Orange You Glad You Went to the Thrift Store?

A couple weekends ago I visited a few of the thrift stores in town just to see what they were like. And yowza – I found all kinds of amazing things! I’ll share with you some of my projects with thrift store finds in the next few posts.

First up, new guest room lamps. Finding a matching pair of lamps in a thrift store is a sign – you must buy them. I spotted these blue babies, and liked the shape – kind of ginger jar-ish. But the color was atrocious. They were $6 each, so they came home with me.

Some painter’s tape to cover the brass, a can of pumpkin orange spray paint, a couple of new harps and shades, and voila! New lamps for the guest room! Lamps like this can easily run at least $50 each even in a place like HomeGoods, but these totaled $22 each. I like the pop of color they give. The guest room is still very much a work in progress, but my new lamps have given me the oomph I needed to get back to decorating it.

How to Hang Pictures Straight and Even 100% of the Time

(Prelude: Thanks to everyone for your comments, messages, emails and texts about my dad. We’re making it. I’ll update you on that situation later, but I really appreciate all your thoughts and prayers.)

If there’s one thing Trusty Husband hates, it’s multiple holes in the wall made by me trying to line up pictures. He likes his walls pristine and unadorned, whereas I like to, you know, hang stuff on them. You might remember my master bedroom tour post and the pictures hung over our bed. I think I posted that prematurely, because I never felt really settled in that room – something was askew. So I’m in the process of moving things around. First order of business? Move the collage wall from over the bed to the long, “what-do-we-do-with-this” wall to the left:

Problem: Hanging pictures for a collage wall is a pain. I hate it. When I hung these pictures over our bed the first time, each one took about 20 minutes and 5 nail holes to get right, and even then they weren’t EXACTLY straight and even (my conversation with Trusty Husband went like this: (him) “They’re not even.” (me) “Yes they are.” (him) “Katy, I don’t think they are.” (me) “I used a level. They’re even. Maybe your legs are different lengths.”). I figured there had to be an easier way. But what? Drawing lines on the wall? If a few nail holes sends Trusty Husband into orbit, think what lines drawn on the wall would do. No. I bought this contraption, called a Hang ‘n’ Level, but it sucks:

Enter: Gridded wrapping paper.

Genius. Just cut a piece of wrapping paper that has the grid on the back in the shape of your wall, tape it up there with painter’s tape, make sure it’s level, and voila! Instant picture-hanging grid!

Hammer your nails directly into the wrapping paper. Hang your middle picture first, and use the grids to make everything level and the same distance apart. Once you’re happy with how it looks, take the pictures down and remove the paper from the wall – just carefully slip it over the nails.

Aren’t you surprised you hadn’t thought of this before? I am. But it took hardly any time and the results were great! I’ve got to get several more frames to fill the space, but it’s a start to taking care of that massive wall.