I finally figured out what to put in these gold frames in the guest bedroom/office and I’m calling it done! I put this room together on the very cheap with some hand-me-down furniture, spray paint and art from my own printer.
This room was a hodgepodge when we moved in, collecting all our leftovers. There was missing drywall and flooring from mold clean up. I was even more motivated to do this room on a next-to-nothing budget after those expenses. I did some brainstorming and made mood board in this post, where you can also see the amazing blond palm fan we replaced.
We needed this room to function as a guest bedroom and a small office for Marcello to talk on the phone away from the kids. He requested something masculine, and I’ve wanted a navy blue room forever!
We got a new bed frame several years ago and we saved this one in the garage. I think it was from JC Penny for a few hundred dollars. The lamp was from a neighbor throwing things out and it was hideous. I spray painted the heck out of it. See here. The table belonged to my great grandmother. And I printed the sea and sky canvas at Costco a few years ago. Go here from more details.
It’s hard to take pictures with a baby in your arms, but I sort of love that she likes to be held so much — even if it’s breaking my back. Marcello works for a wine importer, so we have these huge wine fridges on the back wall. And no, we can’t drink all the wine ;)
These are the shenanigans going on behind me as I try to take pictures.
About the nautical art
I originally thought I would do a tutorial on the nautical art, but as I shared on Instagram, it became quite tedious:
BUT I can give you the basics if you’re still interested and handy with Photoshop. Here’s what I did:
At last I had a spot for these frames I bought at an estate sale five years ago! They’ve been sitting in our garage and I just didn’t know what to do with them. I spray painted two of the old frames gold because they were in really rough shape.
Next, I figured out how I wanted to hang them on the wall. Then I drew a blank for two years and had no idea what art to put in them! I couldn’t decide if I should do a mix of mediums or abstract or color or black and white. It drove me nuts.
Eventually I had the idea cut foam board to fit the frame. Then trace watercolor paper to fit the foam board and use adhesive spray to glue them together. This allowed me to support the paper and avoid spending money on glass.
I bought a large roll of watercolor paper (36″ by 5 yards) for $16 with a 40 percent off coupon to Hobby Lobby, and I picked up four foam boards from the Dollar Tree for $1 each.
I found some amazing FREE nautical images on Vintage Printable I fell in love with here and here. I took out the background of each image in Photoshop, changed it to black and white and increased the contrast.
I decided the best way to get them to the paper would be to use a trick I learned from Hannah at We Lived Happily Ever After. I printed each and every image on a plastic binder sheet with my home inkjet printer and carefully laid the wet side down in the most organized composition I could do on the fly. (I also used this printing method on this growth chart.)
This was the tricky part and the reason I’m not doing a full tutorial. There are Photoshop skills required and a lot of room for error in choosing your layout. But it was such a cheap solution I couldn’t help but share in case someone felt up to the challenge.
