I decided to start off my decorating experience with an easy project: framing pictures. I hate empty walls with a passion and my dining room (more like a corner) is very boring. Although we love our pub table, we rarely eat at it.
I want our dining room to be romantic and an enjoyable place to sit. However, I wanted the romantic feeling to be very personal and meaningful to both myself and my husband (who tends to frown on most romantic decorations). So, I decided to begin revamping the dining room by framing some photos from our honeymoon in St. Augustine, Florida. Most of the pictures I printed were of our favorite spot: the Castillo de San Marcos.
Materials
1. Picture Frames (with or without mats)
2. Printed Pictures
3. Glue Dots/Tape
4. Nails (I used wire nails)
5. Leveler
6. Hammer
7. Measuring Tape
A few notes about materials:
Have fun finding your picture frames! Think about the style and mood you are trying to set. Do you want the focus to be the pictures or the frames? If you want people to focus on the pictures, buy simple and clean frames that do not detract from your art. Or, if you want to draw attention to the frames as well, find frames with funky patterns or colors. Check you local hobby stores, flea markets, or go online to look for frames at stores such as Walmart (where I purchased my frames), Target, Amazon, Overstock.com, or Ebay. Here are a few online finds I also loved:
Another great purchase is glue dots. Glue dots are removable round sticky dots that will hold your pictures firmly on the mat. They are a great investment for many other projects such as scrapbooking, invitation-making, or other paper crafts.
Finally, while a leveler is not mandatory for this project, it does come in useful for determining that your picture frames hang straight.
Framing the Pictures
Framing pictures is pretty straightforward, but here are a few tips.
1. First, clean the glass and make sure the mat (if you have one) is free of dust.
2. Use glue dots or tape to secure the pictures to the mat. Doing so prevents the picture from sliding, saving you a lot of time and frustration.
3. Make sure you tighten the latches on the back to ensure your pictures do not slip out!
Easy Hanging Guide
After framing the pictures, I needed to hang them. Here is an easy guide for hanging pictures:
1. Mark the center of your wall. I first measured my wall (46 inches). I then divided 46 inches in half to find the center of the wall (23 inches). To remember the center, I put a pencil mark 23 inches from the wall.
2. Mark the Center of Pictures. To hang two pictures, divide the center mark by two. Since I wanted to hang two pictures on each wall, I divided the center point (23 inches) by two (which is 11.5 inches). I then measured 11.5 inches outward from the center mark (11.5 inches to the right and 11.5 inches to the left). I marked each side with a pencil. Thus, the center of each picture will hang at 11.5 inches from the center point.
3. Mark the Desired Picture Frame Height. I then decided on the height of my pictures (39 inches from the chair rail) and measured from the chair rail (or the floor if you do not have a chair rail) to 39 inches and marked that spot with a pencil. Make sure to place the mark in line with the 11.5 mark made earlier.
4. Mark the Nail Hole. Most picture frames have a nail holder lower than the top of the frame. To mark the nail hole, I measured from the top of my picture frame to the nail slot on the back of the frame. The hanger on the back of my picture frame was 2 inches from the top of the picture frame. So, I measured two inches down from the 39 inch mark (so 37 inches) and made a pencil mark. Once again, make sure that the pencil mark lines up with the pencil mark marking 11.5 inches from the wall.
5. Insert Nail. I nailed the nail into the wall at the 37 X 11.5 inch mark, leaving a small gap between the nail head and the wall.
6. Hang the Picture. Test the straightness of your picture with the leveler. If the bubble is between the two lines, then your picture is straight.
7. Repeat!
I loved this project! It was a simple but effective start to decorating my dining area.
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If you were inspired by this post and completed your own project, I would love to see your pictures and post them on the blog!
Hello and welcome! My name is Crystal, a Political Science graduate student and, more importantly, a newlywed. In fact, I have been married almost three weeks. While I do not miss the wedding stress, I loved the wedding planning! I read blogs and searched the internet daily looking for the perfect DIY projects and wedding details to create a very personal wedding. The greatest complement I received was, “Everything turned out beautiful, this wedding was….so you!” Now that the wedding is over, I still miss the planning, designing, and creative effort that I put into that event.
I therefore write this blog with a specific goal: to apply the same wedding planning process to decorating a home. Decorating should reflect the people within it: their favorite colors, themes, and personal touches. To achieve this goal, I will create decorating inspiration boards, search for interesting and unique decorating products, and gather interesting DIY projects (often borrowed from wedding websites-heck, I wanted some of those decorations for my own home!). Some of the decorating ideas will be ones I plan to use in my own home (which is sparsely decorated at the moment), but many of the posts will be cataloging ideas other people may use to express their personal decorating style and create their own, personal sanctuary.