We are embarking on a living room design project. I should mention we JUST recently got rid of a futon couch and purchased actual living room furniture, a couch and love seat. We pretty much stopped there. Although the walls are painted nice colors, they are bare. The rest of our furniture is a mish-mosh of Will’s bachelor days and make shift scraps like TV trays and crates. you know the saying the “cobler’s children have no shoes” well the “designer’s home has no style.” So part of my designing a lovely life is to make a beautiful space for me and my family to live. It was always our last priority to spend money to making our home a comfortable place!! Not anymore. Although my husband does wince when we spend on these types of things, it doesn’t feel necessary and it can make you feel guilty for the investment. BAAAH! No more, I am 33 years old and I want to decorate my living room (and the rest of our home) and I deserve it.
Ok, that rant of justification is over.
So I will post before and after pictures when the project is completed, my goal is to finish by Zanders first birthday party in July. Right now we are in the planning stages. We don’t have a ton of money to spend, so I am using some less expensive materials and sources. For the longest time I have wanted a painting of cherry blossoms or similar blooms, there are a couple of artists that I admire that I would LOVE to commission a piece, but I am not at that place yet where I can afford to make that sort of investment. A friend from my playgroup and extremely talented artist Danielle Boudet , is someone I discussed this with. Her cherry-scapes are really evocative and not as sweet as they sound. Someday…
So anyway when I woke up from my dream of commissioning great art works, I got creative. There is a site, photogonia.com, that prints images on canvas and you can either have them framed or gallery wrapped (meaning the image wraps around the frame and you can hang it without the frame.) The framing is considerably more expensive, but it is decently priced considering the service. I wanted mine gallery wrapped though, that style appeals to me. The next thing I did was go to my FAVORITE stock photo site that I use in my design work, istockphoto.com, they have a TON of great images and even a very large high quality file won’t cost you much, I think the most you will pay for an image is $27. Here is one of the contenders right now.
I also went through some photos I used for my wedding invitations (blossoms and butterflies are kind of my thing) that I got from a great free image site, stock.xchng. I am considering using one of these as well. You might think these pinky images are too girlie and feminine for a living room, but it will be the perfect contrast to brighten up all the browns and tans that I have in my living room now. I am going to select one image and have it printed large like 36″.
If you are going to do this yourself, depending on how large of a canvas you decide to print on, opt for a large or extra large file so you know the quality will be there.
So I will be getting my blossoms ON after-all! This is a really cool way to get exactly what you want on your wall. BTW, you can also do family photos, I think this method would be great for a black and white wedding photo, something really iconic – your first dance, cutting the cake or a kiss.
