Changing it Up…The Evolution of a Little Boys Room {Picture Wall}

 

Good Morning! It’s Spring Break here and we are going to be spending a lot of time outside working in the yard (I can’t wait …. seriously it’s one of my favorite things!) and hopefully a lot less time on the computer. But before I head out I thought I would share the progress on Mason’s room. It’s been super slow progress but we’re getting there!

Since it’s been so long since I’ve updated his room, here is a picture of what we started with.

 

We painted and switched out the furniture. (Remember, this used to be Daxon’s room and then they did a switcheroo.)

 

Added some fun chevron fabric to lengthen the curtains and a memo wall.

 

And here’s how it looks today. If you follow along on Facebook or Pinterest then you may recognize a couple of the changes. We found his new dresser on KSL (a local classified website), covered his lampshade and added a super fun picture wall. I drool!

 

I mean seriously, giant pictures of my favorite eight year old, framed in rustic pine frames that didn’t break the bank! And bonus … they even graduate in stain color from dark to light. Like I said, I drool!

 

I had the pictures printed off at Staples (they are engineer prints which only come in black and white on thin paper) for $13 bucks for four 24x36 pictures. Can’t beat that! Then I mounted them with spay adhesive on some 1/8” panel board for stability (you really could use anything, we just had some laying around and figured it would work). Once they were mounted on the panel board, I thought it would be nice to protect them with a finish of some sort, so I sprayed one of the pictures with a spray poly. DO NOT DO THIS!!! It totally bubbled the picture. So, I just left the rest alone and figured they were cheap enough that they could be replaced as needed.

For the frames I used this tutorial from Young House Love. They were fairly simple and to make and way cheaper than going out and buying four huge frames.

 

Once they were built, stained, and poly-ed, it was time to attach the pictures to the frames by nailing them right into the back of the frames. Easy Peasy!

 

I then attached the hanging hardware. I used two large picture hangers per picture and nailed them right into the top of each frame.

 

I ended up having to bend the picture hangers a bit before nailing them on because if not they were flush with the panel board and wouldn’t be able to catch the screw when I hung them.

 

Once they were ready to hang I traced each frame onto some brown paper, making sure to mark on each paper exactly where the nail goes. Then I taped the papers up on the wall exactly where I wanted the pictures hung and nailed a small nail into each spot that I has previously marked.

 

Then, I took one sheet of paper down at a time (leaving the nails in the wall). If I was hanging something light I could have just hung them at this point, but I chose to use wall anchors so that my pictures were nice and sturdy. I then took the nails out and installed the wall anchors in their place and then hung the frames.

 

I couldn’t be happier with the results and may have sat on the bed and stared at them for, um … awhile after I was done!

 

And just because I seem to stay motivated with a list, here is a list of things to still be done! Heaven help me finish this up soon!

Mason’s Room

Paint

lengthen curtains

new dresser

memo wall

plank the desk wall

desk/chair

accessories

headboard

Trophy Organization

Desk Lighting

Art/Pictures on wall

*Bed skirt

*Cover Lamp Shade

 

Kristin

Linked Up:
Thrifty Decor Chick, Evolution of Style, Lolly Jane (The Scoop),Savvy Southern Style,Not Just a Housewife, The House of Smiths, Somewhat Simple, Living Well Spending Less, Six Sisters Stuff, Tatertots & Jello