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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Temporary "art" for under $5 and a floor plan dilemma

Holy crap it feels like Christmas is already here, even though Thanksgiving has barely passed.  I'm mostly done shopping and in the midst of some homemade decorating projects in preparation for my first Christmas as a wife in a real house.  One thing that's been bugging me lately is the big empty spot to the right of our tv stand in the living room.  Our floor plan is very long and open, and we don't need any sort of desk or additional sitting area, so it's kind of a challenge to keep things from looking like we don't have enough furniture. 

One day I will find the right piece of art or something to go there, but that's not going to happen this year on this (teeny) little budget.  In the meantime, I just needed something to go on the wall and make the room look a little more finished while I figure out what to buy.  Enter Ikea and the amazing $19.99 Ribba frame.  At 20" square, it takes up lots of room when hung in pairs.  Then, one day I noticed my awesome yellow photo coasters and thought "why don't I do that in a larger scale?"

While I had the idea in my head, I went to Fabric.com and started looking at yellow patterned fabric and found the Bella Porte fabric by Dwell Studio (in Citrine).  I ordered two swatches (they're 8" square) for $1.50 and picked up some charcoal gray canvas textured scrapbook paper at Michaels (69 cents each).  Then, I got to framing and 20 minutes later I have what I think is a pretty decent solution to my problem.  I wish I'd ordered a half yard of the fabric to completely fill both frames, but that would have been $7 and I'm feeling cheap this week.



What do you think should fill the big empty space?  Imagine the Christmas tree gone (it's in the corner) and you'll see that I have an even larger void to fill...

P.S. I will be campaigning to paint the room pale gray but I've got another room to finish before mentioning it... I know it's a lot of beige right now.
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4 comments:

  1. hushNovember 30, 2010 at 9:31 AM

    Love it! When the tree comes down, consider putting up a tiered shelf in a fun color - like citrine yellow. Or a console with 2 lamps and a vibrant mirror centered over it on the wall (you know, the kind often seen in entryways in decor mags, but could also work in a corner.)

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  2. Katherine Allison LangeNovember 30, 2010 at 11:06 AM

    I have the same issue in my living room (pics sent to your FB). When the tree is not up, I have a distressed table that was originally a chicken coop! It's quirky, colorful, and goes great in the corner.

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  3. UnknownNovember 30, 2010 at 1:42 PM

    What a pretty tree!!

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  4. UnknownNovember 30, 2010 at 5:27 PM

    Good ideas, ladies! I have a console table that I could move over there and try it out... it currently lives on another empty wall by the front door. I think that will look less random than a chair in the corner, which would make whoever is sitting in it look like they're being punished. :)

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