framing, rearranging, and the trials of being left-handed

One of the things I'm learning through blogging about our decorating adventures is just how much longer it takes to complete a project than I anticipate. We just wanted to hang a few pictures on the wall, and it turned into a month of acquiring materials, assembling, and hanging.

But it's done! Just look at this amazing finished product:

This project is on par with the table for my sense of accomplishment. It took less time to complete the actual work, but it was just as arduous, let me tell you.

First there was the headache of the wrong mat cutter. You would think my problems ended as soon as I bought the correct cutter. Nope. You see, I have the nasty habit of being left-handed. And the ideal mat cutter has a nasty habit of being right-handed. Sure, I could use it. It even has instructions for lefties. They are simple: Use it backward. Thanks, mat cutter people. I will gladly use your push-style mat cutter backward, rendering it a pull-style mat cutter and completely obscuring the handy-dandy start-stop guide which was a selling point on the darn cutter to begin with. 

I tried, people. I tried. But I could not get the right amount of pressure with either my right hand (I make sad attempts at being ambidextrous) or by pulling it.

That's where wonderful Husband comes in. He did go to design school after all. He did a beautiful job! 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about the process.

First I needed to measure the prints to determine the size of the opening in the matboard. That I was able to do last week. Then we subtracted the print size from the mat size, divided the remainder in half and voila! we had our measurements. Husband also took care of the math. I'm terrible with fractions.

So going into Saturday's extravaganza, I had this handy guide of measurements:

So I marked the back of each matboard (after labeling it to prevent future headaches) like so:

Then they were all ready to cut! I made a few paltry attempts with a practice piece, but Husband was the man for this project. I love that it was so collaborative. I tend to take over DIY projects because I have a strong "vision" of how everything should look and how it should be done. That doesn't make my way right, and it certainly doesn't make me able to do everything I set out to do. Especially in this right-handed world. So take a look at Husband at work:

And a close up of one of his amazing corners:

Sure, we probably shouldn't open up a framing business (simply because our method is far from perfect, speedy, or cost-effective), but it was more than good enough for what we needed. I couldn't wait to see how they looked on our prints:

Beautiful! While Husband finished cutting the mats, I went to work trimming the calendar pages and taping them to the finished mats:

Not pictured: My method of cutting perfect squares of masking tape. The photographer found it amusing, but I don't think anyone needs to see it. It makes for a more interesting anecdote than a photograph.

All we had left to do was pop them in the frames (probably the easiest part of the project) and decide on a layout. We had a little fun playing musical chairs (or maybe Tetris) until we came up with an arrangement that satisfied us.

Not pictured: The countless other layouts we didn't go with for reasons such as "too much yellow on top," "too much blue on the left," or "too many different typefaces together." I thought a checkerboard pattern of the darker pieces and the lighter ones would look good, but it didn't seem to work. We decided that we liked the dark/blue pieces on the ends, and our light/yellow pieces in the middle. It grounds the piece as a whole, I think.  Ireland, Switzerland, and Argentina moved around more than I'd like to admit!

We thought the hardest part was over. Cutting the mats was extremely nerve-wracking. Probably more for me than Husband, who did the actual work! But when you add the factors of our un-level floors and ceilings, utter lack of a level (the app did not cut the mustard), and our combined desire for precision, you have a giant headache on your hands. That's why I don't have pictures of the during, with the cute pink hanging templates featured here all over the wall. We tried countless approaches which all would sound insanely boring and probably completely inefficient. We're still learning!

After giving up in frustration Saturday night, we went out for a delicious dinner at a new (to us) place in our neighborhood. Before 10:00 this time. A relaxed, scrumptious dinner and a bottle of wine was exactly the way to unwind after previously wanting to tear our hair out. We woke up Sunday morning refreshed and ready to go. And still pulled our hair out a little. Eventually we found a pretty efficient way to get the templates on the wall, found the proper number of nails and got to hammering.

And then we hung them up. And then they were all over the darn place. And I couldn't look at them because they looked so unprofessional and wonky.

I cannot tell you how much I love ScotchBlue tape. We used it in our many attempts to create reference lines for our templates. And we also used it to level all our wonky pictures. I wrapped some skinny pieces around the hardware on the back, and ta-da! what once was wonky now is perfect!

This is my favorite view--from the couch! It was a ton of work, but it made it all the more worth it. We moved around some other pieces, which we didn't take pictures of because they're completely temporary and some of the lines from previous frames behind them are totally hideous. We also hung a picture in the kitchen, so Husband is no longer staring at a blank wall behind me at the table. I am still starting at a blank wall behind him, but we're working on that.

It may have taken more blood (I cut myself twice and in really stupid ways), sweat (our heat was seriously out of control), and tears (I cry about everything, including wonky framing arrangements) than anticipated, but we're ecstatic with the results.

How about you? Any projects causing you more gray hairs than anticipated, or do you expect things to take as long as they do?

(Psst, check out my Broadway post for a cute pic of me outside the theatre. Proof that we were really there!!)