From Pinterest to Practical

The onset of nesting has brought a few more house projects and de-cluttering attempts in the last few weeks of pregnancy. Thank goodness for Saturday afternoons!

My most recent Pinterest interest has been gallery/collage walls. They are wonderful for displaying various pieces of art, pictures or other pieces of eye candy. I was delighted to find some inspiration and show off what the practical looks like in my home.

First, the inspiration:


 

Source: robesondesign.com via Erika on Pinterest

Source: younghouselove.com via Erika on Pinterest

Source: gardenberger.blogspot.com via Erika on Pinterest

Next, the actual wall in my home:

Alright, ignoring the spaces that don't have photos yet because I am waiting on photos of baby boy (next week some time we should finally get some!!), I think it turned out well!

Here are some of the elements and where I got them:

• I had the large floral fabric from another project. It is simply tacked to an old cork board. This works out perfectly as we don't have a mantle or other great shelving in this room. I can pin cards, decorations or what-not to the board and change the fabric when I feel like it
• I had some of the frames lying around. Others I bought at Wal-Mart for $2-$5 each.
• I had the floral wall stickers in the room before too. I am not sold on those and they might end up someplace else. I bought these particular ones at Hobby Lobby when we moved in.
• The mustache framed artwork is a free printable I also found on Pinterst. I was excited to have one frame dedicated to a different print when the mood strikes me. 
• I decided to go with black and white photos to keep a theme. I noticed that a few of the inspiration walls either had all color or all black and white photos. I think the consistency brings the wall together and makes it look intentional. 

It is not completely aligned or perfect, but I really like the collage look. I makes this once large empty wall really full looking. Since we are renting this townhouse, hooks in the wall are not allowed. I have used the velcro sticky back wall hanging devices, and never had any trouble hanging up to 5-8 lbs.  

I am sure the wall will evolve as time goes on, most of my home decorations do.

In all I spent about 3 hours working on the wall and about $20 in frames and sticky back hangers. Not too bad for a a do it yourself project!

From Pinterest to Practical: Wine Toppers

Ok, I have officially jumped on the Pinterest DIY bandwagon. And I love it.

Obsessed might be the best word to describe my current interest in DIY crafts actually! Between thoughts of babies and delivery, I dream about the next project I can accomplish.

This week I tackled one of the easier projects, wine toppers made with old tops from trophies. It was the perfect project for getting rid of some trophies collecting dust in our basement and making Christmas presents. I am going to pair a few of these toppers with some local wine and ta da- instant Christmas gift.

Source: decoradventures.com via Erika on Pinterest

I didn't come up with the project idea (click here if you want the directions) so I won't explain how to do it, but I wanted to let you know how it went.

The only supplies you need are:

• drill with interchangeable bits
• old trophies
• wine corks

I had my husband drill the holes  (I don't do too well with power tools), then simply screwed on the toppers. It really was that simple! Easy-peasy! This was about a 10 minute project with almost fool-proof results. Highly recommended!!!

This is how mine turned out (no wine to cork with yet). We had some large toppers and then a few small ones. Some lucky friend or family members gets our old soccer toppers!

Wine Topper DYI