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DIY: Fun Frames

Happy Monday everyone and welcome to a new week on decor8. I'm finishing up on the edits for my next book and working on the upcoming Blogging Your Way e-class, in addition to prepping the baby's room and enjoying the fact that today I am officially SIX months pregnant, so I'm a bit bonkers right now! Though I'm a relatively happy bonkers so that's okay I guess. But I do have some bad news... DIY: Fun Frames

With the start of my 6th month ALL of my nausea is back and oh my, it's not too fun. Eeeeeek! This is such bad news because I thought I was over it and was ready to do SO MUCH to my home to prep for my baby boy. I had extreme nausea until week 18 (remember when I told you I was severely dehydrated and lost 20 lbs?!) and then poof! It was gone. Like a beautiful miracle. I felt like the happiest person alive. But now, only 6 weeks later, it's back and I'm not so pleased at all. I'm trying so hard to stay positive and focused on the good things and to simply endure it with a smile but it is SO HARD. One thing that helps though is to focus on what I love in life - like decorating and being with my friends - and how much fun it can be to try new things at home. Which leads me to a DIY project that I want to share that I'm calling Fun Frames because really, these were a lot of fun to pull together.

I was feeling bored with having only a mirror above my gray wooden cabinet where I stash all of my fabrics and notions, so I thought I'd bring some pattern and color to the corner through frames and pieces of wallpaper by Abigail Ryan. I think this is a really cute look for a crafty space. Do you remember this post where I debuted her hand-illustrated wallpapers? Well I found a sweet spot for her patterns - inside of simple wooden frames that I painted Arsenic by Farrow & Ball. I'm a huge fan of Farrow & Ball paints, in fact I want to paint the baby's room in one of their gray tones. They cover so well and the matte finish is gorgeous.

DIY: Fun Frames

Here's what I did:

Step one: I cleaned (soap and water) some frames that I had laying around that were basically collecting dust in my cabinet -- and removed the glass and painted them in Arsenic. I used two coats to make them extra bright and pretty. I let them dry for a day.

Step two: I cut pieces of wallpaper by Abigail Ryan in Cosmo Margarita to fit the frame and taped each piece on the reverse side of the frame. I tried to center the pretty parts of the pattern - you may want to hold them up and mark with a pencil as I did to make sure you are showing the part of the pattern that you want to show.

Step three: Next, I cut some vintage illustrations from a botanicals book that was falling apart and added a few cutouts to the frames - one directly on the pattern in the larger frame and two tiny cut outs on the border of the smallest frame. I wanted to keep the theme of flowers for this look to work with the cosmo print on the papers and the green frames.

Step four: Marking the walls, I decided where to hang my frames and hung them - and I taped a pretty illo to the wall with some Liberty-patterned tape, also in a floral.

DIY: Fun Frames

Step five: I decided to add a little vial to the frame border of the medium frame (lower right) that could hold a few drops of water so that I could display a flower - so I popped in a yellow tulip. The vial weighs so little and has stayed on all summer with only a tiny drop of blue tack (which should be in every decorator's tool kit!).

DIY: Fun Frames

Step six: I made a colorful flower arrangement, which is always a welcome and beautiful touch to every space. I made this one using an assortment of pretty things from the local flower shop that I gathered together that made me happy. Roses, craspedia (aka billy buttons), poppies, tulips, lime hydrangea and sweet peas are among the bunch.

DIY: Fun Frames

Step seven: The final bit is to always stand back, admire, tweak and then admire again. I added some of my fabrics to the top since the cabinet is stuffed with them, a pair of old scissors from my grandmother and a birdy postcard from Emily. Barb gave me the most adorable ceramic white houses so I put them on the frames since they are chunky enough to double as shelves. Funny thing is, since I shot this - I've already completely changed up this nook (I am rotating things around every 3 months or so), but I still wanted you to see it because it's such a sweet idea. This would work in so many rooms - including a craft room, baby's room, kid's room, etc.

I hope that you enjoyed my little DIY today. I will do more again soon, I love putting them together for you to show you how EASY it is to change up your little corners. Decorating should be fun. Also a big thanks to Leslie for being my model (she is holding the flowers above in her striped shirt). xo

(images: holly becker for decor8)