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!!)

fabric store shennanigans

I did it!

Remember when I talked about how scared I was to go to fabric stores in New York? Well, after two weeks of putting it off (a freak October snowstorm and preparing lunch for my in-laws precluded trips on the last two Saturdays), we got up early and went this Saturday.

I did a bunch of research to find the most affordable upholstery fabric stores in New York. On Friday night, I decided to do a little last-minute Yelping just to make sure I had all my options in order.

Let's backtrack to discussing this with my mother, who is a proficient quilter and frequent buyer of fabric.

Mom: You should go to City Quilter. I wish I could go there. It looks amazing.
Me: Mom, I'm not making a quilt. They won't have anything that I need or want.

Now let's go back to this Friday night Yelping escapade. Want to guess what place had the highest ratings when I typed in "upholstery fabric" and "new york, ny" on Yelp?

Yep.  The City Quilter.

My mother is often freakishly, supernaturally right about these things. And she would freak out in this store. It's the most beautiful crafting haven I have ever seen in this city. And I have been to my fair share of paper stores (a secret love of mine).

They had, of course exactly what we wanted. And in our price range.

The only down side is that these are not "upholstery" fabrics per se. They're your average cottons, the weight of which is absolutely fine with me and my sewing expert: Mom. Your average bolt of cotton, however, is about 44" wide. Which is really annoying when you want to cut a bunch of 24" squares, like I do.  We talked it out with the nice girl cutting our fabric and got 3 yards of each of these amazing fabrics:

Aren't they stunning?!


Do I think they coordinate exactly perfectly with each other? Of course not. I am really, really, really weird about matching. But we both love every single one of them and I don't think we could part with any of them. They each match the couch and bring out different aspects of that lovely rich chocolaty brown. They each coordinate with our throw pillow of inspiration. And they all look cool with the rug.

They'll learn to be friends.

Let's take another look.

Swoon.


If you look closely, you will notice that the top one is drawings of houses, the middle one is a light print of buildings, and the bottom one is names of cities. We are nothing if not thematic.

I suppose we would have been better off--or my matching-mind would be more at ease--had we stayed within the same shelf when picking out our fabrics. The fabrics near, say, the city names, were all tonally similar and would have gone together beautifully. This says a lot for how well City Quilter is arranged, because not only are color families placed together, they're also tonally arranged so each divided shelf would make a beautiful tone-on-tone quilt. But Husband and I are not ones to limit ourselves, and we really loved these three fabrics. Husband had a great time in the store--he may have been the only man in it--and really enjoyed their inventory of city-themed fabrics. I love that ours are abstract and therefore more subtle.

The more I look at them (they're sitting in the chair so I can stare at them while I'm on the couch), the more I love them. I can't wait to have them covering our pillows!

framing failure

I really wish this post were a documentation of our success in matting and framing our calendar prints.

It's not.

Here's where I admit that Husband and I aren't pros in anything that we do around the house. Cutting matboard is among the things we've never done before. Therefore, we did not have the tools to cut matboard. Yesterday, while out on a shopping extravaganza (to be detailed later on), we stopped in A.I. Friedman and found the exact mat cutter I had picked out online. And since we needed a ruler, I picked up one that I thought matched.

I didn't.

I bought the Logan Series 1100 handheld "freestyle" mat cutter and the Logan "Adapt-A-Rule" ruler.

Although they were in the same darn display, these two items are not compatible. The "Adapt-A-Rule" is compatible with Logan Series 2000, 4000, and 5000, as noted here. I thought it would work. It's a straightedge, right?

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I refuse to show you my finished product. The blade of the "freestyle" cutter slipped under the ruler, creating a sweet little curve near where I started cutting. Not ideal for a crisp mat.

Thank you, Logan people for making such easy-to-open packaging. I was able to make my horrible looking mat, stop myself from doing more, and put everything back in the package to pretend nothing bad ever happened.

I learned a lesson:  Read the packaging!


I had looked up mat cutters online, and I'm pretty sure I found the Series 2000 and decided to buy it. Did I write down the series number? No.  Did I look to see if there were other model numbers? No.  Did I buy two items that probably work really well, but not together? Yes.

I'll be either returning the "freestyle" cutter or exchanging it for a series 2000 if A.I. Friedman has that one. I can't recall if I saw that one in the display. You know, right next to the ruler it's compatible with.

Why is one cutter better than the other? The 2000 (and higher) models clip on to the ruler. Meaning that sucker is not going to move from one end of the cut to the other. Which was exactly my problem.

I did manage to stop myself from doing more, making a mess, and hating myself. I'd rather wait and do it right than charge through and do a terrible job.

In the words of my father, who has successfully matted several pictures with none of these tools, "Mats are a pain in the _ _ _ to cut."

We did have some success on our outing yesterday. I'll show you soon! Today will instead be spent cooking applesauce, pumpkin bread, and squash soup. Our home will smell as good as it looks!

framing up some empty space

We've been cooking up a big framing project for the past couple of weeks.

It involves a calendar:

And this space:

As you can see, our beloved neighborhood find--an Impressionist painting of a Parisian street--is not longer cutting the mustard on the huge space above the couch. Not only is it off-center, it's just too small for that huge white space. This couch is slightly lower, and the darker color contrasts our (horribly bland rental) wall color in the least flattering way. And those other two Impressionist prints are just sort of floating there, looking haphazardly planned and tiny.

So we need something bigger to really make a statement above the couch.

I don't know about you, but I have bought more calenders than I can count with the noble intention of framing the artwork after the year was over. I have never once succeeded in my goal. Husband picked this out in a wonderful paper shop in Rhinebeck, New York, and once again we intended to frame some of the prints. Cut to now, when we have uncharted territory above the couch.

Who wouldn't want to look at vintage travel ads every day?

Did you know that we love Greece?

The vintage feel goes with the Modernist vibe of our space without going overboard. It also incorporates one of our passions--travel--into our living room. Because design should be personal!

So how are we going to accomplish this wall hanging task? With two simple tools. Eight 13x16 frames and eight ivory mats:

The frames are from West Elm's Gallery Frame collection, which is totally affordable if you buy one or two. If you buy eight...well, it's an investment. But even if and when we decide to change up our artwork, we'll have these frames forever. They're excellent quality and even came with white mats cut for 8x10 pictures!

The matboard is from a local art supplier. That was a fun Saturday morning adventure. We woke up fully intending to nosh on bagels for breakfast and head out to fabric stores for our throw pillow cover project. But I soon got overwhelmed, because fabric stores sounded like a fully-day trip, and my in-laws were visiting the next day (and I wanted the apartment to look even better than usual). So when we woke up, I suggested looking for framing materials, since the frames had arrived the day before. I love that I can stay in bed and do this searching on my iPhone. Before we got dressed I had found UADC, a short 3 subway stops from our apartment. We got our bagels and headed off to the warehouse. And a warehouse it was. We crept up some creepy stairs into a creepy hallway and looked at each other. We decided if the inside was creepy, we'd go home. Inside we found a no-frills warehouse supplier and a very thorough salesperson! It wasn't our usual shopping experience, but when the mats came to a total of $14 (and we even bought two extras to mess up on!), we were in love. They were able to match the color of the calendar paper exactly, and cut the mats to fit the frames perfectly. If I had the measurements of each of the prints, they would have cut the openings for me, too! But I love a challenge. I will definitely return for future projects, including the mounting of a gorgeous Monet print we bought in Paris almost four years ago.

Moral of the story: Never leave Queens. You can buy anything you need in Queens. In fact, come to Queens to buy things!

All this is super-duper great.  But it's not the best part.  This is the best part:

See that pink piece of paper? It's a mounting guide, and one comes with every single frame. We bought six 5x7 frames for some wedding pictures, and those came with mounting guides as well. You see, we haven't bought one of these hang and level tools, and who knows how well that would work for these particular frames (which require two nails to hang). So we can tape these suckers to the wall, see if my handy-dandy iLevel app works effectively, and voila! we'll know exactly where to place our nails. Did I mention they even have pictures of the hanging hardware in the exact location? Pretty darn genius.

I still need to pick up a good blade to cut the matboard, and a T-square to make sure my angles are good, but this project is coming along! Before long we won't even need a TV because we'll just want to stare at our walls.

a whole new flor (part two: installation!)

Now that we have successfully installed our own modular carpet, I can safely say that if our current careers don't work out, Husband and I can make a living installing Flor carpets. We make an excellent team...but that is why we're married, after all!

And it's a darn good thing we spent our Friday night carpet-tiling, because New Couch came bright and early on Saturday morning--meaning we could rest on it for the remainder of the weekend. Pretty sweet!

Without further adieu, here's the finished product:

Tetris? An aerial view of the Midwest? Or modular, Modernist carpeting?

Two days later, it looks much more settled and fluffy. A few passes with the vacuum have lifted stray shag pieces, all but erased the lines between tiles of the same color, and generally made it look even more awesome.

Oh, and the couch is freaking amazing:

Please ignore the Sad Elephant in the picture.

I can't believe how far we've come in the last month!  But first, the story of Flor installation...

project rewind: revamping the kitchen table

Painting our kitchen table was by far the largest and most involved project we've undertaken. Seriously. I was at it for a month. The month of July. In the one room in our apartment without air conditioning.

I am extremely proud of the result, even if I point out every single imperfection in it. It truly brightened up our kitchen and turned a hand me down into something of our own.

I have to thank this fabulous step-by-step guide from the DIY geniuses at Young House Love for their know-how and ability to break things down into digestible pieces. And for providing the names of the exact products they used.

Here's the before and after:

Before (seriously, right before).

After (with cupcake place mats made special for our wedding)!

And now for the process...