Mission "Dress The Walls": Part One

So here I am, back in BC - back in our nice big rental home... that still doesn't feel totally like home. After all, we did move from a pretty tiny space into this larger home, which means we've slowly been finding pieces to layer in to make it feel more full, more like a family home. 


Right before we left for Boston and Toronto, one thing I decided that I needed to work on when we got home, was addressing our bare walls. The walls were pretty bare back in Toronto, but to be honest, we didn't have a ton of wall space to fill. Not like we have now...

{The Living Room}

{The Front Hall}

{The Front Entry}

{The Hallway}

This means, I'm officially kicking off mission "Dress the Walls". I hope to do so using a combination of items we already have, new purchases and DIY pieces. One of the first places I want to address is our pretty sad looking Master Bedroom. 

{Yup - we still need a headboard, and I'd like some pretty throw pillows}

{That's a HUGE empty wall that I have no idea how to address yet}

Believe it or not, it's  come a long way from when we first moved in and had our brand new king size sheets and duvet on top of our queen size guest mattress, which was laying on the floor with boxes and suitcases surrounding it. Yea, those above photos could be considered luxurious compared to what it once was. I mean, at least now we have a proper king size mattress and bed frame.


Anyway, right before we left for Boston I headed to Chapters and bought 2 Ash Wood & Linen frames that are 20 x 25, with an 8 x 10 opening, to hang over the bed. I love the texture that the linen and wood add to our bedroom.

Since the wall over our bed is pretty large (and empty), I knew we needed something other than the frames to help fill it, and I had the perfect plan in mind. A while back I had spotted a large ampersand at HomeSense, but I wasn't thrilled by the $16.99 price. I figured I could probably make something on my own that wouldn't cost that much. So, while I was home I mentioned it to my parents (who I clearly get my creative genius from! *wink, wink*) and we all brain stormed to come up with a good solution for making our own. 


Before my Mom left for work on Monday, we browsed through both of our computers for a font that gave us a nice looking ampersand. We wanted something that looked nice, and was thick enough that once it was cut out with the scroll saw it wouldn't warp or bend on us. When we found one we liked (sadly we don't remember the font, so I can't share that with you), she printed it off as large as she could and brought it to work to enlarge it to 18" and print on a heavy weight paper.

So, first things first, I grabbed a razor and cut out around the image...

After I was done with the cutting, I had to go out and run some errands, so my wonderful father was kind enough to step in and take over from there. He traced the image onto a piece of plywood he already had in the garage, and then drilled some holes in the middle sections, so that he would be able to cut them out...

Next, he used his scroll saw to cut out the entire thing. With everything cut, he gave it a good sand, and then filled in the areas around the middle sections that had chipped a bit. When that dried, he gave it another good sand, and we were left with this...

This is actually where we are right now. Which means, over the course of the next couple of days I would like to get this painted, get pictures printed for our frames and get everything hung on the wall. I'm pretty excited, not only about this individual project, but about the whole idea of finally getting things up on the walls - this empty house needs some warming up, especially since it already feels like home with the three of us being here together.

I want to know about some of your DIY artwork that hangs in your home? What meaningful, fun and/or unexpected pieces grace your walls? I'd love to be inspired by my blog friends and fantastic readers!