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 Bare Walls!!!
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| Author | Topic: Bare Walls!!! |
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Tami Housemate |
posted 05-18-2000 11:17 AM
   
Ok, so I love my home. We are all settled in and comfy, BUT, I haven't decided what to do with my poor bare white walls. I want to hang stuff up in my living room so it looks like a home. I like plain, earthy tones, and black and silver, too. We have a big tan leather couch, natural wood entertainment center. I have ivory candles w/ black iron stands and a few picture frames sitting around. I need some ideas. I thought about some funky, empty, antiqued frames, or black and white prints maybe...gosh I am hopeless. HELP! IP: Logged |
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yeefan Head of the House |
posted 05-18-2000 12:02 PM
the funky empty frames and b+w prints are both very fine ideas, tami! if you're going to go with the prints, i recommend making large white mattes for the images, so that you have a very very large border around your image ... small black and white prints with large borders and in big frames look very very elegant. Get frames in either matte black or silver, or a nice wood that matches your furnishings; hang pictures in assemblages, not haphazardly. The trick is to think of your blank wall as a canvas, and to use your various frames to form a nice composition -- and don't be afraid of white space! It can be a very good thing. IP: Logged |
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Tami Housemate |
posted 05-18-2000 12:06 PM
Thanks Yeefan! I think I am gonna have to try this. Any idea of where to get some small prints....I don't really know anyone artsy, besides myself, and I don't recall any that I possess. IP: Logged |
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ginsu classic Head of the House |
posted 05-18-2000 11:14 PM
Tami, one thing that might be cool would be to go through old photo albums of your parents or grandparents and frame some of those ancient b&w pictures. I'm sure older generation relatives would LOVE to tell you all about everything in the pictures and whatnot. If they are old enough, they don't even need to be particularly "good" pictures...the age factor makes them classy...and having a story behind them would be neat, too. IP: Logged |
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neverever Housemate |
posted 05-22-2000 07:48 PM
i'm facing the same problem, tami  just moved in, the walls are institution white, etc. right now i've just filled them with pictures, but i want something closer to actual decoration.i went to an art store, and discovered several paints and finishes that can make a plain, boring, unfinished wood frame look antiqued, marbled, etc...that might work out well also, i saw mosiac kits, which have me very interested...if you're allowed, a good idea is to paint one wall...even just a single wall of color can really brighten up a room and make a bare wall look great. most landlords will agree to let you paint if you promise to return the wall to it's original color when you leave. hope this helps
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vamp_jen Subletter |
posted 05-23-2000 10:40 AM
One cheap and easy solution I found for my bare walls was to find fun, funky old album covers and prop them up on little homemade shelves. Go to any home improvement store and find corner molding that is to your liking, have them cut it in foot long sections, and nail it to your wall like an upside-down 'L'. You can paint, varnish or leave your shelves bare, and then use plain nails or decorative tacks to attach them to the wall. One of the best parts is that there's no framing involved, and you can rotate your music collection display whenever the mood strikes. IP: Logged |
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Tami Housemate |
posted 05-24-2000 11:48 AM
Thank you so much for all the great ideas...we have so many rooms that I may try out all the ideas. I definitely am going to try yeefan's plan. I don't have any relatives nearby to swipe pictures from regretfully, (but thanks ginsu), so i am gonna try to find some neat black and white postcards maybe, get some big white mattes, and black frames...the hunt is on! IP: Logged |
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pyrabug Housemate |
posted 06-09-2000 09:36 PM
for the album cover idea: if you did want to frame the covers, restoration hardware [my current place of employment ] carries record cover frames for just that purpose. the frame is big enough so that the album plus the record and be framed and protected safely. we sell them in black matte and chrome finishes. you can go to http://www.restorationhardware.com to check for stores near you or get a catalog.i agree with the black and white photograph idea. get a roll of b&w film and snap candids or scenery of the place you live or place you grew up. frame those in simple silver plated frames. japanese or chinese scrolls are also very nice looking in the home. they would fit with your color scheme. especially if you got one that was written on brown paper. the sayings on some of those are especially profound. a simple black matte frame would suffice. pictures in floating frames would look nice as well. just a thought. ciao, IP: Logged |
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ng-la Housemate |
posted 06-23-2000 03:01 PM
I have the same problem. Great expanses of bare white walls. To help in the kithcen, I bought a cheapo full length mirror, and hung in horizontally, instead of the long way. I'm hoping to find a nice garland of (real looking) fake flowers or something to use as a border around it, to add some color. I also saw in a Pottery Barn catalog, 10 inch high gilt letters. You pick the letters you want to spell out whatever. I have one huge blank wall in my bedroom and was thinking of spelling out SWEET DREAMS or something. But they sell the letters for $10 each, and I dont want to spend $100+ on this. I'm trying to think of a way to make letters myself, other than just printing them out or painting them or something. I like the idea of them being 3 dimensional, to add a bit more to the look. IP: Logged |
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jewelia Subletter |
posted 07-02-2000 06:26 PM
Hi all. About finding old black and white photos: if you're willing to go out you can get out into a huge public reference library or some sort of public city archives. Generally they have tons of incredibly beautiful pictures that you can reproduce and keep for your very own. :) I heard about this somewhere...anyhow, then you make up stories about all of these people to fake out your friends. Ha ha. IP: Logged |
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jewelia Subletter |
posted 07-02-2000 06:27 PM
Hi all. About finding old black and white photos: if you're willing to go out you can get out into a huge public reference library or some sort of public city archives. Generally they have tons of incredibly beautiful pictures that you can reproduce and keep for your very own. :) I heard about this somewhere...anyhow, then you make up stories about all of these people to fake out your friends. Ha ha. IP: Logged |
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nita Housemate |
posted 07-02-2000 09:40 PM
ng-la, for the garlands of fake flowers you might want to try Bed, Bath & Beyond. (I guess the flowers qualify as part of the "beyond.") I got a couple of garlands of pale yellow flowers that I tacked to the wall above my bed along with some gauzy fabric to make a sort of headboard. As far as the wooden letters for your wall you might want to try and arts and crafts store like Michael's/MJDesigns. They usually have plain wood letters that you could paint whatever color you wanted. IP: Logged |
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ng-la Housemate |
posted 07-11-2000 11:49 AM
nita. thanks. i just gots some flowers at Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday. It was just the touch i needed. Now I'll have to try Michaels. IP: Logged |
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punkingirl Subletter |
posted 07-11-2000 03:14 PM
another fun cheap wall covering is old sheet music. some of them have wonderful kitschy titles and illustrations. you can usually pick them up quite cheap at junk/antique stores. or music departments of colleges often have a free bin (that's where i got mine) and with a simple mat and frame, they look really cool. IP: Logged |
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katie Subletter |
posted 07-14-2000 02:39 PM
There are some good ideas here - I'm going to think about them for myself, but I thought i would add that for the bedroom I have a friend who's going to tack some white christmas tree lights above her bed and then hang some sheer fabric over them so they twinkle through, as sortof a headboard that will take up most of the wall...another idea... also, i've heard about people tacking up colorful astro turf...kindof silly, but it could be really neat if done right. painting the ceiling a color while leaving the walls white also makes a big difference to combat that institutional vibe while not overwhelming a room with color... IP: Logged |
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Vyvyan Subletter |
posted 07-25-2000 12:33 PM
Another thing you can do that is fairly cheap ($12-15 for 6 tiles) and pretty cool is you can buy mirror tiles at most hardware stores that are 12 inches square. You put them in a paper bag and use a hammer to smash them into fairly small pieces and then use glue to mosaic them places. I have done it both on cabinets that have the indented panels and on thick styrofoam poster board. We lined one hallway with posterboard covered in shattered mirrors, it looks really cool and only cost about $40. It takes forever to do but it is kind of fun smashing the mirrors.  Also, you can buy several shades of paint and paint large rectangles and/or squares on your wall and then hang pictures inside of them. I saw it in a magazine and it looked pretty cool. IP: Logged |
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glitch97 Subletter |
posted 08-18-2000 06:07 PM
I'm moving into a new place which has a huge living room/dining room area which I'm thrilled about, but the walls and carpet are absolutely hideous. The walls--and I've never seen anything like this in my life are actually burlap. I swear. At any rate, I'd been thinking of some ideas for wall-hangings, among them: old maps, old technical drawings from machine patents...so I've been making library raids. But I was also thinking of putting up metallic plates...like 12"x12" plates of copper or brushed steel. Does anyone know where I could find stuff like this? Hardware stores, Home Depot, etc. seem like the best bet, but unlikely nonetheless. Or how about a way to get across the same effect with paint? But on what kind of surface? I'd be thrilled if anyone has any ideas. Thanks! IP: Logged |
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ginsu classic Head of the House |
posted 08-21-2000 10:37 PM
you might be able to find metal plates at an art supply store (the kind used for metal etchings, anyway). if not, maybe ask someone in the art dept at a local university. I know a local Ace hardware sells pieces of steel plates...but they are more like 24"x24". IP: Logged |
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bee Housemate |
posted 08-25-2000 03:22 PM
My boyfriend is a physics guy and he's always building amazing science projects which frequently use a lot of copper sheeting. He gets it at a huge industrial metal supplier/machining place. In their "will call" area they have a bunch of scraps that they sell for $1-3/pound. He's bought everything from 4" squares to 4' x 6' pieces and it's way way cheaper than hardware and art stores. He found them in the yellow pages. Burlap walls? That is truly hideous! Good luck
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tash Housemate |
posted 09-02-2000 01:18 AM
Hi there! In repsonse to ng-la, you can make your own letters out of clay for quite cheap. A fairly large box of clay costs about $15. Then all you need is some canvas to work on and a few tools. Most pottery studios will let you fire your pieces for a small fee. You can then use a glaze or just paint them with acrylics or ceramic paints. IP: Logged |
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kikinoir Housemate |
posted 09-11-2000 06:11 PM
Hey there, I bought 2 canvasses, about 1 1/2' x 2', and painted them in a simple fashion: The 1st one i painted red, and decided to add 9 blue dots, large, and spaced evenly. the second i painted blue, and streaked red paint across it until it was basically purple. they look pretty neat. they may even look good if they had just been solid colors. it wouldn't be hard to do a rothko style painting, either. IP: Logged |
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Brooke99 Subletter |
posted 09-23-2000 07:41 PM
Hey everyone. I am an Art Education major, and presently I am currently taking a photography class in school. I am working on black and white prints and also have an access to a scanner. So if you want I can scan some pictures to you guys to hang up. It would make me realy proud to know that my pictures are out there hanging up somewhere. I would ask you guys to send me $2.00 a print if i scan it and $3.00 if I mail it. I will even let you deside what you want the picture to be of or about. This would give me a project to work on in my spare time and help me put some food on my plate (poor college student syndrome). Please feel free to contact me with questions or comments at: Brooke99@aol.com IP: Logged |
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tanisanne Subletter |
posted 12-30-2000 12:12 PM
Hey Glitch. I'm a reporter at a newspaper. If you're looking for some thin metal plates, you might check to see if your local paper has any old plates. The plates are used in printing the newspapers, and sometimes, papers will give away or sell old plates. They're usually quite large, but can be cut relatively easily. Something that I have done and you can do too if you're at all inclined, is to spraypaint the back of these plates black and then scratch out a design. The metal shows quite nicely through the black paint. Then, you can frame them just like any picture. Good luck with your burlap walls! IP: Logged |
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spygirl Housemate |
posted 01-01-2001 07:15 PM
I love the glass clip picture frames (they're just equal sized pieces of wood and glass and your pictures are sandwiched in between). I have framed several old postcards and grouped them on my foyer hall. It also looks cool to hang them in a straight line across your wall. IP: Logged |
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giamaria Housemate |
posted 01-03-2001 11:24 AM
Regarding the Pottery Barn letter thingy, you might try going to the trusty hardware store for letters/numbers. They might have wooden ones you could paint in a gilt-type paint to get a similar effect. This might look cheesy, but you might consider cutting out foam core board and painting that too. Come to think of it, even cardboard might work if you paint it....hmmm. IP: Logged |
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mindapants Housemate |
posted 03-31-2001 08:20 PM
my boy and i are living in a two bedroom townhome. everything is white, white, white. i have gotten some great ideas off this thread. i'm sad that it's 10:30pm and everything is closed. i'm itching to go to michaels and search for big letters and since bed, bath, and beyond is right nextdoor i'll probably end up up there with the horizontal mirror and flowery border. i love this site! IP: Logged |
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e2me Subletter |
posted 04-04-2001 06:13 AM
Like kikinoir, I've also done some simple paintings on canvasses purchased from my local craft store. I just did several randomly colored squares on each, then filled in the squares on one with "X"s, the other with "O"s (I titled them "Hugs" and "Kisses" ;-). I've also just hung some long panels of fabrics that I liked, to add some color and interest to another bare wall. I've got a series of beams running across the ceiling, so I just put tension rods in between them. I folded the fabric over about an inch at one end and stitched it, to go over the rod, then folded and stitched the other end to form a point, so they look somewhat like long pennants. If you don't have beams, you could achieve the same effect by hanging a thin dowel, or maybe some copper pipe, etc, etc. IP: Logged |
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mindapants Housemate |
posted 04-05-2001 08:59 AM
hey e2me, i just saw that last night on christopher lowell. (the fabric hung from a rod) in my townhome, we can not paint the white walls. my living room is pretty simple. light wood and black furniture. to add a litte something, we've been collecting some chinese artwork, bamboo, and chinese pottery. IP: Logged |
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