place with updates in our house…we’ve worked mostly in the living and dining room and just done tons of little things everywhere else. I love how this room is coming together!
Just wanted to tell you guys I picked up one of those wood cactus toys a bit ago after seeing it on the blog… Not only do I love it as a fun piece of decor and a conversation starter, but it’s been a huge hit with the occasional toddler visitor. Because no, I don’t have kids of my own, but I think it’s awesome!
Wahoo! That’s so smart.
xo
s
We worked on cleaning out stuff- WintRing (Winter-Spring) Cleaning. We also drove around Salt Lake City scouting possible places for a move, and in the process we found the first Trader Joe’s open in Utah! Now we don’t have to have family members ship us vitamins and miso soup! :-)
Ah, yes, clearing out stuff to make space for a new place (or good food) isn’t that a wonderful weekend! :-)
Just wondering- when do you guys clean your house? I imagine with a toddler and a dog plus all your DIY stuff, there’s a lot of mess. Do you have cleaning help? Do you have certain ways of keeping things from getting out of hand?
You know we’re fools for DIY, so we clean our house ourselves too. We have posted about it (on the Projects page there’s a cleaning/organizing section) but we basically try to do a little each day instead of doing it all at once for an entire day. We also share responsibilities so that helps a lot (I do toilets, John does most of the laundry, I do 50% of the vacuuming, John does the other 50%, etc). Hope it helps!
xo
s
John does laundry and the cooking?! Never let him go!! Lol
Haha, it’s true! Too bad the man has never cleaned a toilet in his life. That would make him the unicorn of all men! Haha.
xo
s
I love the way that your sunroom is coming together. You guys are beyond rad, for many reasons, not the least of which I can see the evolution of your projects. It looks so inviting, crisp and fresh. Makes me want to hang out in there!!!
Love what you have done with the sun room!!! Can I ask where you got your area rug?
That was from World Market a long time ago! They sold them by the foot (they cut them apart in the store for you from a roll). It was awesome!
xo
s
Loving how those maps look with the other colors in the room! Excited to see this room coming together. Can`t wait to see Clara`s big girl room!
Random note on patching brick and mortar holes later – you can also press in a pinch of sand on the surface of the caulk. I’ve found that particularly helps with matching the mortar areas.
So smart!
xo
s
Looks great! As the owner of a Chihuahua (she is basically the panicky, female version of Burger!)I appreciate how you guys always incorporate him into your posts (although sometimes I think he photo bombs, but i’m ok with it).
Hahah, totally!
xo
s
Thanks for the much-needed kick in the butt. I have a closet semi-full of unhung art (and a couple of commissions by a friend and a sister on the way, as well as some photos at the framer’s.) Isn’t it such a lift to get stuff up on the wall? I read somewhere that the two main things that make a house look like a home are art and books. So true!
I just wanted to say, too, how much I enjoy your long, rambling posts. Its sort of how I think through things I want to do, or explain (to myself) why I’ve done something the way I have. Its nice to “share” these types of things with you guys. My husband usually responds to my decorating diatribes with one of two comments: “Its fine.” Or: “You’re crazy.” So, nice to have found some like crazy-minded folks out there.
Thanks again for inspiring me to come out of the unhung closet!
Haha, thanks Nina!
xo
s
The sunroom came together so nicely! It’s cozy and clean (my favorite combo)!
<3
Tabbitha
The sunroom is looking great! Thanks for the tips on hanging things on a brick wall. We have some holes in the subway tile in our 1920′s era house that have plastic anchors in them, and I’m wondering how to get those anchors out and then try to patch the hole. Any ideas for me?
Hmm, anyone have tips? I think you could cut out the holey tiles with a Dremel and replace them with new non-holey ones.
xo
s
Looking good–one suggestion though: Your couch slipcover color needs an update. It looks muddy with your gray walls–maybe a crisp green would work? Something to spice up that gray on gray. Good Luck!
Oh yes, that’s just an old fitted sheet we’ve had for years!
xo
s
The room is coming together so nicely! Have you ever thought about placing dots on the map of North America of all the places you’ve gone for your book tour? I was thinking that since you have artwork on the other side from the tour and the sunroom was used to house so many secret book projects it could be a fun lil’ ode to your book tour accomplishments. I’m sure you’ve already thought of that but that’s exactly what I thought of when I read this post and thought I’d share.
Oh yes, we have a map with a bunch of pins in it for where we’ve gone and we’re going to add tour stops in all the same color pin so we can remember those spots! Will post about it soon!
xo
s
That animated GIF is fancy. When I scrolled down and pictures started popping up I was like “WHOA, hold the phone and shut the front door.”
Haha!
xo
s
John, did you use a regular drill for your walls? I found that my drill wasn’t powerful enough, even with a masonry bit, to penetrate my brick walls, so I used a HD gift card to buy a hammer drill, since an entire wall of my reno-in-progress bedroom is brick. MUCH easier!
No way! We did use just a regular old drill with a masonry bit on it. Maybe you have really strong brick or something?
-John
Oh my gosh, you guys! I love it!!
Just FYI – the GIF isn’t working for me (I’m viewing your page with Google Chrome on a Mac)
I love all of the art, especially the bike prints! Awesome!
Nevermind! The GIF works! (I refreshed the page…;) Ahhh, animated awesomeness!!
So glad!
xo
s
Thanks for the tips on hanging stuff on brick walls. Always wondered how to do that!
I think my favorite part is that every newley styled room/piece of furniture/shelf that you guys have done over the past several months always has Clara’s cactus toy.
I love that thing. Is it weird to say I was actually looking online for it to buy for my neice and nephew just to have at my house and display?
Haha, I love that thing too! Whenever I need something with color/shape I grab it and smile!
xo
s
Regarding the upper sunroom windows… I recently had some 3M window film installed and it made a world of difference. They make different kinds…and they can cut down on the glare. It’s slightly expensive, but can help with the electric bill in the long run.
Great tip Kris!
xo
s
Love it! We have only hung about 2 things on our walls and we’ve lived in our house for a year… oh man.
Totally off topic, but have you guys gotten reports that your young house life link is a virus? I have opened it twice at work and my virus scanner goes crazy and blocks it!!! Not sure if it was the site or me!
Thanks for the info Tiffany! A very very small percentage (like .01%) of our readers have encountered this but our hosting techs have run scan after scan without finding anything wrong. They are suggesting that maybe clearing your cache/cookies/data might help? It’s very odd since they can’t recreate it, we’re not having the issue ourselves along with many other unaffected readers, and it doesn’t happen every time people who have the issue come to our site (oddly enough it seems to happen very intermittently for those small group of people having the issue) so the tech folks think maybe clearing the data might help? Wish we could get to the bottom of it! If you take a screen grab of it happening and email us that it could definitely help! Thanks again Tiffany!
xo
s
so do you guys actually sit at that table with the 2 chairs? It’s pretty but I know anytime I’ve set up a seating area at a table we never use it. Still eating on the couch in front of the TV – we never sit at our dining room table even. I guess that’ll change when we have kids…
Nope, it’s just plain storage! But we do sit at the round pedestal table in the living room with the other two white chairs all the time! Hah!
xo
s
Is it in the plans to change those sliders out at some point? That last photo made me think how pretty french doors might be!
Oh we wish that was in the budget! Maybe someday… but since they work perfectly well and new french doors are around $900 each, we don’t have the spare change :)
xo
s
Ain’t nothing wrong with grouping like items together. The maps look great!
Love the art! It really does make the room – and I really love the doily stretcher; it’s really unique.
(Just a PS: I use Google Chrome and your sponsors aren’t showing up – wasn’t sure if you knew or not, so figured I would say something!)
Hmm, is anyone else with Google Chrome having this issue? Sometimes it’s just ad blocking software so it’s not the browser. Is anyone else on Google Chrome who sees our sidebar ads?
xo
s
It’s looking great in there!! Have y’all ever thought about switching the tiled floor to the cork you used in the kitchen? I remember how that made such a difference!
Oh I wish we could do that! It was completely out of stock (we literally bought the last stock of it for the kitchen and don’t have enough leftover). Maybe someday something similar will come back into stock…
xo
s
When I first moved into my hubby’s bachelor pad 3 yrs ago, he was at a stand still with his basement reno. I lit a fire under his arse, and put pictures & art up in his living room for his birthday. WHAT A DIFFERENCE. It really does make a room instantly feel lived in. He loved it, and so did I. Next we reno’d the kitchen, and soon after that we finish the basement. Next think we knew a hurricane hit, and flooded it. Soooooo that kinda dampened the fire. We just literally finished the basement again, and had a sectional delivered today! Now it’s time to put pictures up on the wall, and making it feel lived in. A new fire is lit, and I have vow’d to knock out atleast one project (small or large) in a room each week. This week, I placed curtains in our master bedroom. That’s right. After 3 years I finally put curtains up in the bedroom. I love em (expectionally in the morning when I don’t have to hid from the sunlight anymore). I absolutely can’t wait to do more to make our house a home. :o)))
Haha, congrats Eileen! I know what you mean about what a huge difference those things make!
xo
s
I love those bike prints! If you’re interested in a less conventional picture frame that is super affordable and might look awesome with those prints, I made a “frame” using cheap moulding and binder clips for $15. It’s very school house :)
You can see pictures on my blog if you’re interested:
http://www.insideways.com/2012/11/dining-nook-revisited.html
Cool!
xo
s
Ohh I loved the Burger painting. Is it me or your blog is lightly different??
xx
We just cleaned up the sidebar and top bar a bit. Trying to make it easier for you guys to get around :)
xo
s
Nice. I wish I had one of those stretchers. I crochet lace and snowflakes and that would be so handy. As it is, I put a cloth on the floor and poke pins in making it as symmetrical as I can.
This whole “hang up art” thing is hitting close to home. This Friday, I stopped by a local gallery and they were doing a warehouse sale so I picked up some great pieces for not a lot of money. And then I got home and added them to the pile of artwork currently sitting in my spare room. It’s just ridiculous–I love the pieces I’ve collected.
Haha, hang those babies up! You can do it!
xo
s
Not sure if anyone has already mentioned this, but I hope you intend on framing your book poster and hanging it. It deserves a place of honor after all of the hard work you have put into it. :)
I don’t know- that makes us feel all clammy and dorky. Hah! Maybe we’ll lean it casually on the counter in the basement or something :)
xo
s
Haha, it feels too ooh-look-at-us-we’re-fancy to frame that. We might keep it leaning on the wall in the basement or something more casual – haha!
xo
s
This may be strange… but I thought I remember reading that you guys were going to go bolder with this house than your first one, and while it felt as though that was happening in the beginning, it now feels like things are getting subtler and subdued. Have you changed your goals or is muted the new bold? Love the Burger painting.
If you click the link for our first house (here) you’ll see how muted all the pillows and rugs and art were. Now we have bright geometric rugs in the living room, the guest room and our bedroom along with a grellow kitchen, a stenciled wall in the office, a dark teal bedroom, and dark teal on the back of our dining room built-ins. We also have bold curtains in the dining room and lots of colorful art! We’ve found that bright walls tend to mean muted accessories for balance and we prefer bright art, fabrics, and accessories, so in many cases we’re keeping walls muted and having fun with other stuff in the room :)
xo
s
Huge fan of the map prints! Way to work with what you got, always nice when rooms come together with the stuff laying around the house ;) Looks good!
I am so guilty of not hanging enough art on my walls. I don’t know why I struggle with that. It makes the room look so finished! Cute picture of your little pup :)
Sunroom is lookin pretty great, there’s so much amazing natural light in there! I’m jelly yo…!
We’re starting to make plans to do a little more upgrading to our one tiny little bathroom. We put in a new tub and toilet when we moved in in May, but no want to do new tile and a new sink/vanity. We’re currently looking for a good nightstand/sidetable/ or somethiing like that to put a vessel sink on. Super fun! :D
I like the masking tape holding up the bike posters…