stairwell gallery.

my rule of thumb with our houses has been - give me a year. i will have this place looking great in a year. - well we are almost there and my list is ever growing!! there are so many things i want to accomplish and the clock is ticking. the stairwell from the main floor to the basement caught my eye the other day as being a little ghetto and i decided to take matters into my own hands and do something about it.

beside the fact that it was looking like a utility closet, it is in serious need of a coat of paint - will be using the buttermilk colour from the kitchen - but that will be the last step for me as it is the biggest job and i wanted instant glory. i decided to paint out the trim and the railings white first and boy-oh-boy did that make a difference! almost to the point of not needing to paint the walls but it is full of puttied up nail holes so it has to be done. as it is the linking element from adult world to kiddie playland i wanted something whimsical showcased here. i will have some grown up art or family photo's on the landing wall as you can see that from the living room and dinning room and still want to try to keep up a level of sophistication. good luck with that! i still feel like a teenager not an up and coming 34 year old mom!

i settled my gaze on the ever growing pile of kid artwork we have been collecting and decided that a gallery of treasured pieces was just the ticket. it would brighten the stairwell in a classy way and make a great transition space. i know the wall will get painted but as i said before i wanted instant glory and this was the easiest route for the moment.

first things first is to gather all your treasured picasso's and lay them out so you can go about the daunting task of choosing. when it comes to my kids i am not a great editor - just ask the husband and the 14,000+ photo's in our iphoto. so here's my pile:

next is to gather a collection of frames to display them in and i also went ahead and bought some artist's canvases to do some of-the-moment art for the gallery - these frames are either from the dollar store or ones i have re-purposed. as this is not a main room of the house do not feel the need to splurge on expensive frames - keep that for the main staircase, living room etc. a plus for this is that painting the canvases is a fun way to spend a sunday afternoon.

 

next choose you pictures, cut if necessary and place in frames and spread out on table.

then, using a technique i picked up from little house love, cut out news paper fliers to the size of your paintings/frames and use these to map out your wall. a great tip too was to put on the paper where the nail hole will go and use that as your template for driving the nail into the wall.

when you are happy with their place go ahead hammer in your nail, place your masterpiece, step back and say aahhhhh. wonderful.

there you have it - a spruced up little stairwell minus the upcoming wall colour. i will be adding some photo's of kids playing when they cross my path but for right now it's perfect. hopefully that will help with the overall light in here - it's the pits!