Dress up your wall!

Hey readers! (is anyone out there?)

Sorry for my long hiatus. Once again, grad school got the best of me (which is probably a good thing), but I'm back and ready to share some decorating ideas!

One of my favorite decorating ideas is the "wall montage."  Its a fun way to dress up a big boring wall with nick-knacks.  Its a way to combine old personal items, different aesthetics, and to express yourself!

Here are some beautiful ones that I found online:

When I moved into my new apartment in Nashville, I knew that I wanted to do a montage on one of my bedroom walls.  Our walls are stark white and painting would have been too much of a hassle, so the montage was a perfect way to give my wall a personality!

Here is the finished product to the right:
I started by looking through some of my old things at my parents house, which is where I found the "Madame" sign.  I bought it back in high school from Anthropologie when I was very into French design.  I also had an unfinished mirror that I purchased from Ikea.  Ikea has some really great decorating pieces that you can personalize by painting, so I used the same technique that I used on my sewing machine to give the plain square mirror some life!  I got the cross from an antique store, and it matched perfectly with the vintage style I was going for.  The three plates in the middle are from Homegoods and were $3-4 each.

Last, but not least, are my initials "KAR."  The initials are wooden letters I got from Michael's my freshman year in college (picture to the left).  They come unfinished, and I had originally painted them hot pink and lime green plaid to match my dorm room bedspread.  I used the same stripping materials I used for the sewing machine to remove the pink paint, which you can kind of still see.  Then painted the sides blue with acrylic paint and a small brush.  After I painted the sides and let them dry I found some old wallpaper in the attic. I traced the letters onto the wallpaper, cut it out and then applied it with hot glue!

Here's how the wall looks up against my bed!  I think it matches great!  My roommate helped me hang all of the items and we used the "handy level" iPhone app, free :-).

I was able to achieve a beautiful statement at a low price using old items, inexpensive new purchases, and crafted pieces.

Happy bargain decorating!

Kirsten