Art We Heart
Hoo Dat?
Dude, my dad is an artist. I mean not by trade (he’s a super-genius math teacher), but both he and my mother sketched and drew for fun during my childhood (in turn art was my favorite subject in school and off I went to get a bachelor of fine arts in NYC). I remember being in complete awe about how my mom drew horses and ladies while I loved how my dad drew all sorts of abstract shapes that filled a page with lines and dots and squares. Sort of like this.
So about a week ago I was standing in the frame hallway thinking about my dad and his awesome drawings and realized that I needed one to frame in honor of him and his super cool art skillz that inspired me so much as a kid. So I called him up (you can see an old picture of him here) and begged him to photocopy one of them and send me the copy in a big rigid “do not bend” envelope. But he did me one better. He sent me the original (!) of what he calls his “best drawing ever” – a super sweet seventies-tastic owl that he sketched in 1972 (when I was negative ten years old).
First of all, I love that dad named him “Owlie” since I’m no stranger to naming my ceramic animals (like this gal). I also love that if you look closely you’ll see that the entire owl is made up of repeating shapes and patterns (totally a signature thing that my dad did in nearly all of his sketches). And everything from the repeated hexagons to the soft layered colors that feel so “authentic seventies” just makes me smile. I know owls are all the rage these days, but I love that my father sketched this guy 39 years ago! Although maybe owls were hot commodities then too. Haha. Everything old is new again.
Anyway, true to my obnoxiously excitable personality, the receipt of this amazing guy got me ridiculously hyper. Stupid-giddy even. I couldn’t bring myself to frame the original (way too precious) so I decided to scan it so I could mail the original right back to dad where it belonged. And since my father had mentioned that he wished he hadn’t cut it down and matted it on purple paper decades ago, I took the opportunity to “digitally restore” his sketch to its original glory by putting it on a while background just as it had originally appeared. I also moved the little signature and date together for the new not-cut-down arrangement while I was at it:
Then I printed it out and popped it into a hallway gallery frame that had something less exciting (a picture of our wedding table, but we already have a few other more beloved wedding pics on the wall so… it got dethroned by Owlie).
Total spent: $0.
I think it makes the entire wall.
And sure enough, when we recently had some people over they gravitated to it and I got to proudly tell them that my father drew it in 1972! Woo to the hoo. Get it? Owl? Hoo? See what I did there?
Anyway, I love me some dad-made owl art. And as many of you know, I also love me some crocheted owl hattage on the bean (she calls this her “hoo hat”). Can my child really be into bad puns at the ripe old age of a year and a half?
With us parents… I think so. Oh and in case you haven’t seen her singing Adele, here’s that link for ya.
Have you guys framed anything that your friends or relatives have drawn? Did you only feel right keeping a copy of it? For some reason the original just feels like it belongs at dad’s house taped up next to his desk like it always has been (I also sent him a “digitally restored” printout, in case he wants one of those). What’s with kids wanting their parents to keep their houses exactly the same for sentimental reasons, anyway?
Psst- We announced this weeks three giveaway winners! Click here to see if you’re one of them.
Nursery Art Expansion
Some nursery tweak-age has occurred. And because we’re currently working away on the kitchen (stay tuned for those deets tomorrow morning if all goes well), we figured that we owed you the whole gallery-frame-change rundown (along with some well overdue what’s-in-that-frame answers). We’ve always loved the idea of expanding Clara’s art wall as she grows with more and more frames, so here’s how it looked before:
And here’s what we have going on now that we’ve added a few more frames to the mix (and shifted the placement of a few of the existing ones):
And for those who have been wondering, here’s a quick rundown of the things that we’ve framed (you can find some other details here):
- John’s baby picture and my baby picture (for fun little comparisons)
- a hilarious doodle of Burger that a friend did on my Facebook wall using Graffiti (I just printed it out & framed it)
- this print of a girl and her dog from Etsy (it reminds us of C & B)
- a personalized canvas that says Clara Kenley from here
- a photo of Burger that I photoshopped to create a bright stylized picture of him in a field of flowers
- two faux butterflies in a small shadowbox that I backed with patterned paper
- a homemade silhouette of Clara that we cut out and placed on striped paper (more on that here)
- a giraffe print from here (Clara loves giraffes and pooches most of all)
- a cute Skinny Cow magazine ad with a giraffe that I tossed into a frame (framing ads from mags that you’ve purchased for your own personal enjoyment is totally fine – you just can’t profit off of those images or anything)
- a big letter P that we decoupaged with colorful paper for a more playful effect (more on that here)
- a print of peas in a pod purchased here made entirely of type (it’s the letter P, repeated over and over – which we love since we’re the Petersiks)
- a silhouette of Burger that John ordered me years ago (which we backed with fun patterned paper to nursery-fy it)
- Clara’s hospital bracelet (I just glued it to some pink construction paper and popped it into a chunky glass-less frame)
- a cute Sweet N Low magazine ad with an owl in it (once again, when you purchase a mag you can frame any pages you want, you just can’t use them for any reason other than personal enjoyment – ex: ya can’t sell them on Etsy)
And seven of the “art” pieces were actually completely free (our baby pics, the Burger doodle, the Burger in a field print, the Laughing Cow ad, the Sweet N Low ad, and Clara’s hospital bracelet) because we framed something that we already had or made/printed something of ours out on card stock. Gotta love no cost wall-candy, especially when it keeps Clara happy (read: not crazy-wiggly) during diaper changes.
The funny thing is that many of these frames hung in Clara’s first nursery (albeit in a slightly different arrangement with a few differences in what we framed):
One of my favorite things on the wall are our baby pictures. Clara loves looking at them and saying “Daddy baby!” and “Mommy baby!” and we love searching for characteristics in each photo that seem Clara-like. Here’s John’s a little closer:
And here’s mine:
First of all: we love that we both had our mouths wide open. But more importantly: who do you think she looks more like? Let’s have a good old fashioned vote.
Any Team Sherry peeps out there? Everyone in the family says she looks like John (even on my side) but John’s baby self was so sweetly chubby, so I personally think there’s a little bit of a mommy resemblance going on. Then again, I’m biased.
Psst- One of the five finalists for the Ikea Life Improvement Project is a reader of ours named Melissa Matthews! She found out about it back when we mentioned it during an Ikea giveaway, and entered… never thinking she’d end up in the finals (we were so excited to get an elated email from her all about it)! You can read more about her awesome cause and log a vote for her or any of the other finalists that you’re rooting for here (the other nominees are in the left column). Bonus: every time someone votes, Ikea donates $1 to Save The Children’s U.S. Programs.
Seven Up
Remember how we stopped at this place in Maryland on our way to our Labor Day beach weekend?
And remember how we spotted these cool sign letters there that were made even cooler when we learned that they were meant for a Dollar Tree store and were selling for $20 each? I was obsessed with them and almost took home an E, R, or A, just because (sadly there’s no P, J, S, C or B in Dollar Tree).
Well, I finally got me one. Let’s give a lukewarm welcome to letter L.
Why L? Well… give that L a little 180 degree spin and whaddya get? Our favorite number AND a happy John (our first kiss: 7/7/05, our wedding date: 7/7/07 – even Clara was born on the 14th, which we affectionately call 7+7).
Maybe it makes me a little too happy, actually. Avert your eyes Sherry.
What? Nothing weird going on here. Just a man snuggling a giant number 7. It’s completely platonic, I swear.
So here’s the deal. Since I kept talking about how much I regretted not getting that L, Sherry had been brainstorming a way to surprise me with it (we didn’t realize its 7-like appearance ’til we were back home looking at road trip pictures). Her maniacal planning came to an abrupt conclusion when Lesley read the initial post about it where Sherry mentioned that we regretted not getting one and contacted Sherry to act as a secret courier to help with the surprise. Apparently she lives right near the Ole Sale Barn in Denton, Maryland and her mom lives in Richmond so she frequently makes trips between the two spots. Perfect!
Sherry had planned to surprise me for my birthday next week, but Lesley made a trip earlier than expected so after a quick meet-up-in-a-parking-lot and a cash-for-giant-letter swap, the 7 was mine ours. I was actually really surprised. And more than a little in love (both with the wife for her sweet surprise and with my giant number seven itself). It’s already keeping me us company in the office (still need to figure out what to hang next to it, get a real side table and lamp for that corner, etc).
We thought about hanging it on the other wall behind the chair but we both decided we liked walking into the room and seeing it “smiling” back at us, face first (instead of seeing the side of it most of the time, which would be the view if it was hung on the other wall behind the chair).
Oh, if you’re wondering how it’s hung – it was pretty easy. The letter was still wired with lighting, but we’re not planning to get all Novogratz up in here by actually using it as a light (at least not anytime soon due to the cost of wiring the wall). So I carefully disconnected the two giant nubs on the back that would’ve required it sit out from the wall about an inch and stuffed the wires into the 7 for possible future use (we can fish them out with a coat hanger if need be).
Once those big metal things were removed, I was left with two holes – plus some others at the top – that were perfect for hanging it. I just put a couple of anchors and screws into the wall where I wanted ‘em, and hung the 7 in place.
A big thanks again to Lesley and taking the time to deliver it us (and for temporarily forking over the $25 to pay for it). Yup, the guy raised the price by $5 since Labor Day. Oh well, still totally worth it.
Psst-We’re over on BabyCenter sharing one of the most creative kids’ birthday parties we’ve ever seen. Seriously, it’s so imaginative and fun.
Psssst- We’ll be back with a kitchen update this afternoon. No dust flying yet, but very very soon…
Some Slap Happy Office Art
You know… slap happy. As in it makes us happy and we slapped it up on the walls without over-thinking it (to the point of what-should-we-frame paralysis – which can happen if we’re not careful). Although we did talk about a few other options and eliminate them based on certain factors, such as:
- one giant piece of art on each side of the window = too symmetrical for our taste, and too repetitive with the big rectangular window in the middle (so it would look like three big boxes)
- open shelving = too much shelving since there are two walls of it thanks to the dining room built-ins (it would be shelving with more shelving beyond it)
- mirrors = too much, since we already have a large framed mirror hanging over the file cabinet on the opposite office wall
So we decided to use frames that we already had in a balanced-but-not-completely-symmetrical arrangement. And as is the usual agenda, we tried to go with things that have meaning, feel personal, and make us smile. Are they perfect? Nah. But perfect is overrated. They just make us happy like our chipper green office chairs. So in a way, the fact that it’s not perfect is kind of perfect for us.
We liked that we had a “John’s side” (the right) and a “Sherry’s side” (the left) so since John loves maps, typography/handwriting, travel, and high-contrast geometric shapes, he ended up with this little medley:
Not only does it represent a bunch of things he loves (type, maps, travel, geometric shapes, etc), it’s also personal because:
- the map is a typographic map of Richmond by a local artist (it’s actually made up entirely of words, more on that here) – I just painted the Ikea mat with the same gray paint that we used under the chair rail to help it pop
- the handwritten/typed item on the far right is a blown up copy of a tiny comment card from a meal that we shared in Alaska during our Honeymoon (we wrote things that we ate and what we saw on the comment card and kept it as a souvenir to remember that day)
On my side I knew I wanted Clara to paint me something (everything she makes is my favorite thing ever, what can I say?) and I liked the idea of framing a textile that I loved (some fabric leftover from Clara’s weekly project, which I also used a few years ago to reupholster a bench that now sits in her nursery).
It doesn’t hurt that the lattice shape of the fabric ties in with the lattice detail on the chairs… and also seems to relate to the high-contrast geometric print on John’s side. Gotta love happy accidents like that. To us that just screams: meant to be.
As for how we approached the whole office art thing, here’s the order of this whole project (although we’ve done this multiple ways so there’s definitely not one “right” formula):
- Went through our existing frames to see what we had to possibly work with (and found the five that we used for a grand total of $0 spent)
- Laid the frames out on the floor in groups until we hit on a balanced but not symmetrical arrangement that we liked
- Hung the frames without anything in them, just to get a sense of how they’d look on the wall instead of the floor
- Began the art hunt (we figured we could trim/blow things up to work with the frames we had – although sometimes art comes before frames for us – it varies)
- Pulled our typographic Richmond map out of the playroom since we knew it was one of the things we wanted to hang (and painted the mat for that frame with leftover wall paint from under the chair rail)
- Went through our “memory box” full of movie stubs and love notes (it’s just a shoebox-sized container full of keepsakes), which is where we found the comment card from our honeymoon (which we blew up 420% at a copy shop to fit the frame)
- Dug up some sentimental fabric that I loved (which was also used here and here)
- Found a high-contrast print in my little file o’ art from years past that worked nicely on John’s side (it balanced out the handwritten comment card and the detailed type-map)
- Stripped Clara down to a diaper with some water-based Crayola paint and had her go to town on a large sheet of paper that would fit the frame I wanted to use with it
- Ran to Michael’s to grab some large colorful sheets of paper to create “mats” for some of the art (to better fill the frames and tie in some happy color since the office is our cheerful little bubble of unicorns, rainbows, and puppy dogs)
It definitely feels mixed & matched yet balanced enough for us – and it’s bold & happy without giving us a headache. We like that the color palette is diverse (Clara’s painting is full of color and there’s a black & white print, so it’s pretty varied). Even with all those colors/styles, the dominant tones (like teal and grellow) relate to the chairs and the dining room curtains – and the white frames help unify things. We definitely plan to play around with room accessories in other colors though (some pops of orange or coral on the desk might be fun) so we’ll have to see where things go…
Oh and here’s the view from the dining room. I love that the office is so light-washed and the dining room built-ins are so dark. It really helps keep the spaces from blending into one big rectangle-fest. Oh and I’m on the hunt for a new runner that’s not so matchy (plum could be fun – or even textured burlap).
As for how much this entire update cost us, since we already owned all the frames we just spent around $9 at Michael’s on the large colored paper “mats” and $4 at the copy shop (FedEx Office) blowing things up. So that’s a total of 13 bucks for five pretty big pieces that we get to stare at whenever we’re not gazing at our laptop screens.
We still have other office things on the agenda, like: getting a permanent rug (most likely longer, not as wide, and darker), adding more permanent art to the other side of the room…
… hanging some window treatments (probably homemade roman shades), and adding a proper lamp and side table for the leather chair corner, etc. But for now we’re just grateful to have something on those have-been-blank-for-the-last-ten-months walls. Can’t believe we have stared at blank walls for almost a year. The shame! Especially since the frames were just sitting around in our playroom and it was only $13 to fill them with some happy-go-lucky stuff.
But enough about us. Have you guys ever blown things up at a copy shop like a comment card from a memorable meal? How about stripping down your toddler and “commissioning” some custom art? I thought I was going to be really Type A about colors and design but I just gave her every color of the rainbow and watched her go to town. My little artist…
Psst- Here’s another post about a ton of sentimental things we’ve framed around the house.
Gap On The Wall
A couple of weeks ago we were at the Gap and I spotted this on the wall.
It’s a bicycle from Public Bikes that was disassembled and shot for this in-store display (thereby they’re not for sale). I thought they were pretty darn good looking. I’m more of a bike admirer than an actual bike rider (apologies to my cycling enthusiast father), so I feel like a bit of a poser saying this, but… I really want those posters to hang in our house. Not sure where, but somewhere. Here’s a better shot of one of the panels from the Public Bikes blog.
I talked with the manager at my local Gap and they “made a note” to call me when they’re done using them for display. This was promising because I expected to hear “sorry, we’re not allowed to give those away” (which I’ve heard at other stores when I’ve asked, like Target). But it wasn’t totally confidence inspiring either – because it sounded a bit like a “don’t call us, we’ll call you.” So I also decided to randomly tweet about wanting them once the store is done with them, and a Gap manager elsewhere heard my plea and is going to try to snag me a set once they’re bumped for holiday decor. Oh the power of Twitter. Who knows if it’ll actually work out, but I gave it the ol’ college try.
Is there any store display out there that you’ve been admiring (or thinking about recreating/DIYing)? Perhaps something at Anthropologie? Have any of you used actual store decor in your home? If so, how’d you go about getting it? Was tweeting involved? Or just regular old fashioned in-person asking? We always hear about folks who just get a call weeks or months later when the store is done with something (like friends of mine who got movie posters from Blockbuster when they were finished displaying them as new releases). Fingers crossed…
