And we're back with another DIY nursery project for our little man's room. We knew that we wanted an interactive space where we could hang the newest family photos, display cards, show off his baby art (which you know we're suckers for right HERE) or write sweet love notes to our little man too. Obviously right now we're smitten at the though of displaying all his little baby friends. Look at all his cutie mc cutie pants lil' buds, love it!
At first we were throwing around the idea of a clothesline or even THIS great mobile. None of these options were exactly the look I was hoping for. Well, one day I actually had the genius idea of framing something magnetic. Walt and I discussed our options and headed to our local Lowe's and Home Depot to compare prices. Read on to find out how we scored and deal and the DIY on this super easy project too.
So here's a shot from our dining room (you can see that intense makeover HERE) and you can see that massive framed painting above our extremely NOT baby-proofed serving-ware shelf. I scored this massive piece of art from Goodwill shortly after we moved here. I saw it with a $24.99 price tag on it and I knew that the frame alone was worth so much more than that.
So I snatched it up and Walt was rolling his eyes (because he thought the painting was ugly, which I kind of liked) because it wasn't something we 'needed' at the time and our budget was tight. Well, we were standing in line and three different women were oohing and aahing at my score. Yeah, he saw the light after that.
So using that frame, we removed the painting and got to work. The frame was that perfect flair of Victorian fancy for his room that we needed. It's pretty modern in there so this was that statement piece that balanced everything out. We've saved the painting, don't you worry about that, and I promised Walt I would hang it in his office for him, ha! Moving on...
The necessities: a piece of sheet metal from your local hardware store (more on that below) and some cardboard backing for the frame. Also, a staple gun to secure it all in the frame.
Here's the frame in all it's gorgeous glory. It really is such a cool, cool frame.
So, here's where we get frugal/smart. We first checked out the sheet metal at Lowe's when my parents were visiting HERE. For the size we needed (24"x36") they were $26.99 a sheet. Yowza! That was totally way more than I expected. So we held off for the time being. But we did do a test with some magnets and I loved how magnetic it was...so I was sold on this option for this project.
Fast forward a few weeks and we're running a massive amount of nursery errands. We popped into Home Depot and checked out their price...$19.99 for the same exact thing. Umm, awesome! So we pulled all four sheets out and started scanning the best 'looking' sheet. We noticed all four had this bent edge. I called over the Home Depot guy and proceeded to chat.
Mo: "Scuse me sir, the ends of all four of these are bent...do you know if there are anymore in the back?"
HD Guy: "No ma'am, there aren't. Everything we have is on the floor."
Mo: Sad face. "Is there any discount for merchandise that's damaged?"
HD Guy: "Absolutely. How does...$15 sound to you?"
Mo: Happy face! "Great! We'll take it!"
So he wrote out our little price change ticket and I literally skipped to the front of the store. If we would've been over eager a week before that and purchased the sheet from Lowe's we would've been a) totally ripped off and b) not a smart consumer. It really does payoff to price check competitors so we were proud of our patience, which isn't what I'm really known for, ha!
Walt is using his pliers to straighten out the up-turned edge.
Adding the cardboard backing so there would be a flat surface against the wall. We didn't want to have this pucker effect every time we tried to tug a magnet off the tin. I wanted to make sure it was strong, durable and flush with the wall. The cardboard backing did the trick.
First try, Walt was opting for hammering little nails in place to hold it all in. He realized quickly that this was a no-go. I think he just wanted to make sure to not split the frame with the staple gun. After this option was obviously not working...I told him to just go for it with the staple gun. Success!
Ummm, speedy mc speedster. I'm lucky I even got a picture of this (almost had to do a re-created one) because by the time I came back in the tv room after one minute, he had the entire thing stapled and ready to hang.
Upon closer inspection, he decided to secure the staples better by hammering them as flat as he could to create a really tight backing.
Voila...awesomeness! We even threw a few of our fridge magnets on there for good measure! We were pumped, to say the least. Such an easy project that turned great!
Closer view.
Here it is hanging in all it's magnetic glory! Right above his sweet lil' DIY bookshelf (info on how to make that right HERE) and I think I'm so in love. Is it possible to crush on a DIY project? Oh, I'm so there! We have now deemed this his 'interactive' nursery wall.
So I was always imagining some sort of hook system and when we spied these at Michael's, we knew they were perfect. One caveat? They were $3.99 a pack, ugh! Way more than I wanted to spend. Well I get Michael's emailed coupons and they're Columbus Day sale this past weekend had us hopping in the car to grab these all at 40-50% off. I think they would've been originally around $22 and we got them for around $14 for all five packages of magnets. It pays to use coupons!
So here's the close up of said magnets, hard at work. Look at all those sweet angel baby faces...blessed lil' future buds of our sweet boy.
Here's the finished product which I drool over. I mean, how freakin' adorable will it be to hang his little baby art work or even do a rotating display of our recent pics from fun family adventures. Truthfully, I'm excited that it will actually MAKE ME print my pics and not just 'collect' them in Facebook albums to share.
As for that big red pouf...you know there's a deal story behind it. So I've been lusting after said pouf from World Market HERE for months. I'd checked it out about 3 times at our local store but never bit the bullet and just purchased it. Well there was quite the surprise in my inbox on my birthday with a $10 coupon from World Market, cha-ching!
Wait, it gets better. A week later I got another email about their 25% off everything friends/family Columbus Day sale so we added it onto our errands list. I knew I wanted to run it by Walt (he really has a great eye and has opinions about our decor) because I knew he'd either love/hate the idea. Ummm, he LOVED IT! So we picked up this $69.99 pouf for $45 by using both coupons. Suh-weet!
So that's it for today, readers. We still have more DIY projects to share. How are you liking Nursery Week so far? Are you inspired by any of our projects? Have you tackled any amazing DIY stuff lately?
