Pinterest Inspired Map Wall Art

I am slightly addicted to HGTV and I love to admire well decorated spaces.  I have no fear of large DIY projects, despite not having much experience, but I really appreciate a quick and easy project too.  With our home on the market right now I am constantly trying to identify small and inexpensive updates that we can use to further stage the house without adding too much personalization, which might keep buyers from visualizing themselves in the space.  I have tried to identify projects for this home that can become elements for a bigger idea once we move to Chicago.

An example of this concept would be my strong desire for a whimsical gallery wall, like this one that I am in head over heals for from Young House Love.  This house doesn't have a great space to accommodate such a project, at least not without moving around all of our other wall art, so for now I'm happy to work on a few projects here and there that I can later compile into one space.  A few years ago I made the great dane and bulldog silhouettes for our entry.  While browsing Pinterest a few weeks ago I found some fun projects involving maps of cities that I thought were right up my alley, but neither concept quite captured the idea that was evolving in my own head....

Pinterest inspiration 1

Pinterest inspiration 2

Tom and I move often.  Far too often in my opinion, but that's the whole idea behind Chicago - finding a city we can finally really put some roots down.  Since we began dating at Bucknell in 2003 we have lived together in Lewisburg, NYC, Hoboken, San Diego, Columbus, and Skaneateles...and soon Chicago.  Within each city we've actually typically moved a few times too so our grand total of moves over the past 10 years is 9 if you include Chicago.  Because I didn't want an entire wall worth of maps I decided to limit the cities I included in this project to where we have lived since our engagement in 2006, or since we officially became a "family".  

I found maps of San Diego, Columbus, and the Finger Lakes area on Amazon for a total of about $10.  With our Prime membership shipping was free, so I thought the price was right for the "art" for the project.  I will need to add one of Chicago once we get there too.  Unfortunately the maps weren't uniform when it came to size of the cities (well in reality I suppose the cities aren't nearly the same size as one another) and I had to find a way to capture both the name of the city as well as some of the identifying features of the area in a consistent manner.  With some trial and error I cut a template out of cardboard that allowed me to capture enough of the map that I was happy with the result.  I traced the template onto the map, cut away, and was left with 3 heart-shaped maps....that sat in a craft drawer for two weeks.

Yesterday while running errands I noticed an A.C. Moore craft supply store and decided I could finally complete my project during Benji's afternoon nap.  I bought three 8x10 white wooden frames that were 50% off, totaling at roughly $10 with tax.  I wanted a textured mat or some color or something behind the maps but I really wasn't sure what I was looking for so we wandered around until Benji started grabbing at some grass mat placemat things.  I was really pleased with his choice and at $1.79 each they were the right price to complete the project.  Overall I suppose I spent more than I'd like for the project in total, but if I had physical access to these cities still I'm sure I could find free maps without difficulty.  

After some trimming to the mats I have my Pinterest inspired project complete.  Down the road I may alter the orientation from horizontal frames to vertical depending on where they'll permanently live.  If I place them vertical I can include two cities per frame as well, which may work out better with an even number of maps.  

Skaneateles

Columbus

San Diego

The lighting in these photos isn't great - but they really look fabulous in person.  The outline on the hearts is crisp and clean looking and helps the maps stand out from their background.  Now to decide where to hang them!

Entry Makeover

Our sad old entry area had this beauty (ha!) centered on the wall that we picked up for $5 from a consignment shop in the village.

When we bought it we planned to paint and distress it to give it some interest, but for only $5 we ultimately saw a practical place to keep our keys, sunglasses, and sometimes mail or shopping lists. Unfortunately, we hung it to see what we thought of it, immediately disliked it, but left it in place for about 5 months because that wall needed something (anything).... and it really was practical.

Eventually I'd had enough of the goofy shelving unit that had no business in our home, much less providing the first impression to the house, and took it down, spackled, and repainted the scratched up surface it was hiding, and looked for some inspiration for my blank canvas. And here's what I came up with.

These silhouette photos of our pups (sorry for the quality, they're phone pics) combined with a project I saw on one of my favorite DIY blogs gave me hope I could create some free art for the wall and combine it with a few other items I already had around the house.

To create this look I searched google images for silhouette's of bulldogs and great danes. I found small (like 3''x2'') images I could print as reference guides, and then spent about an hour to create the same look freehand with a marker on a sheet of printer paper. Once I had the look I liked, I scanned it to even out the variation of black lines and reprinted. These were literally created with a Sharpie and a printer. Repurposing some cute wrought iron hooks that Tom's parents bought us back in January, and a discount shopping trip later, I'd brought the functionality back to the space.

The entry space is a corner though, so the opposite wall needed a pop of art too. We had a framed cut out of our wedding date that was supposed to hold photos, but every time I tried to put pictures into it I found it came out college collage-like and just didn't scream mature. So that poor frame has sat in a closet for the past 3 years until now, at which point I decided to go simple and find patterned paper to place in the negative space instead. The green print still isn't quite right (it's too blue of a green for our room), but I love the idea and it's perfect for the space.

And here's the finished product. I love that this space now has function and design, and it cost a grand total of $20 ($3 clearance shelf from Target, $2 ceramic bird from Home Goods, and frames on sale for 2 for $15).