Art wall

In our old house, we had a blank wall separating the dining room from the living room.  That wall was blank for nearly three years. I couldn't figure out what to do with it.  Then, one day, the West Elm catalogue came.  In it was this:

 image via Sarah's Fab Day

I loved it, and it was the perfect size for the space.  It wasn't cheap, so we saved up our pennies...and when I went to order it, it was sold out online.  Waaah.

We went out to dinner on our anniversary in Philly, and did a little window shopping afterward, and happened upon a West Elm store.  They had almost all the art in the gallery, so I bought it right then and there.  I wasn't excited about the bird, so I picked a different print, but otherwise, I bought the entire thing and hung it up in my house the exact same way. (I'm not offended by mass-produced art. Don't judge.) The colors went really well with our autumn-ish color scheme.  When we moved up here, we hung the gallery in our dining room.

Yes, they are all crooked.  And yes, I took the picture with a flash, at night, and there's glare, so shoot me. Its the only picture I can find from the way it was six months ago.

I was not thrilled with our old furniture color scheme in the new space when we moved up here.  Our new space is not quite as open and light-filled as our old place was, and everything seemed a bit dark and heavy.  A few months ago I made a few changes in our living/dining room. I painted the bookshelves, dining chairs and credenza white, got a white slipcover for the sofa, got a lighter rug, and brought in some red/aqua fabrics.

The art in the gallery wall was a bit on the autumn side....yellowish reds, browns and oranges, which didn't really go with the new white/red/aqua.  So I took a few out and put some new ones in.

I came across a bird wall decal in Target on clearance for $4.  I cut out the sections I like, put them on a thick white paper (actually, I didn't have any thick white paper so I tore the back off of two of my kid's coloring books), and switched out the butterfly prints.  Honestly, I know vintage animal anatomy prints are hot right now, but I never particularly liked them. I'm much happier with the birds.

I took out the squares and subbed in a bit of aqua quatrefoil fabric.

For the biggest frame, I found an etsy store that makes Keep Calm posters, and had one custom made in the red aqua. 

I considered getting the For Like Ever poster, but it didn't fit the dimensions of the frame.  I'm sure it will make its way into another room.