Wall Art for the Music Room {Part 2}

I finally have my music room at a point where I can show you the rest of it!  As a refresher, you can see the first part of my music room decor here.  It is a DIY treble clef sign.

My Great Grandfather was a composer.  He also taught music theory at BYU along with other classes.  I have always admired him, and he helped to foster a love of music in me.  He passed away when I was 12 years old, but my Great Grandma was around until just this last year.  I have always felt fortunate to have had so many grandparents in my life.  Anyway, when she passed, members of my family were cleaning out her home and came to a box of music from various composers that belonged to my grandfather.  They wondered if I would be interested in having the music.  Of course I said "YES!"  I am so glad that I did.  There are so many great pieces in there.  One of the coolest things I found, though, is this certificate.  I love that my grandfather wrote his name at the top, and that it is written in french.  (Anyone care to translate?)  I think it is the perfect thing for my music room!

Two years ago for Christmas, my mom gave me this beautiful picture that she purchased from Hobby Lobby.  It has been sitting in my closet because I didn't have a way to frame it so it would be affordable.  I had big plans of making my own frame, and even bought the moulding to do it.  Things didn't work out the way I planned, so I turned to my brother in law that makes barn wood frames.  He built this frame for me and had it to me 2 days after I asked for it.  He is awesome.

Last, I got the monogram at Hobby Lobby.  I love the turquoise and the way it looks aged.

All together, I think it goes perfectly in my music room and am so pleased with the way it looks. 

You may or may not have noticed, but there is a sneak peek as to a certain huge project I decided to do.  I will show you more about my board and batten (!) in another post this week.  Oh, and one last thing.  If you are part of my Facebook group, you may have seen a little announcement.  I just wanted to say I am working on getting it put together, and there will be not one, but THREE!!!  Just be excited.

Instagram

I am a huge fan of instagram and the photos that I have been able to take with it. In fact, some of my very favorite photos have been because of Instagram.  Last month, I decided that I wanted to be able to see the photos that I take every day, and not just on my phone.  That is how I came up with this idea.

The frame started out not too fancy.  I got it from Tai Pan years ago, and never really cared for the artwork inside of it.  (Here's a tip.  If you ever come across a square picture frame for really cheap, buy it. Seriously. You will thank me later.  They are pretty rare to find at a great price.)  I think I paid $15 for this frame and it is huge.  Like 3 feet square huge.

I started out by painting the frame.  I wanted the inside frames to match the outside frame and I wasn't really digging the whole gold frame look.  I used some spray paint and it was a whole new frame.

Originally, I thought that having the matting painted the same color as the frames would be a good idea.  But, once I got the photos in, I didn't like it.  To fix it, I cut some card stock paper into strips and put it into the spaces between the frames.  I love the way it helps the photos stand out.

As far as the photos go, I just uploaded them to photoshop and made them into 6 inch squares.  The photos that are my favorites, I made the full 6 inches.  The other photos that I like were made into 3 inch squares.  This made it perfect to send to costco to have it printed.  I put four squares together and printed it as a 12X12 photo.  It was inexpensive and pretty great quality too.  The photos are just connected to the frame with photo dots, so I can change them out whenever I would like to.  

Overall, I think it is a great piece for any home, and looks really great above my mantle.  It definitely is a conversation starter.

New Art for my Wall

About a month ago, I asked my awesome friend Caitlin (Lady Hue) if she would create a family photo for me.  She is a talented artist and I really love her style.  I sent her a bunch of random photos of my family so that she could get the basic idea of what we look like and size etc, and then she created this family photo that I adore. 

I knew that I wanted a place to display it that I could see it every day because I seriously can't stop looking at it.  I thought a frame would have worked, but I wanted it to be a little more substantial than that.  (Just so you have an idea of the sizes of everything, the pic is an 8X10.)

One day, while I was at the thrift store, I stumbled on this amazing table top.  It was $2.00 and I knew it needed to be mine.  There were just so many possibilities with it. 

Here's what I did.  First, I spray painted the frame the picture is in.  I went with a dark brown and I like the way that it outlines the photo and really makes it stand out. 

Next, I painted the table top edges the same brown.  Then, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought some scrapbook paper to mod podge to the front of the table.  I really like the paper I chose.  It coordinates very nicely with the decor I have going on in my front room. 

Last, I added some vinyl and hung the photo on top of the table. 

I love the way it turned out!  It is a perfect addition to my front room.  There is more to the arrangement on the wall, and you can kind of get a sneak peak here.  I need to write another tutorial before I can show you the whole thing though. :)