Worldly Wall Art – Part II

In my last post I talked about some frames that hung around for a long time that finally got some love and attention.  Those postcards that I framed have some company!  Lindsey at Better After recently wrote about some goodies that she got from Map My State (did this sentence have enough links in it for you?).  I fell in love!  I ended up purchasing two prints.

Texas and Michigan are close to my heart.  I was born in Kalamazoo, MI.  My whole family is from various cities in The Great Lakes State.  From Holland to Dearborn and beyond, we have Michigan covered!  We moved away when I was young, and I totally wish I could go up and visit more often.  I have lived in Texas suburbs in the DFW Metro Area since I was six years old.  And that mega handsome boyfriend of mine was born in Dallas and grew up in the DFW suburbs too.  Many of our memories were made here, and we both consider the area our forever home.  Suffice to say, Michigan and Texas are pretty special places to the fella and me.  So adding high-quality, visually beautiful prints of both of them to our little “travel wall” seemed like a no-brainer to me!

All we needed were frames.  I love going thrift shopping.  I was out on one of my thrift-shop-hops with my Mom (my favorite thrifting partner) and found two frames whose shapes were nearly identical.  Seriously, I think one of them is maybe one millimeter shorter than the other.  The funniest part is that I found the first one – an espresso finish with gold – and said it would be perfect if it had a twin, and before I even finished my sentence I found the same shaped frame with the same gold detail on it in a walnut finish.  Praise the frame gods!  AND they were $1.98 each.  Praise the thrift gods!

I got ’em home, gave ’em a light sanding and wiped ’em down with a cloth to prepare for my favorite part of the process: spray painting!

They got a coat of my go-to primer, Zinsser B-I-N.  Seriously, that stuff sticks to air.  And then this happened:

It was one of those “Oh no, there’s a particle on it, get it off!  Oh shouldn’t have touched that…” moments.  There’s a reason the can specifically outlines a “dry to touch” time, folks.  File that under DIY Duh… Or Primer Problems.  So I sanded and did a quick re-spray on the spot that I messed up and then let it dry for the appropriate length of time.

I followed up with Rustoleum American Accents in flat white to match the other frames on the wall.

And after my least favorite part – the 48 hour dry time – I brought them inside and was reminded that one of them was missing the hanging hardware.  Luckily, I had some sawtooth hangers on hand, so I just measured to find the center and attached the hardware with the provided nails to the back of the frame.  Sidebar – I really love my tools, especially the mini ones…  Hold me closer, tiny hammer.

Then the frames got all dressed up with their new prints!

I used my usual method for deciding where on the wall these guys would hang: paper and tape.  A piece of ruled paper was close enough to the size of my frames and did just fine helping me visualize what they’d look like in their final state.  I tried a few different formations before I landed on my favorite.  As you can see, Turkish Pup was happy to help…

I don’t think frame galleries always have to be exactly symmetrical but it worked best for these prints.  That may change if I find myself adding to this group later on, who knows.  For now, they look great where they’re at!  Now me and the fella are reppin’ our favorite states with style!

Oh and I’d like to give a shout-out to the folks at Map My State!  I never received a tracking number when my order was shipped, and when I emailed to inquire about it they responded in less than 30 minutes!   They were super helpful and sweet, and my prints came out great!  Overall a fantastic experience with this company!

Who else is showing love to their favorite states with prints or an art project?  Do tell…