Budget Friendly DIY Interior Decorating and Home Design Ideas Blog
…well, technically five if I want to avoid canine discrimination (dogs are family members too, aren’t they?), and six if I also count the vacuum cleaner which I’m sure Charlotte thinks is her pet miniature pony.
Either way, there is to be a new little bee in our busy hive…
Due mid March 2013. We can’t wait.
At my parent’s house, my brother’s old bedroom has been converted into a nursery/playroom for their expanding army of grandchildren. To suit their evolving needs (and growing accumulation of toys!), Mum is constantly re-arranging the space and has found decorating with any sort of permanence a real inconvenience.
Though with her understandable reluctance to commit to anything enduring, wall décor in the room has suffered.
Sure, a few nail holes here and there is no real biggie (doesn’t bother me one bit – if only you could peek behind my existing frames!), though she was after something a little bit different which could be easily and swiftly removed and repositioned. So, we put our heads together to come up with a simple, effective and thrifty DIY solution using some bits and pieces she already owned.
Certainly, string and peg artwork holders are nothing new, and there are loads of gorgeous variations out there, though here’s how we chose to create our light-weight, semi-permanent alternative which is a great option for temporary seasonal displays (such as Christmas cards) along with for renters or the just plain fickle-minded!
1. Cabinet knobs or similar.
Ensure they aren’t too heavy and that their base has a large enough surface area to affix a reasonable amount of adhesive to. We used plain pine knobs and left them natural though you could easily paint or embellish yours or use some off-the-shelf decorative ones.
2. String or twine.
3. Clothes pegs or similar clips.
We used dolly pegs, and again, we left them natural though you could easily paint or embellish yours.
4. Good quality double-sided tape or similar.
You can try using just about anything, from blu-tack (sticky tack) to purposefully designed removable picture hanging strips – see the ‘At a Glance’ section at the bottom of the post for some links. We used adhesive velcro dots because that’s what we had on hand. Depending on the surface area of the base of your knobs and the pre-fabricated size of your adhesive you may need to trim it slightly.
5. Artwork, photographs, greetings cards etc. to display.
As it’s a kid’s room we used some of my niece’s and nephew’s drawings along with a few scraps of decorative paper.
1. Simply cut your string to length and tie each end around a knob.
Don’t make your string too long. You need to ensure your chosen adhesive can bear the weight of your art. Our string is around 1 meter (1 yard) long and comfortably holds five pieces of standard paper.
2. Determine where on your wall you want your holder to be positioned (both height and width wise) then mark each end point with a pencil.
Don’t forget to allow space width-wise so the string can dip slightly.
3. In accordance with the manufacturers instructions, attach your adhesive and affix your knobs to the wall where marked, pressing firmly.
4. Allow a few minutes for the bond to settle before hanging your desired art!
Our holder has been up for well over a month now and hasn’t shown any signs of budging. I’m actually tempted to convince Mum to hang an additional one (or two!) just above to create a tiered effect.
We found the gap in our dolly pegs was too wide to grip our paper, so neatly folded a corner of each sheet over the string first. Depending on the type of pegs/clips you choose to use this may be unnecessary.
Do note that our string and peg holder is being used purely for decorative purposes. I wouldn’t recommend a semi-permanent solution like this for functional applications (such as for a memo holder in a home office) as constant use may weaken the adhesion over time, giving it a tendency to fall down.
The point of this particular project was to create a temporary display which negated any need to bang holes in walls. As mentioned above, a great solution for renters or the fickle minded and for semi-permanent décor such as Christmas cards. If you’re not adverse to a few nail indents then there are numerous beautiful and inventive ways to create something similar.
To remove the knobs from your wall with limited risk of damaging the paintwork simply blow with a hair-dryer (or shoot with a heat gun) for around 30 seconds or so to soften the adhesive first then gently peel back.
I was recently fortunate to have my canister labels featured in the September issues of both Ideal Home magazine (UK) and Art & Craft magazine (France).
The Ideal Home mention may have been just a tiny note in the Editor’s Letter though I was still majorly excited. The mag isn’t available here in Oz though the admin team were sweet enough to placate my pleading and send a copy on over.
Being French-based, Art & Craft magazine is also unavailable here, though once again they were kind enough to send me a copy. I was pleasantly surprised to find my labels with a generous double page spread as the opening project for the mag’s Décor section.
Thanks to all my international readers for contacting me about the features. And loads of gratitude to both magazines for choosing to include little ol’ me. It’s surreal to see the virtual pages of my blog come to life on tangible leaves.
If you’re not new here you might be wondering just what’s going on with my previously blogged about home office space.
Well, between scrubbing breakfast cereal off my walls (no-one warned me that, once dry, milk and weetbix actually forms a NASA-grade adhesive) and all of life’s other rigmarole, the room has actually been slowly evolving and is finally nearly done!
I’m looking forward to sharing it soon, along with dedicated posts for a few of the remaining projects, though whilst I complete them, I thought I’d work simultaneously on a little revamp of my less-demanding entryway.
I don’t have a proper before before shot of my entryway (as it was when we first moved in) so just imagine a boring un-dressed space with dirty beige carpet, a dirty green wall and dirty brown trim. It’s teeny-tiny (as evidenced by the floor plan below, it’s virtually swallowed-up entirely once the front door is opened) though there is just enough room for a little vignette to help give the space its own welcoming identity.
I first shared my entryway back in 2010 – not long after I began blogging, when I was still using a pocket point-n-shoot camera and had no idea what a digital SLR even was.
There was nothing wrong with it (you may even prefer it ‘before’) though as is the catalyst for most of my re-decorating, I just wanted a change, in this case – a move away from the rustic, coastal vibe to something a little more classic and refined.
We rarely use the front door as our main entrance so there’s little need for practical paraphernalia (such as coat hooks, hat stands, mail dumping drawers or key collecting dishes) which gave me free reign to focus purely on aesthetics. Because it’s such a small space it is awkward to photograph so please excuse the lack of perspective. Anyhoo, here it is now…
After a long search I found the sweet antique barley twist table on eBay and it was just what I’d been looking for. As can be seen in the above floor plan, the front door swings open to leave a petite gap between the adjacent wall so I needed something suitably narrow and the proportions and style of the barley twist table were just perfect.
I always get questions about my wallpaper. I put it up about five years ago, long before I started blogging, so sadly it never occurred to me to keep a record of the brand or design. All I can recall is that I purchased it from a Bristol Paint Centre and at the time it was around $45 a roll (at the low end of the price scale). I assume that by now it’s likely discontinued.
I already owned the jute rug. It was initially intended for use in a different room though it never quite worked in there so I decided to try it in the entry where it is surprisingly perfect. When I originally bought the rug (for its intended room), I couldn’t find one with the dimensions I needed, and after contemplating – then dismissing – various methods of making my own, I decided to have one custom made (argh, I know, the term ‘custom made’ makes me flinch too, though in this case it’s not nearly as scary as it sounds). Because the rug is quite narrow I negotiated to have it made from an off-cut that was left-over after a carpet installation (rather than having it freshly cut from a new roll). I saved over $100!
The mirrors are encased in cheap vintage frames I found at charity stores. I replaced the original artworks with mirrors I had cut by a local glazier. Don’t dismiss having mirrors cut because you think it might be too costly. My mirrors were only $5 each! Add that to the few measly dollars I spent on the second-hand frames and that’s two pretty thrifty pieces of wall decor!
Given it’s mid-Spring here down-under, I couldn’t resist filling my oversized glass canister with fresh apple blossom though once all the pretty blooms have succumbed to our hot summer, as a more permanent solution, I think I’ll try displaying a potted fern on the table instead.
Although I’ve moved towards a more traditional, vintage look the space feels somehow new. I’m sure in the future I’ll be nudged once again by the inevitable desire for change though for now I’m loving my revitalised entryway.
I never could have guessed the amount of interest my little canister labels project (posted back in February) would generate. I have been happily inundated with comments and questions ever since!
One stand-out request has been for me to share the original PSD (Photoshop Data File). For those of you who don’t know what the heck that is, you probably don’t have Photoshop, so unfortunately it won’t be much good to you anyways, though if, like me, your brain likes to know stuff, you can read more about PSD files here. Basically, it’s a freely editable version of my labels.
Well, I’m pleased to announce that you’ve all finally worn me down :-) So for everyone lucky enough to have Photoshop you can now download my baking canister labels in PSD format for FREE below! If you’re not fortunate enough to have Photoshop you can also download the printable PDF version below. Oh, and if you happened to miss my original tutorial for applying the labels you can view that here.
The downloadable zip file comprises two documents; one for CS users (which contains neat folders of grouped layers) and one for Elements users (which contains a gazillion layers though is folder free, thus compatible).
Because I’m a big computer nerd now, I decided to do some research on PSD’s for the purpose of this post, and aren’t all you Elements users glad I’m such a geek? Otherwise, I never would have discovered that Elements doesn’t support layers grouped in folders and I never would have created a special folder-free document just for you – you can hug me later :-)
To conserve my labels in their original form, ensure you have installed all three free fonts listed below.
Have fun!
Free for personal use only.
Republication, reproduction or redistribution in any form is forbidden.
