Tag: apartment life

Our Gallery Wall

So,our apartment is long and narrow. It has one long wall that extends all the way from the front door to the end of the unit. With no walls, doors, windows or other architectural details on it to make it more interesting, this wall has the potential to be a major snooze-fest.

Luckily, we had a variety of pictures (that already had black frames) leaning against the wall in the bedroom waiting to be hung. With the addition of our 70-year old magazine prints from Paris, the collection was shaping up rather nicely. I decided that a gallery wall (which is when frames are clumped together in an interesting and balanced way) would be the best way to add interest to the loooong wall. So I cleared a space in the living room and laid the photos out on the floor until I found an arrangement that, to me, felt balanced by way of shape, mass, and color. Then I snapped a photo of it on my iPhone to reference when it came time to hang them.

The People For Peace framed poster is both a lively dose of color and an idea that Doug and I both believe in, however the process of hanging said poster does not lend itself to peaceful cooperation between spouses. Luckily for us, this is the fourth time we’ve had to hang it and knew what we were getting into. Since the nails on the wall have to go into two little triangle hooks on the back of the frame just so, we know that careful measuring (the hooks are 14 inches apart) and use of the level is key. Luckily, this time the poster went up smoothly without calling to mind a warlike atmosphere.

Here is a tip for those hanging their first gallery wall: start with the largest frame first because this is the foundation you will build out from. Since it carries the most visual mass, it will probably be close to the center of your arrangement. The second frame to go up on our gallery wall was the square one with our wedding photos in it–not coincidentally, it is the second largest. This is important because the smaller ones are easier to “tweak” if you hang them up and find yourself needing to nudge them one way or the other. Speaking of nudging one way or the other, I am currently debating about moving the dresser sideboard about six inches to the right. But it’s heavy. Le sigh.

Notice the way that the gallery is balanced without being symmetrical. The teal Lennon poster is balanced out by the dark photograph at the top right and the more densely-colored Renault ad at the bottom-right. The wedding pictures and white bicycle frame are balanced by the black-and-white Morocco ad on the left. Imagine if the Renault ad and Morocco ad had been swapped–the whole thing would seem a little heavy on the left side, don’t you think?

Here’s what the apartment looks like, now, from the entryway. Behind the couch is another area where we are planning on hanging art, but haven’t decided what to put yet.

Now that the gallery is up, I can really envision it continuing at least four feet in both directions. What can I say? The wall is long. It would be cool for the gallery to take up a full third of the wall’s total length. I have a few pieces of art I could use… but need to save up a bit to buy about three more frames. If I do end up adding to this grouping, you can be sure I’ll update about it here!

Here’s one more shot because Mosey was sitting for me so nicely.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone! I’m off to go exercise. Yes, you read that right. For the past week I’ve been working out 30-60 minutes a day! Whew! 

EXPEDIT-ing the Unpacking Process

Yesterday marked ONE MONTH since we moved in here! I’m happy to report that everything has been unpacked and stored away save for 4 pesky boxes still taking up residence underneath our new china cabinet.

One HUGE obstacle in our unpacking process came in the form of 6-10 boxes full of books. We had nowhere to put our books since in the first place we had built-ins, and before moving we sold the bookshelf from Target.

Sidebar: Truthfully, they weren’t FULL of books–here’s a moving protip for you: When packing something heavy like books, fill the box 50% full of books and 50% full of something light like linens. By splitting the difference, the boxes are lighter and more manageable and you might even prevent yourself from injury.

Once I realized that our bar stools were totally NOT going to work under the breakfast bar I began envisioning an area of shelving spanning the whole length of the counter. Someday I will do a custom shelving installation–really, I will– but for the sake of our rental deposit I measured the area and started thinking prefab. EXPEDIT immediately came to mind because I just love the geometric pattern of the squares. The nice thing about these (as opposed to other assemble-it-yourself shelving) is that they are very deep and can accommodate two layers of books.

My original plan was to get two 8-hole EXPEDITS (two squares tall by four squares wide) but my space was four inches too short. So glad I took the time to measure the space before we headed to the store. So we decided to get some of the smaller ones, two squares both wide and tall. After some brainstorming involving pseudo-installing our huge speakers and hooking them up to a (yet-to-be-purchased) turntable, I bargained with Doug that once we save up our pennies for the dreamed-of turntable, then the speakers would come out of hiding and get put to use. So they got sneaked behind the couch into another project I’ll share later this week–and EXPEDIT was able to take up the whole space.

We’d decided to save up for the units but when we saw two white ones in the as-is section for $25 each we nabbed them up. Isn’t that always how it goes.

Then, my mom came down for the weekend and generously insisted on buying us the third one (really, we did protest), so now the space is taken up much more nicely:

I love the geometric look and how the crisp white anchors the chaos of books and nick-knacks. Organized chaos seems to be the name of the game with this apartment so far. I’m really happy to have these now because these units can be used in countless ways–console table, desk base, or even at the foot of the bed someday?

Right now there are gaps between the three units and sometime I may see what it looks like all shoved close together. For now, though, the gaps provide a safe place to tuck framed pictures so they’re out of the way until we decide where to hang what. Maybe I’ll organize the books by color or by subject? I don’t know. They are all just thrown in there, sort of grouped by size. The GREAT news is that the boxes holding them happily made their way to the recycle bin!

Rain, and Confidence

So, the original plan for today was to take pictures of our small balcony to share on the blog, because it is really cute. However, it’s really cloudy and chilly (in the 60s) and won’t even get into the 70s today. Just doesn’t feel like the right time to capture the summery happiness of our little terrace.

Then, as I was catching up on reading the design blogs I’m subscribed to on Bloglovin (follow this blog here), I heard really, really heavy raindrops on the roof. And you know what? For the first time since 2010 I did not wince in nervousness. I didn’t worry about a roof leak at all!

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For those of you who might not be in the know, my first apartment in Kansas (shared with Lisa, then with Doug) had two glorious, magnificent, huge, and leaky skylights. Every Kansas thunderstorm that rolled through had the potential to become a lake in the dining room. Lisa and I got really good at remembering where the drips went and had an elaborate system of towels and kitchenware that we’d employ during those months. Added onto this was the absentee landlord who never really repaired anything. Although he was well aware of the leak, he employed our construction-savvy neighbor to do “band aid” fixes on it that never solved the problem one-hundred percent.

Our second place never actually leaked on us, but next door neighbors had clued us into its leaky history. Luckily, I think the person who my in-laws bought it from had ultimately fixed the leaks once and for all. However, the mystery behind the history of the run-down house always left me a little uneasy, not to mention the shadow I would have felt on my heart if my in-laws had ended up needing to shell out the big bucks for roof repair.

Today, however, was totally different. Not only did the heavy rain pass through in less than five minutes, but I had the confidence in the knowledge that if something had happened, there are two full-time maintenance guys that I could alert to the situation. It is their job to fix things out of control in the complex. My rent helps pay their salary to do that!! What a concept, right?

That, my friends, is why I’m currently A-OK with living in a cookie cutter complex.