Wall doings

Our walls are lacking love in many places.  I hope to gradually find things that I can't live without to make our home feel more like us rather than just go to the store find something that will work for now and throw it up.  It makes it hard but in the long run, I know it's what we need.

Right now our dining room wall needs some love.  In the worst way.  John suggested getting a few large scale pieces and putting them up.  But what? Our dining room's pretty traditional at the moment.  I would like to bring in some modern touches to even it out a bit.  Of course I don't have pics of our current dining room, but here are some ideas that I am loving to try.

Large scale maps.
I know this isn't anything new and has been done for years, but I think it could really work for this space.  I found a great ETSY shop (link below) that has some wonderful vintage options.  I'm thinking just simple black matted frames to hang them in a large group and be done.

inspiration shot:

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A massive painting or wall hanging.

This also is a tough one because I am so not good at finding something I love and it can be very expensive. Thankfully for ETSY (yes, all caps is necessary) I may be able to find a nice piece by an unknown amazing artist that I could afford.

inspiration shot:

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this last one by the way, might be the most beautiful home I have ever seen.  GO to the link NOW and check it out. You won't be disappointed!

So those are my plans for now. Either some big maps framed or a big painting/something to hang.  Decisions, decisions.

The perfect little desk

So I have been scoping Craigslist for weeks now looking for the perfect little desk for our living room. Just somewhere we can house the laptop, bills and important papers since our current work station is our sofa in the den. And I found it! And it's mine!

I love the size and the detail of the wood.  Wish it had a top to it as well, but I am excited to do some decorating with a new lamp and frames and find a fun chair to recover to use.  Could even possibly paint it down the road, but I love the look of wood so will probably leave this one alone.  Also have a guy coming Friday to give us a quote on putting built in's around the fireplace.  Of course the den needs new carpet and we definitely need to fence in the back, but built in's can't be tough (i.e. expensive), right? 

Do you hunt on CL ?  The seller said she had over 20 people contact her in just one day and I was the first one to say I'd buy it so it's all mine!  I promise to follow up with some photos of how it ends up at our house. 

Here are a few shots I found on Pinterest that are inspiring me.

Pottery Barn of course.

I never even thought of this possibility!!

Can you say swank?

This was an amazing re-do

Love it all!

And maybe a lamp like this one?

or this one...

stay tuned!

all images found via Pinterest