home improvements

I've probably mentioned before that since we don't own this house, we haven't put in a lot of time and effort into making changes to it. And it used to be my parent's house, which they kept very nicely, but also, is filled with their taste and their choices. So we try to find little ways to make it our own, but without spending too much money or time. We've repainted a few rooms and put up some new curtains, but much of it remains as it always has been. 

But this past weekend we finally got around to doing a small project that I've had on my list for some time now. If you read this blog often you also know that I am a collector of lovely vintage things. However, I walk the fine line between collecting and hoarding because I'm not very good as displaying all the great vintage finds I collect. They get added to the piles or the boxes labled "vintage table clothes: embroidered" and "vintage table clothes: printed". We had to re-arrange the boxes last week because we were trying to find stuff and I noticed how many boxes I have labled "vintage books". I love vintage books. Obviously. I collect old school readers, and old how-to manuals and old medical books. It made me sad that I had all this great stuff and never saw it. I was also at the library the other day paging through some random glossy home-dec magazine and I was feeling jealous about how lovely all these other people's homes were (I consoled myself with the thought that clearly they did not have small children, and if they did they could obviously afford 'help' in the form of cooks and cleaners and decorators). And as I read the tips I noticed over and over again how the decor experts exhorted people to seek out clever, one-of-a-kind flea market finds in order to personalize their decor. And of course I occured to me that I am sitting on, like, the motherlode of clever, one-of-a-kind flea market finds. And that I should quit feeling jealous and do something about it. Because boxes of lovely old things just feel like wasted potential. I should have all these things out in the light where I can enjoy them. 

Of course, the problem is the two sets of ten sticky little fingers that would love to schmeer themselves all over my clever, one-of-a-kind flea market finds. So I had to find a way to put stuff on display without putting them in the line of smearage, as it were. I decided that book rails were the best possible plan. That way we can change the items on it regularly and they can be on view but also up out of harms way. 

So we spent a couple of nap times making it happen. We decided on using the dining room/front room/play room as the place for it. You see it when you walk in the door so it can set the tone for the house, and also, we spend a lot of time there. And it was the biggest stretch of wall that did not have a piece of furniture or a window obscuring it. Here it is before: We'd sort of 'wall papered' the space with two large drawings that one of our MFA classmates had done (Ian Campbell if you are wondering). But they had to come down. We've relocated them to the living room. Then there was the issue of the actual wall paper. I'm not a huge wall paper fan. I mean, there are some lovely, innovative things happening in the world of wall paper right now, but the choice may parents made for this room probably a decade or so ago, is not one of them.

My Dad and I have a running argument about home decor. He feels that neutrality, especially in transitional spaces, is something to strive for. I don't necessarily disagree, but his idea of neutral is a pale yellow I like to call 'eldercare beige' and my idea of neutrality is white. So this slightly textured beige wall paper is way to 'meh' for me, but just right for him.  Its a good thing he doesn't live here anymore, because that wall paper is coming down!

The Little Dude was so helpful. I cannot tell you how much glee he took in tearing off large swaths of wall paper. He enjoyed it almost as much as we did!

We'd had plans to paint the wall white once the wall paper was down, but upon discovering that the wall underneath was very nicely painted a rather pleasing shade of vintage-y green, we decided to forgo the effort and cost of paint and just clean up the wall really, really well. Its funny, I only vaguely remember this paint colour from my childhood. Which makes me wonder how much of our surroundings the Little Dude and the Baby are taking in. 

Eventually the fun exciting part of stripping wall paper was done and we were down to the boring tedious part of cleaning the wall, so I was glad that I had prepared a little painting activity for L.D. to do at the table behind us while we got on with the work. 

Hubs built our book railings/aka picture rails/aka skinny little shelves with some stuff he bought at the hardware store. This is not a 'how to' so I'm not going to go into the details and it mostly happened out in the garage while I was busy washing the walls and distracting a pre-schooler. We got the wall finished and the shelves done during the Baby's nap time, but waited till he was awake to screw them to the wall (because drills are really loud). And I forgot to take pictures of the installation. But they went up on the wall just after dinner, and pretty much as soon as the Little Dude laid eyes on them, he knew what they were for.

Obviously, they are little train shelves for Thomas the Tank Engine and friends. We let him play it like that for the rest of the evening, and as soon as the boys went to sleep, we did some last finishing touches with the paint and then let them dry over night. And in the morning, I got out my six boxes marked "vintage books" and had at it. 

Et voia! Our display wall.

Going through all the boxes and choosing what to put on the shelves was really fun. Like rediscovering treasure. But it was also hard to choose. I just put up a general selection this time, but I think in the future I will pick themes (things that are red, children's books, graphic impact, etc.) and build the display around that. Also, it works for books and artwork and the kid's paintings and record albums and all sorts of fun things. Doing this also made me realize that I am not as good at arranging things as I'd like to be. It made me wish that some of my Montreal friends lived near by, so I could have them come over and make a display for me (I'm looking in your direction jake.m).

Its so nice to see some of my favourite old things though. This book cover makes me so happy. 

And the design on this old box blows my mind every time I see it. 

Another favourite book cover, and so appropriate as I'm constantly surrounded by little people who are daily gaining skill with words. 

The Little Dude is pointing up at his favourite, the picture he made for me with heart-shaped sponge stamps while I was stripping the wall paper the day before. "It says 'I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you." he says, counting the hearts. (you can see it on the top shelf in the picture of the full wall).

Not bad for something we did for almost no money over the course of two naptimes on the weekend. 

 

Comments

[Marcia Van Drunen]

GENIUS.
And looks great.
Plus you can put some of your cute white statue thingies on it at the same time.
:)

[Karen]

I love The New Day in and Day Out book for obvious reasons. =) The display wall is a great idea and looks awesome. My hubby built a ledge like that for his office but he put a thin lip on it to prevent pictures from slipping off the narrow shelf.