A Frame Is Not a Frame

All I wanted to do was hang some pictures on the wall.

NIGHTMARES IN PHOTO FRAMING

1.  Take advantage of a Shutterfly sale and free shipping coupon code, and order some honeymoon & wedding prints.  Pat myself on the back for scoring such a deal.

2.  Head to IKEA to buy frames.  On a Saturday, because I'm out of my mind.

3.  Select the RIBBA series because of the flexibility of their wide range of sizes (insert ominous foreshadowing music here).

source

4. Bring them home and successfully frame the 8x10 photo.

5.  Wonder why the 11x14 photo is too small.  Realize I didn't take the measurements seriously when they said 11 3/4" x 15 3/4".  Whine a little bit, but decide I can live with this.

personal photos

 6.  Optimistically, move on to the other 11x14.

personal photos

7. Begin to get a really bad feeling about this whole project.  Have a meltdown over my own disattention to detail, and IKEA's european frame sizes.

8.  The next day, head to Michael's and pick up an 11x14 mat.

9.  Cut the mat to size because it's too big for the frame.

10.  Discover that the new mat is not at all the same color as the IKEA original.  Whine some more, stomp around for a bit.

11.  Head back to Michael's and buy a matching 8x10 mat.  Discover that the new mat is too small for the frame.

12.  Decide to throw in the towel on this whole project.

13.  Scoff at husband's suggestion to spray paint one of the mats.

14.  Get out the spray paint.

15.  Let dry overnight.  Return the mat to the frame, and pretend to be surprised when the color has not changed at all.

16.  Decide I can't handle the torment of this project anymore.  Have a glass of wine.  Leave the different color mats as they are.

17.  One week later, head back to IKEA and buy another "almost 11X14" frame for the 3rd photo and switch out the mat for a new one (as before).

18.  Use frame inserts to plan wall arrangement.

19. HANG PHOTOS

(please ignore the terribly grainy photo, and the fact that the lower frame is slightly crooked - thanks.)

Start to finish, this ordeal took more than 2 weeks, and at least 2 years off my life.  It's a good thing I really love those photos.

If anyone asks, the mats appear to be different colors because of the the way the lamp light is hitting them.  Are we clear?

The Break-Up: Powder Blue

The previous owners of our house really loved powder blue.  Virtually every room in the house is painted this color, or has evidence that it was once painted this color.  Even the kitchen cabinets.  Really.

We were lucky enough to have almost 5 weeks between closing day, and moving day, so the first thing we did after the house became ours (actually, maybe the weekend before) was collect all the paint chips we could get our hands on.  We tackled the living room first.

Here's the listing photo of our living room.

And here's what it looked like all ready for a new color!  As you can see the previous owners left the rug because they heard we love powder blue too.  We left the brackets for the curtain rods up partly because we thought we might be able to reuse the rods, and partly mostly because it wasn't really clear how to take them off....

Husband made the inaugural brush strokes, marking our very first moment of home improvement.  It took him a long time to paint the whole room with that tiny little brush...

The new color is Linen, by Eddie Bauer.  It's warm gray, taupe, and occasionally olive (which was unexpected).

Here's the big moment where we said goodbye to powder blue forever!

...err, don't look in the adjacent room.

Here's the finished product.  We also repainted the window trim, and replaced 2 vent covers so they all match.  The stool you see here was officially the only chair  in the house until we moved in, and it only ended up here because of an unrelated mishap.  In the early days, a lot of frozen pizza was consumed while leaning or sitting on the kitchen counter very late at night...it never occurred to us to bring over something to sit on.  We prefer to whine.