Entryway Spruce-Up

My entryway has been kind of boring for a long time. I LOVE my little bench there, but my art was a little blah. I loved my house-rule art, but its frame and mat were looking a little dated (I bought it back in 2001, so it was definitely rocking that late 90s style).

I redid the other area in the entryway some time ago, and loved the bright colors, so I thought I'd do something similar in this corner to spruce things up a bit.

I've got my insta-frame there.  :)  

I gathered all sorts of frames for my eclectic little wall, mostly ones I already had, and painted them either yellow, green, or turquoise.  My house-rules sign (all close-ups of which came out blurry and I'm too lazy to reshoot :) was rematted and painted green.  I like the crisp white mat WAY better than the marbled 90s forest green there previously.  

 

Plus, I finally had a great place to put all my great family portraits from the last few years.   

 

I love my new frame collage.  It makes me smile every time I see it. 

Insta-frame

I don't know about you, but I'm totally addicted to Instagram.  I use it all the time.  It's a lot of fun.  I take so many great pictures with it that I want displayed.  So, I came up with a great way to display them.   

I've seen places out there that will print your instagram pics for you.  But, I'm cheap.  :)  I just use Picasa to print them on my home printer.  I upload my pictures from my camera roll on my phone to my computer, and since I use Picasa to organize all my pictures, I just tell it which ones to print.  I chose wallet-size, and selected shrink-to-fit.  I printed them onto cardstock, then cut them out with my paper trimmer.  

To display them, I found an old 11x16 frame I had laying around and painted it.  I'd planned to turn it into a bulletin board, but my cork wouldn't stay flat, so I kept the glass in the frame, with the cork as a background.  Then, I just used washi tape to tape my pictures to the glass.  Easy, cute, and simple.  Exactly the way I like it.
  

 

And, it couldn't be easier to change out my pictures when I feel like it.  I love getting to see all my happy little pictures every time I walk past!

Quote Boards

I've mentioned before that I LOVE pinning pretty (both in word and design) quotes to my Pinterest. Well, I got tired of only getting to see them on Pinterest. But, who has enough space for all the cute printables out there? I sure don't. So, I made a place to display whichever ones I'm in the mood for on any given day.

Normally, I'd frame them, but it's not super convenient to pry off the back of a frame, position it just right, and put it all back together.  I mean, it's not super hard either, but I wanted a space where I could quick-as-a-wink switch out printables.  So, I made some quote bulletin-boards.

I bought some cork at the craft store, traced the glass from the frame as a pattern, and cut out the cork.  Then, I put it in the frame.  Pretty simple.  I used frames I already had, spray painting them to update them a bit.  Plus, the space needed some color so it wasn't just black and white.

Now I have cute decor in my front entry and I get to see inspiring quotes all day long.  If you'd like the same ones in your house, you can download them here:

You Matter Quote, by Reliving the Moments
Charity Quote, by Simply Fresh Designs
Have I Done Any Good Quote, by Me  :)

Entry Table: Before and After

I have been looking for a table for my front entry since we moved into this house...7 years ago.  Until I could find something, I just put a family portrait on the wall and left it like that.  But, the space felt empty.  And, every Halloween I especially wished I had a table there to sit the candy bowl on.

I just couldn't find anything that fit all of my qualifications. It had to be inexpensive, fit the space, and be something I liked. I started scoping out local thrift stores for such a table (though I started to be resigned to maybe having a chest of drawers there at one point). Finally, I found it. It was about $40, fit my measurements, and was cute (underneath the iffy paint).

I especially liked the scallops.  But I didn't so much like it's 90s paint job, even if the details were in my favorite colors, yellow and green.  It was too fussy, too dated.

So, I took some spray paint to it.  I covered it, first, with white primer, and then white glossy spray paint.  And here's the after:

I added a big IKEA frame and a beautiful new family portrait, a funky Target Lamp, and I made some "quote boards," which is a post for another time.  :)

It really livens up the space.  I totally love it.

Have I done any good in the world today?

My church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held a general conference today, where we listened to counsel and encouragement from our modern-day prophet and the general authorities of the Church.  Among the talks that were given, was one by President Henry B. Eyring about service.

His talk quoted the hymn, Have I Done Any Good.  As soon as that hymn was mentioned, I remembered a desire I'd had to frame a part of that song and display it in my home as a reminder to do good continually. 

So, I spent the rest of the morning session, while listening to conference on TV, putting together a printable.  Feel free to download and use it yourself! 

I put this one together first.  I like that it has more of the hymn's lyrics on it, but I find myself more drawn to the second one I made. 

This one is simpler and I like the look of it better.  I think I'll use both.  One for my frame and one to put on the fridge.  

I bought an inexpensive ($3) Walmart frame and spray-painted it yellow.  I love it.  It'll look so cute in my room.  Here's what each printable looks like in the frame.  (And, don't you love the ranunculus?  I picked that up today at Walmart, too.  I love spring!)

To download the printables, click on the images to open a larger image.  Then, right click to save as.

Linking up at Today's Creative Blog.