Plates On The Wall + How I Overcame My Fear Of Granny Decor

Let’s recap my hopes + dreams for our living room walls.

Imagine, if you will, that this ladder has gone away:

Bye bye, ladder!

But now what?

Well, let’s envision our TV’s  “going away”, too.

Making a long story (slightly) shorter — we could do this:

Pottery Barn!

Enter a caption

Nope.  Too scared of all those nails.  So I/we did this, instead:

That’s great, but wait.

What about this empty + sad space?

Plates on our wall?  Yes, please!

And even better, these plates are on a TV wall!

While I have some white ironstone platters,

I also love blue + white plates.

Notice how they’re hung in a symmetrical (traditional) layout.

More traditional + symmetrical happiness:

LOVE IT!

But how on earth do I do this?  Where should I start?

No problem — here’s a tutorial to help make it less intimidating:

But wait.  Needle scratch.

This is all fun, but here’s the thing:

 Everybody knows that plates on a wall are hopelessly granny.

Um, yes, I am a granny, but I don’t want my decor to be granny!

What should I do?

Um, maybe hang my plates in a non-traditional manner?

 Look at this!

decorfacil.com

I’m pretty sure these are decoupaged plates by John Derian.

mysweetsavannah.blogspot

Here’s John Derian now, in what looks like his NYC work room:

http://www.johnderian.com/pages/browse-by-shape

But let’s get back to my plate hopes + dreams.

Would layering them be out of my comfort zone?

pinkstreetdesign

How about turning a corner with them?

viewalongtheway.com

Okay.  Wait a minue.

Somebody needs to calm down, ’cause this just got crazy.

Does this mean I am still hopelessly indecisive?

Stay tuned — come back tomorrow.

 

Our Bungalow Is For Sale!

Hi again, sports fans!

Yesterday I blogged about our new art ledges:

While photographing said art ledges,

I took a few more snapshots of our living room.

Let’s have a quick look-see, shall we?

First up, my awesome red + white target artwork:

My friend, Alan, made it.

He has a new biz called Boxcar Home,

so look for him at pop-up markets in + around Chicago.

He + I may do one together, later this fall — stay tuned!

https://www.facebook.com/BoxcarHome/

Exciting, no?  But back to our living room!

The top of our sorter is currently sporting my old RedBird sign.

I stenciled it on an old plank from a cupboard,

which we found in the basement of our brick bungalow.

And look at that wonderful butter churn that G.O. bought last Sunday!

A couple of close ups of our sorter’s original gray paint:

Here are a few photos of the sorter’s cubbies.

Our dad caught this foul ball at a Cardinals game in the late 50’s.

The display stand is from Land of Nod.

I super love this miniature yellow ware bowl,

+ the small ‘pineapple’ patchwork ornament that my sister, Kathy, made:

Just a few of my dozens of books,

with the cutest blue + white floral bowl, ever!

I snapped some of our other living room happiness,

including this framed photo of my parents:

I bought that sponged frame at a folk art show, years ago.

My parents are seated on my old twiggy bench,

on the patio of the house we built on a riverfront lot.

Yikes.  That was 2 houses ago!

We just listed our most recent past house!

Disclaimer: we accepted an offer earlier this afternoon.

It’s been sold!

At Last, Art Ledges!

Jeopardy! was just on, + I didn’t get Final.  The humanity!

But let’s not dwell on today’s heartbreak;

 let’s discuss my new art ledges from IKEA, instead:

We have 4 of them on each side of that huge sorter.

I’m such a fan of art ledges — we had them at our old brick bungalow, too:

Art ledges are right up my decorating alley,

as they make it super easy for me to endlessly arrange + rearrange all my stuff!

They’re perfect for G.O., too,

as we don’t end up with Swiss cheese nail holes in our plaster walls.

But why, you ask, did it take us 10+ months

to hang art ledges here at the Dutch colonial?

  Well, here’s why  — I suffer from CDI.

Chronic Decorating Indecision

Let’s go back in time, when all this indecision was taking place.

I sit here, on our new-ish couch, while simultaneously watching Jeopardy

+ pondering where to display all my groovies.

Here’s my view while doing all that watching + pondering:

Disclaimer: I plopped that tall black ladder there just this morning,

so imagine this as an empty, blank space.

I just knew that it would be perfect for an epic gallery wall!

Here’s proof, all from Pottery Barn:

Yumm-O, am I right?

Yes I am right, but for some reason I just couldn’t commit.

Then, 0ne day, out of the blue,

I was struck with the idea of flanking our sorter with art ledges.

Perfect!  I love symmetry!

View from the front door. Our poor Eames-style recliner needs some TLC!

Let’s have a closer look-see at just a few of my groovies, shall we?

On the lower left side, I’ve incorporated some ‘leaners’.

Beatles Revolver LP . vintage map of St. Louis . folk art measuring stick, made from an old window sash (by me)

Now let’s view the lower right side, with its own leaner + a vintage child’s chair.

I’m sewing a cushion for it, for my biz — but I kinda like it here.

Perhaps I’ll keep it.

Cubist painting of Susie, our late great Dachshud by David Holsted of Harrison, AR . photo of our grandson with Susie . President Kennedy window cling

A framed map . Blackhawk statue in Oregon IL . Hogue Hall (now demolished) at my alma mater, Greenville College . vintage metal weather vane arrow.

Vintage letter cards . corresponding dictionary pages for ‘Oh’ (for G.O.) + ‘Kay’ (for me) . another vintage metal weather vane arrow

Close up of a print of my beloved Busch Stadium, from an etsy seller

Oh, how fun!

So many groovies, so little room left in this blog post, though!

Perhaps I will share more on another day — stay tuned!

Oh, + happy Labor Day weekend!