4 Mini-Projects That Will Refresh Your Home

Today's guest post is from Lana, an architecture student and interior decorating fiend! She offers some fabulous ways to tackle small projects in your home that can make a big difference! Check it out. 

Homes need constant updates and refreshments, and sometimes making the right decision could be tough. Instead of engaging into big renovation projects your home might not even need, opt for making small differences that will make a change. Start your mini projects and do everything yourself, and achieve a whole new and better atmosphere of your home.

 Image source: Pinterest 

Gallery Wall in the Living Room 

 As its name suggests, the living room should be lively and offer comfy living. However, if your walls are white and blank, you cannot fully enjoy the comfort of this room. Dust off your boxes filled with family photos, frame up some of your kid’s best art or even gather some posters of your favorite classic movies and bring this room to life. Organize the frames above the couch or a fireplace and create an entertainment corner. Think outside the box and display your best memories and show off your creativity. You can even frame some old postcards, old money, inspirational posters and anything else that comes to your mind.

 Image source: homemydesign.com 

Green up Your Home 

 The most refreshing things in your home are plants. Not only do they look good and bring the soft colors inside, but they are also filtering the air and providing you with a fresh batch of clean air every day. You can go big with potted plants in the corners of your living room or hallways, or go small and build your own indoors garden. Arrange a few plants inside of a terrarium and decorate with small rocks, marbles and sand and bring fun refreshment into the home. Probably the best plants for such DIY decorations are air plants which are the portrayal of cuteness and the best air filters that exist. Also, if your days are too busy and you find it difficult to grow plants, than you can opt for cacti or even faux plants that still look gorgeous and can last forever.

Image source: abeautifulmess.typepad.com 

 DIY Racks for Everything 

 If you are tired of constantly misplacing your keys, scarves, jackets, purses and other small objects you need on a daily basis, it is time to roll up your sleeves and start building. Racks for any purposes are quite simple and easy to make. All the necessary tools can be ordered online, and honestly, you will need a few wooden planks, a hammer, some nails and desired decorations. In your hallway, nail a wooden plank into the wall and hang up some hooks for all of your jackets. Decorate it a little bit with paint or even glitter and voila! Also, right next to the door, you can hang up a small magnetic rack for your keys and another wooden one for your bags and purses. Another useful and interesting rack is a wine rack. For the most minimalistic look, get some help from your man and build together a simple wooden wine rack and display your best wines, while providing your kitchen or dining room with a touch of elegance.

Image source: diys.com 

 New No-Sew Pillows 

Refreshing your bedroom and furniture does not require refurnishing or buying new bedspread and covers. All you have to do is change the pillows or add some if you do not have them. If you are tired and bored by your old used up pillows it is time to either get rid of them or give them new cases. Go to the mall and make your afternoon all about the pillows. Look for some new cushions for the couch and bedroom or simply visit the fabric store and pick new patterns and designs for the pillowcases. The best thing when it comes to modern pillowcases is that no sewing skills are required. Everything is made simpler because of the cute buttons and easy zippers. So pick your pattern and give those pillows new outfits. 

 As you can see, your home can get a whole new vibe without spending a fortune. The secret is in the details, and that is why you should try out some of these ideas. Turn these mini projects into fun family time which will result in a cozier home.

Lana Hawkins is an architecture student and an advisory editor at Smooth Decorator.  She enjoys writing about interior decoration and landscaping. Lana is interested in sustainability and green building, and that's where she gets most of her inspiration. Thanks to her for sharing this great post!

Currently,

Kelsie 

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10 Tips for Creating a Great Gallery Wall

I'll admit it. Sometimes, I just want home decorating to be simple and quick. But other times, I find that the longer I think, and drool, and dream, and shop for just the right item, the more I love it in the end. This has definitely been the case for the gallery walls that I've done in our front room. It's sort of like wedding planning, but without a set timeline. And just like I shared in A Young Homeowner's Tips for Saving Money, home decorating doesn't have to break the bank! Here are 10 tips to making a great, personalized gallery wall:

1. Choose a theme.

What do you want your wall to include? Pictures? Travel? Art? Things that describe you? Where you come from? An initial? A little of each? I would encourage you to decide this before you begin. For the small gallery wall next to our stairs, I wanted to do some artsy pictures from our wedding and engagement. I balanced color and black/white photos. For the gallery wall shown above, I choose "places we love", highlighted by our initial and the year we were married and bought our home.

Theme: Wedding/Engagement. Color Scheme: Black. Location: Stairs.

2. Choose a location.
You know that empty spot on the wall you've had your eye on? Could be the perfect spot for a gallery wall. This is important to keep in mind when deciding on the size of your frames and how many items you want in your gallery. I didn't decide on any set sizes of everything, I just let it happen fluidly and I kept on eye on my space.

3. Choose a color scheme, and stick to it. 
You should choose one to three of your favorite colors to really highlight, and then bring those colors out in the frames, the pictures, the art, and whatever else you include in your wall. Keep the colors that are already in the room in mind. For example, in our front living room, I knew I wanted to highlight black, white, and red. I chose mainly black frames, and then accented with white and red to match the other color accents I'd already put in the room.


4. Be patient. Very patient.
Building your wall (and finding the items) takes time. Don't be in a rush. Keep your theme, budget, and vision in mind. I knew that I wanted to have a map of some places that were significant to our story, so I kept my mind out for some old maps. I found two perfect ones at First Fridays in the West Bottoms: one of the Southwest to commemorate our Spring Break trip, and one of Mexico to commemorate our honeymoon and Cancun trip. They were $1 each, and I found the matching black frames for them for $4 at Hobby Lobby. Winning.

5. Include something that can be changed up during the year.

Think about a place in your gallery wall that can be changed and or personalized for different seasons, celebrations, names, etc. On my gallery wall, my personalized space is the small red frame on the bottom left, which has a little folding picture clamp. For now, I have a picture of me and my hubby on it, but I'm planning to print off various pieces of paper that I can put on it with different holiday sayings, and one with 6.15 on it for our wedding date. Or maybe, someday, we will use it to showcase our kiddos art! Who doesn't love having an item that can be changed as much as desired?

Theme: Places We Love. Color Scheme : Black & White (with Red Accent). Location : Front Room.

6. Include things of personal importance.
Have cute art your kids made? Frame it. Have an awesome artsy picture or map that are important to you? Put it up. Our front room wall is all personalized: our last initial, where we went to college, where we're from, where we went on trips, and a photo! (And I spent no more than $10 on every item.) Make it yours for less.

7. Leave room to grow.
When I was creating our gallery wall, I wanted to make sure that I felt like I could add new items as desired (because being totally done with it means I don't get to keep my eye out for other cute things to add!). I have room on both sides where I can definitely add more if I find it. Tip: Add in pairs. Balance both sides if you add more.

8. Before you hang anything, play around with your arrangement. Then sleep on it.
If you're anything like me, you can be pretty indecisive, and feel unsatisfied with any rash decisions. In order to avoid this (and to help your gallery look its best) lay everything out on the floor and get a feel for what you're looking for. Then (and this is the hard part) don't hang anything. Not yet! 

9. Hang it up!

Keep things as straight as possible. Have other eyes help you (or if you're lucky like me, have your great hubby hang them for you!).

10. If you don't like it, change it!
Seriously, you aren't married to it. Change things around. Paint some frames. Make it yours, and make sure it's something that YOU truly like!

I LOVE gallery walls. I think they are such a fun little puzzle to put together. Have questions? Let me know below, or connect with me on the Facebook page. I hope you have a blast putting your wall together, and making it yours. Hope these tips help!

Currently,
Kelsie

I'm linking up with Finding Silver Pennies, A Peek Into My Paradise, Project Inspired, Coffee with Us 3, The Painted Drawer, and The Shabby Nest.

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How to Create Your Own Photo Map

It's no secret that Aaron and I LOVE traveling. We're always game for travel of all kinds, whether it's a cruise, a relaxing all-inclusive resort in Cancun, or an amazing European adventure. A few months after we were married, Aaron decided that one of his goals for us was to drive through and eat or stay in every single one of the 50 states. Also, as a rule, we had to get out and take a picture with the state sign, wherever we were. This has led to some pretty epic photos on the side of highways and in places that probably weren't the safest to be taking selfies (see Arkansas for a good laugh).

For our 2014 spring break, we traveled through nine different states and stayed at nine different hotels, taking state sign pictures in all of them. A few months later, I was looking for a fun gift to create for my hubby for our first anniversary, the "paper" anniversary. As I was scrolling through Pinterest, I saw a couple cute maps. That got me to thinking, wow, if I could make a personalized one, that would be a great use of all those pictures we've been taking. And so, I started a photo map for us. Here's the map complete with pictures from our Southeast Spring Break trip:

This spring, we went on an epic Southwestern Adventure, and had several photos to add. So, I'm back at it again, this time with step by step instructions on how to make your very own photo map!                                    

You'll need:

- Three foam boards

- A large map (I got mine at Staple's for about $8)

- Spray Adhesive 

- Scissors

- Tape

- Paper

- Push pins

- A tape measure or ruler

To assemble the board that your map will sit on, measure out the length of your map. Cut your foam boards (you may need an Exacto knife for this), and then tape them together so that they are one big board that fits your map. Use the spray adhesive on the foam board, and then mount your map on the front. Now you're ready to start with your states.

To create the states, lay a piece of paper over the top of the state. Carefully trace the shape of the state onto the piece of paper with a pencil. It doesn't have to be perfect, just do your best! 

Next, cut out your shape from the piece of paper. Lay it over the state and see how you did. For California, I used a couple different pieces of legal paper, and then I taped them together to form the state.

Next, measure all of your state shapes and write their measurements on them. You need to know what size of picture to print for each state. For the Southeast, this was really easy, because most of the states were right around 4x6'', give or take. Keep in mind that some states will be smaller than 4X6, so choose your photos wisely. It's also easier if the photos are taken horizontally, not vertically, but you can make any photo work with a little tweaking. For California, I knew I was going to have to piece together a few different 4x6" photos. Some states will need a 5x7.

Once you know the size you'll need, it's time to choose your photos. For me, I knew I'd be using our state sign pictures, then if I needed to piece together any photos I would use another picture from something fun we did in that state, like the Grand Canyon or some California palm trees. Your pictures can be anything fun that you did in that state, or whatever you want, we just chose state signs for ours. Choose something fun and memorable for your home state. I used one of my favorite pictures from our wedding for Missouri. Since I had to angle the photo to get our faces in it, I filled in the rest of the state with some black scraps from the photo. Scotch tape is your friend! 

Next, you're ready to cut out! I know this is intimidating, but I promise friends, it's not as hard as it looks! I simply hold the paper state that I 've cut out over the photo, and then follow the lines with my scissors. Play around with the photos and see how they best fill the shape of the state. You'll have to get creative with states like Florida that have an awkward edge or panhandle, but just cut scraps of the photo out and tape them together until you get the shape you need! 

Next, put your photos next to each other and see how they look. They don't have to be perfect. Consider overlapping or doing a few little snips here and there to make them fit together great. 

Now, all of the hard work is done, and it's time to put your states on the map! Grab those pushpins, and stick them in the corners of the states so that they lie flat. You may need to over or underlap states to make them fit. 

See how I used several multiple photos from California, Arizona, and Nevada to make each of the states work? I love the way that they turned out! 

 And there you have it: an updated and personalized map with photos of all of the states we've visited. Looks like we need to get to work on the North. (And I also need to find our Louisiana and Texas pictures). I promise, it's way easier than it looks!

 Personalized photo maps make great gifts, keepsakes, and memories of travels- without costing a lot. Still have questions? Need some advice on a certain step? Let me know in the comments below, or on the contact form. I'd love to help you out. Have so much fun!

Currently,
Kelsie

 I'm linking up with A Fresh Start, Wine'd Down Wednesday, The Quinntessential Mommy, Just us Four, Snippets of Inspiration, Just Another Linky, Twinkly Tuesday, Imparting Grace, Anderson and Grant, Feeding Big, The Handmade Hangout, AKA Design, Shaken Together Life, Bloom Designs Online, The Pretty Pintistic Party, The Painted Drawer, A. Liz Adventures, The Girl Creative, The Crafted Sparrow, and The Deliberate Mom.

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