Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Travelling to the Hallway

So remember how early last week I mentioned I was redoing my hallway art and would update you on the change later in the week? Ya, I suck because I am just doing that now- a WEEK late. But there is a good reason for the delay and I will explain later in the post.

So the current hallway looked like this:
And now it looks like this:
Hurrah!! It is all fun maps!! I will get into an explanation, but let me first tell you how I installed this art. You already know that I fixed all the holes and prepped my wall for some big changes. Then I went out and bought 6 Ikea Ribba frames to add into the 4 I already owned. I then laid them on the floor in order to find a configuration I liked. I had already decided I wanted to hang the frames tightly. I came out with two ideas:


I liked the first one a lot, but I didn't choose it for two reasons
1. the frames are only 9x11" and this is a looooong hall so it might seem too small in the space
2. it would be difficult to add to as I travelled!

So I went with the simplistic option two!

In order to make sure I hung these properly (they needed to sit tightly together so I had to be a pro-star hanger. First thing I did was make templates of my frames and cut them out. I used newspaper, but I found it way too flimsy so I don't recommend it.
I then measured the length of my frames across to make sure I was putting it on a good place on the wall (I wanted to reflect the size of the bathroom wall). I used painter's tape on the wall to mark off the space.

Then I hung my templates on the wall using painter's tape. I was then able to mark off where all the nails needed to go, nail into the wall, rip off the paper and VOILA! Hung art!!

Ok, I didn't get it 100%. I blame the flimsy newspaper. But it only needed a bit of adjusting and frankly, the holes are all covered. haha. The top frames wouldn't hang properly since they butted onto the frames beneath them, but I used a bit of sticky tack to secure them onto the wall.
But you know what? When all was said and done- I didn't love it. Then I realized it was too small so I went to Ikea and bought 4 more frames (hence the week's delay in posting!) and I also decided to use horizontal frames at the ends because maps always seemed to be horizontal!

And here is the final, FINAL, wall:

Yay! It is super awesome now! And you know what it cost me? $78.99 for frames ($6.99 each and I already owned 4 frames) and $10 for a set of maps of Italy. It is a HUGE, personal, and interesting conversation piece for under $100. And because they are just frames, they can always be reused for other projects for years to come.

Tomorrow I will go a bit more in-depth about why I chose to do this project. Stay tuned :)

10 comments:

  1. Oh. Looks even better in this post.
    Should have scrolled further down AT before I followed your link!
    :-)
    Karen
    (Scotland)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Karen! Ya the other post is more of an explanation. whoops. haha

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  2. This looks awesome! Thanks for the tutorial!


    Apartment Therapy brought mer here.

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  3. NICE!

    Saw this on AT as well =)

    Aloha!

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  4. Question, how did you hang the 9x11 frames? Did you just nail a large nail into the wall and hang on that recessed sawtooth piece? I am hanging about 6 of these and was trying to find the best way, I was thinking long nail and maybe some 3m command strips to make sure they dont move?

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    Replies
    1. I used two small nails for each one (like finishing nails) and hung them on. The top ones are command strips because they didnt have room to "hang"

      havent fallen yet!

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    2. Thanks for the reply. So you just let the frame hang directly on the nails, not using that pretty useless sawtooth piece that is attached to the board that holds the picture in? That might be an idea, as you would need a pretty long nail to use that sawtooth.

      I really want to try the 3M Strips but am afraid from reading some reviews that they may fall (although I am in Toronto as well so yours held up to humidity), which is why I might just reincforce the bottoms/sides with them?

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    3. I dont even remember if they HAD a sawtooth, but ya, I just rested the wooden back of the frame on the nails. I think the 3m strips would be fine. I use them all over the condo and they havent failed me yet- even on really heavy things!

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  5. Hi! I realise this is an old post, but here goes nothing.. Where did you get your maps of Italy? I've looked all over for something similar with no luck.. Thanks!

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