Living in Houston we have everything..... And I love it.. The lake house was originally purchased with the idea that we would retire here. BUT that is a NO go.. After working on this house every weekend for the last six months we know this life style is not for us. We both do not want to live in the country. We may have thought for a brief moment that we did. But we just bumped our heads. We LIKE city conveniences, stores, restaurants, all of it, and we'll deal with the people to get those things.
IKEA!!! no explanation needed. If you don't have one close to you, sorry. Actually super sorry. I am like a kid in a candy store at Ikea.. love love love that place. I have several Ikea hacks I'll post. And they sell the swedish meatballs by the bag frozen better than homemade (honest). I make my grandmother's gravy recipe, fresh mashed potatoes (I haven't found a cheat that is as good as fresh yet) and wah lah homemade meatballs with 1/4 of the work and cook time.
Gary knows that I am only good for so many hours of "real" work before I have to do something fun and cute. This took me about 20 mins to get up. I took my level and placed a strip of masking tape down the wide flat side (top or bottom doesn't matter) Then I took the template for the mirror and marked the mirror size with a pencil on the tape. I decided how far I wanted the mirrors apart and marked the next mirror. I marked and labled all the mirror on the level. I then set the level against the wall and transferred the marks. (make sure the level bubble shows you that you are holding the level straight) I used the other side of the level to mark across the wall for the first mark for the other side brackets. I tape my level ALL the time for hanging projects.
All of the lines are too faint to see. But here is one set.
You can see tape on both sides. One was for the marks for the other set of brackets, there (across the mirror) were no studs on either side of this mirror. The mirrors don't weight much so I just used 1 inch sheetrock screws to hold the brackets. It's a trick I do all the time on light weight items, I do use the anchor toggles on the heavy items. *Quick note- if you remove the tape after the job is done you won't get the tape sticky mess.
Think big, on big walls. I love mirrors, the bigger the better. They reflect light, make a narrow hallway open up, make a room brighter. Place them slightly higher than you would for viewing purposes. Think of them as art not as a mirror.
2 pack of mirrors $14.99 each, so for two 2-packs (four mirrors total) $30, I have a HUGE wall of wave mirrors.. 67x 37 Waves = water, is what I was thinking when I saw them. I feel that keeping it down to just the four and not the whole wall keeps it from going all 1980. I am going to do a table under the mirrors to make this walk area look even more like a hallway. I may add a "picture" frame around them.. I am not sure. I will mess with that at a later date. My to do list seems to grow, for every item I take off I seem to add another.
Big Art- Here it the Ocean painting. (Gary didn't think my vertical stripes were very beachy & I wasn't happy with the size on this wall. So I knew I wanted to move them) Again abstact art is your friend, don't be afraid to paint. you can't mess it up. Honest! I did run into one snag. I got a plastic canvas material, I didn't know this until I tried to ironed it and it melted. Grr.. It felt like cloth, it was just really stiff. I thought that the wrinkles would stretch out or settle out.. NOPE!! I am going to wedge stretching corners in the corners in the attempt to pull the wrinkles out.. IF that does not work, then I am not worring about them until I get way way more things done on my to do list. I will have to come back to this at a later date.
This bad boy was way way longer than my level. SO I took a piece of twine and hooked it to one nail, placed that nail in one of the eyelet hanging hooks attached to the back and stretched it across the back to the other hook. I cut the string to that length. I nailed the nail in place (I took the measurement of the sofa height, how far above the sofa and the distance of the hook from the bottom of the painting totalled those and that became my nail placement) on one side stretched the string across to the other side. Gary was holding the level, flat and level against the wall. I then moved the open end of the string up against the level and marked the end for the other side nail. Yes I was on a ladder to move this string into place. (hope that makes sense)
Here is the cost breakdown- This thing is HUGE. 87x49 The canvas cost $15.00, this took 5- 1x2's $1 each for $5. I got acrylic paint at walmart for a $1 each. I got four colors of blue for the sky, five different colors for the ocean and four color for the sand, two small white (they were cheaper than one big one, look bulk is not always the best buy) that is $15. I used the ooks frame hooks- one on each side. Those work out to be $.35 each so add another buck. For a grand total of $43 I have an 87x49 painting. Again I paint flat then stretch. Here is one time I wish I would have stretched first. Oh, well. I learn things all the time.
Happy painting.
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