Large photographs of architecture

Elle Decor

I really like pictures of architecture used as artwork.  I think it works best when done as in the dining room above: large scale and simple, modern frame.  My problem is that our house has few expanses of wall large enough to accommodate such a photograph.  If it did, I'd want one of these:

Chateau de Versailles

Havana, Cuba, as photographed by Robert Polidori, who always seems to capture the beauty in destruction and decay. I'd love to purchase one of his photographs one day.

Before and after -- watercolor painting

 I bought this watercolor at a flea market last week.  The tag taped to it read, "Woman in New York," which I think is probably incorrect, though I'm not exactly sure what the setting is.  I tried to research the artist but was unable to dig up anything definitive (the signature says "Marchetto," in case that name is familiar to anyone).

The frame was unremarkable, so I bought a new frame and decided to paint the mat with the same acrylic paint that I used on these etchings to transform the speckled gray mat into a matte ochre that brought out the bits of yellow in the dress worn by the woman in the foreground.  Below, the requisite "before" and "after" pics...

Before

After

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  In its previous frame, all that gray made the watercolor look dull, but the new ochre mat and the wider frame together draw more attention to the painting's subtle colors, and I think the light blue wall color complements it well.  Total cost for this project: $14 ($6 for painting, $8 for frame and paint, both on sale at Michael's).  Not bad for a classic New York skyline!  :)

To do this weekend

Hope you're all having a nice ending to your week.  Here in Iowa, the weather is beautiful, and despite the fact that I am a little swamped with work right now, I'm hoping to take advantage of a few fun events this weekend:

Image from Raccoon Forks Trading Co. website

Today, Raccoon Forks Trading Company is clearing out their warehouse in the East Village (511 E. 6th St.).  They will be having a sale from noon till 4:00 p.m. on Friday.  Look for consigned items like antique furniture, vintage accessories, etc.  And don't forget to check out their regular store on Ingersoll Avenue here.

And this weekend (Friday - Sunday) is the Des Moines Art Festival.  I am ashamed to say that I've actually never been before, so this year I'm really going to make an effort to get downtown for this event.  With more than 200 artists coming in from Iowa and around the country, I hope to find a new piece or two for our home.  For more information, including where to park and a list of the artists and events, visit their website here.

And on the home front, I'm planning on finishing my little rehab of this mirror I found in an antique store recently.  Mostly, I need to dig out our stud finder and hope that there is a good place to hang this heavy piece in our foyer!  I have a few more changes I want to make to our entryway, then I'll post some before and after photos.

What about you?  Doing anything fun this weekend?

Twin Cities weekend trip

Over the weekend we took a quick trip up to the Twin Cities to do some shopping and relaxing before our busy summer starts.  The Twin Cities have so many little neighborhoods that it was impossible to see everything we wanted to, but we did manage to squeeze in as much as possible.  Here are a few recommendations in case you are planning a trip to Minnesota soon!

We stayed downtown at The Hotel Minneapolis.  It is located inside a converted bank, so think lots of marble pillars and floors and black and white photographs of old downtown Minneapolis, with updates like neon lights and modern furniture.  Here are a couple pics of the hotel in case you are like me and like to see where you're going to be staying before you get there!

 

I thought this graphic wallpaper was kind of fun in the bathroom.

You could get a similar look with these picture lights at IKEA and some framed black and white photos of your own (or check the RIBBA collection!).

Seating area in the lobby with Barcelona chairs, a Platner table, and a waterfall lit with neon.

There are a couple of the old bank vaults in the hotel.  The bigger one (not pictured here) has been outfitted as a wine cellar.  I like that you can see the original brick walls around this smaller vault.

 

Just keep in mind that if you stay downtown, you typically have to pay for parking, which can add on an extra $20-30 per day, so plan for that or try to find a hotel special that includes valet parking.

And of course I had to find some kind of little project inspiration during our trip!  Our hotel room had a little niche with a set of floating drawers, with the coffee maker and ice bucket sitting on top.

 

You could easily recreate this look with a MALM set of drawers in the black-brown finish.  Top it off with a glass top (paint the backside first in whatever color you like -- the red here looks nice!).  Then hang a LUNTA light above and you've got a very similar look!

Speaking of...

Whenever we are in the Twin Cities we try to make a trip to IKEA.  Sometimes these are quick trips, and other times we are there for hours.  This time we made a list beforehand and power walked through the store.

I finally managed to find some juice glasses, which I had been needing for a long time -- these hand-blown white glass ones were perfect and not insanely expensive at $2 a glass.  We also got a new desk for the office redo and a few items for the boy's bedroom, which is changing subtly to be more of a big boy's room.  I'll share photos of both projects when they get further along.

We made a quick trip to Edina, which has some stores we don't have locally (Crate & Barrel, West Elm, Container Store, etc.) but spent a good part of the day in the Uptown area of Minneapolis (which, weirdly enough, is south of downtown).  We had an early dinner on the rooftop of Stella's, a terrific seafood restaurant with a great view of downtown Minneapolis, and walked through the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center.

If you like outlet shopping, Albertville Premium Oulets are north of the cities off of I-94 and have a pretty good selection of stores.  We ended up shopping during a huge thunderstorm, getting completely soaked.  Ah, what we will do for deals!

We dried off and warmed up at Three Squares Restaurant in Maple Grove, northwest of the cities.  They have all-day breakfast, plus lots of great options for lunch and dinner.  We've been there before, and everything I've ever gotten was really good!

Of course there is always the Mall of America (see photos of the LEGO store here), but sometimes the crowds are too much for me!

I'm hoping we'll get up to MN again sometime this summer; there are lots of places on my "to go" list still!  What about you?  Any favorite local places in the Twin Cities?  Feel free to make suggestions in the comments section.  I am always looking for new places to visit!

 p.s. - Check out my friend Nikki's blog post on their recent visit for her shopping / eating recommendations.




All photographs mine except Albertville Outlet Mall photo (from their website here).

Local thrifting finds

I have a couple weeks off before summer semester starts, so I've been trying to do a few fun things in my spare time.  One of those is getting to local flea markets or antique shops.  A few finds:

 Old spice tins would be really cool in a modern or retro kitchen.  Wouldn't they look good lined up on this shelf in a really sparse white kitchen?

This grandfather clock was only $100.  It could be made presentable with a little furniture polish.  I like the detail of the woodwork (not too ornate) and the size (not as as gigantic as some of these clocks can be).

These silver servers with inlaid wood handles came home with me.  The handles are shaped like birds and are in excellent condition.  I plan to polish the silver and perhaps use them to entice my family to finally eat some salad!

I also bought a couple items at a local consignment shop.  I had liked this watercolor by California plein aire painter Betty Jo March for a while, and since it hadn't sold after a few months, I was able to make them an offer and buy it with some birthday money--yay!

I also picked up a pair of tole sconces.  I'm not sure where these will go yet, but I thought they were pretty.


What about you?  Any good finds lately?

Recycling kids' art

I don't know how it is at your house, but recently our preschooler has been prolific at producing artwork.  Coloring pages, watercolor paintings, miscellaneous "sculptures"--you name it, he's been hard at work making multiple copies.

One way I try to display some art without keeping all of it is by framing a few pieces and hanging them in his room.  For a few months I've had some of his colorings there (see his room tour here).  But then I had an idea to try to incorporate some of his more "abstract" work (I mean the kind with squiggles or paint everywhere!) by framing it with a silhouette of sorts.  I decided to use a Doctor Who theme since he's a big fan of the show.  Here's how you can make your own silhouette art:

Supplies you will need: a few kids' paintings to serve as the background, some construction paper or cardstock, scissors, and images of what you'd like to silhouette.

I just found a couple pictures online of a Dalek and the TARDIS, then blew them up in Microsoft Word and printed them out in grayscale since all I really needed was the silhouette.  Feel free to use whatever your child likes: animals, a silhouette of their profile, trucks and cars, shapes, numbers and letters, etc.

Once you have printed out the image you want to use, carefully cut around the edges and center it on the colored paper.

Trace around the image, then cut it out of the middle of the construction paper.  This is probably the most time-consuming stage since you want to be really neat with your cuts.

When you're finished cutting out the image, tape your kids' artwork to the back of the paper, then mount the art inside your picture frame.  Here is the completed Dalek silhouette.

And here is the finished TARDIS silhouette.

I hung an inexpensive KVART sconce from IKEA above the frames to light them from above.

The final product:

Guatemala gallery wall

I hope you have enjoyed seeing a few pictures from Guatemala this week!  I really love all the colors and the flowers, so I brought a little bit of that into our home in a gallery wall in a hallway.

I bought these frames at Kohl's for the project (but in a brown wood finish).  Target or IKEA would be other good resources for reasonably-priced frames.  The frames came with double mats, so I removed the inner mat to insert a bigger photograph.

A quick tip: when hanging frames in a grid like this, the placement is most eye-pleasing when there is the same amount of room between each frame, in each direction.  Also, to avoid making lots of "oops" nail holes in your wall, try using wire to hang the frames rather than relying on the hanger that may already be attached to the back of the frame.  With wire, you can twist it up or down a little bit to make minor corrections and ensure a straight grid.

Easy animal artwork

These animal silhouettes used to hang over the changing table in our nursery.  The walls are painted in wide stripes of soft green and white, and most of the furniture was white.  The nursery bedding was yellow with different colored polka dots, and we also brought in some red pillows and other accessories.

This was a really simple project.  I purchased some animal decals from Uppercase Living in different colors.  I then used these frames from Walmart and pulled out some different colors of construction paper.  I played around with the construction paper and the decals to find some pairs of colors that worked well together.  I then cut the construction paper to fit into the frames and applied the decals to the outside of the glass.

When our son was little he loved to point out all the animals from his crib and say, "Goodnight, lion.  Goodnight, hippo.  Goodnight, giraffe" before going to sleep each night.  It was a while before he could pronounce the "ph" sound in "elephant."

"Goodnight, elesant."

Bela Sziklay etchings

A while back I found a set of three prints in a local flea market.  One of the frames was missing the original glass, but otherwise the artwork appeared to be in good shape.  I thought they were kind of cool and recognized the setting of at least one of the prints as being Venice, so I bought them thinking I'd find a place for them somewhere in the house.

As I was working on the master bedroom redo I realized the colors and style of the prints would work there, so I went about updating them with spruced up mats and frames.  Here they are before:

I decided against reframing as that would have been a bit out of my price range!  Instead, I took the frames apart, touched up the scuffs on the wood frames with a stain pen, and used a little wood cleaner/refinishing product on them.  Then I washed and dried the glass (and had another piece of glass cut to replace the missing piece).  I was actually going to go get three new red mats cut, but then I read this post by Jenny of Little Green Notebook in which she suggested painting the mats.

I decided it wouldn't hurt to try as I was going to just toss the old faux wood grain mats anyway, so I got a 99-cent bottle of red paint at Wal-Mart and a foam brush and put several light coats of paint on the old mats.  Sure enough, it dried really flat and looks great.  I may eventually get "proper" mats cut, but these will do fine for now!

Here is the finished product:

I am really happy with the red mats since they bring out the bits of red in the coloring of the prints.

At some point in this project I decided to google the artist and see what I could learn about him/her.  After some playing around online I found out that these were a set of three signed, hand-colored etchings by the Hungarian artist Bela Sziklay, who did most of his work in Italy during the first half of the 20th century.

I like how Sziklay pictures ordinary people and scenes in his work: a table with a picture frame on it, men waiting around for someone to buy their flowers, three women chatting.

Here's the Antiques Roadshow part of the post...

I paid $15 for the set of three large (13" x 17"ish) etchings and only spent $5 on new glass and mats.  Online, most Sziklay etchings are selling for about $100-300 per piece (seriously, see HERE).  Not a bad investment!!  I think the best part though is that I really do like them and would have been happy if they were only worth $15.  It's also a good reminder that you don't have to have thousands of dollars to get nice artwork for your home.  If you are willing to shop around a little bit you can certainly find nice, original pieces that you will love so much more than if you have the exact same art on your walls as your neighbor.

One thing I'd like to get better at is purchasing artwork for our home.  We have some already, but I need to work on our collection, focusing on unique pieces that are meaningful to us. Some of my favorite art is not particularly valuable monetarily but is of great sentimental value because of where or from whom we purchased it.  See, for example, this set of three whirling dervishes I got in Istanbul that I've posted on before.

I would also like to start buying some pieces directly from the artists.  I mostly find older art that has been donated or consigned or sold at a garage sale, but I would like to start buying a few new pieces too.  Maybe I'll finally go to the local art festival next summer...

I'll leave you with one last set of before and after shots: