It's a Wonder Wall • this heart of mine

One wall is finally rearranged in Love Bug’s room. It took several steps, one highly mind-scrambling family installation day and patience (I thought painting the walls was better done without impressionable minds about so I waited until Bug and MJ went to Wisconsin. Sweet J is impressionable but can’t sit up unassisted yet so I think I’m safe.) But it’s done and I am happy with the result.

For a while, I had been wanting to change in wall stuff in Love Bug’s room. More pictures of loved ones, some art pieces I have laying around and a way to showcase art made by her, like this one. From a post on Young House Love, I found my inspiration. They used skinny 1×2 boards to create a rotating gallery in their workspace and I thought I would work perfectly for Bug’s room too.

Things started with three 1x2s. I purchased three from Home Depot for around $2 a piece. When my dad visited, he used my table saw to make a shallow groove in each 1×2. (I’m so thankful he helped as I am scared to death of the table saw.)

I primed each with a gray primer and let it completely dry.

I coated each ledge in the same Behr paint I used for my headboard, Sweet Molasses in Satin.

On to the installation –

After deciding where I wanted them, I measured in from the left side and marked this distance with blue painters tape. Instead of using anchors, I chose to mount the shelves directly into the studs. So we had to find ourselves some studs.

Stud found. : )

Once we had the studs tagged on the wall, we made corresponding marks on the 1x2s of where to pre-drill holes for the screws.

This step made it much simpler to hang them on the wall. Since we had already pre-drilled holes and inserted the screws most of the way, all we had to do was level the shelf and drill the screw the rest of the way in. Take time to level things and do a couple of rechecks. If you are anything like me, even a small discrepancy will bug you to no end.

After hanging the first shelf, I used the height of items I wanted on the first shelf to determine where to hang the second shelf. I repeated this for the hanging of the third shelf.

Yup. It was a family project.

Three small ledges hung all in a ~~row~~ stack. I used wood putty to fill in the holes created by the screws, sanded them down and coated them in the same brown paint.

Immediately, I threw all my items up there, just to see what it looked like. Oh, I loved it!

But something was missing. Every time I went into Love Bug’s room, I stopped and looked at the wall and tried to figure out the missing part.

And finally it came to me: the shelves needed a border or frame to keep it from “floating” on the wall.

So off the frames, art and doodles came. I got a white piece of chalk and started drawing. Well really, I drew ideas on paper first and then transferred my favorite shape onto the wall with chalk. (White chalk is best for this. I used dark chalk to test out a dark border a few steps later and had a small freak out when it did not wipe off as easily as the white did.)

I filled in my shape with white paint (just cheapo acrylic). This picture and then next one were taken with my phone camera, hence the quality but I felt a lot of anxiety about this doodle and asked for feedback from my “inner circle” (husband, mom, sister). : )

I topped the white with mustardy yellow, which is totally lost in the picture.

And actually, after it all dried and I had painted on the dark brown edge, I ended up wiping most of the color away. Why? I don’t know. But the result is below.

Here is a before shot.

Here is it now. Those are squares of sunlight on the bed.

Here is a shot from the front.

It’s fun and whimsical and I looooooooooove it.

Now some close-ups. The white clipboards and white frames are from past post. I also made a date block of Bug and Sweet J’s birth date, like the anniversary one.

*I do have plans to revamp that “J”.

Love Bug’s art piece and my favorite painter photo on the clipboard. The original piece is actually really big, like 5′ x 2′. So I asked ~~Lurch~~ MJ hold it up so I could snap a picture. Then I had it printed, split onto two 11×17 sheets of paper. I combined the two print outs to make the image whole and used Modge Podge to adhere it to a strip of 1/4 in MDF.