dress: hm
Hi, babes! I hope your week is off to a great start. It’s been a slow, rainy start for us. Although you don’t get to be outside as much on rainy days, I do welcome the chance to catch up on chores and brainstorming house updates. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve noticed I’ve had a major house project itch.
It started with restaining our back porch and it’s led to many more projects! When it comes to house projects, I welcome a good challenge. Of course there is a time and a place for the professionals to step in, but for the most part, I like to DIY our house projects if possible. We live in a small house built in the 50s and it’s honestly a lot of fun to love on it. A little can really go a long way!
One of the first projects we tackled when quarantine started was updating our dining room. Because our house is so small, we spend a lot of time in our dining room. The first thing I did was get a dining table that fit our space. Previously we had a circle table that had leaves we could use if needed. The circle was just the wrong shape though. So, we got this table from World Market. The shape fit our space, the mid-century design fit our style, and the table itself wasn’t so bulky. We’ve had the table for a while now and we absolutely love it. It’s actually encouraged us to eat more meals together!
Once I had the table in, I knew I wanted to redo the main wall in our dining room. Previously I had a rectangle mirror (from before we were married) and two sconces that flanked the mirror. It didn’t go. So, I ditched the mirror and looked for a way to add frames without spending an arm and a leg. I don’t know if you are as addicted to Pinterest as I am when it comes to home projects, but I went immediately to Pinterest and started searching for ideas.
how to make cheap frames look expensive
After pinning what felt like hundreds of gallery wall pins, I finally found what I wanted. I wanted to have three large frames that took up the space of the wall. What I didn’t want was to spend hundreds of dollars on each frame. So I found a site that showed how they used a combination of Ikea frames and custom matting, and y’all, it was perfect! All of the measurements below were taken from this site. I simply re-wrote them for ease.
My two cents when it comes to DIY home projects is splurge where you need to splurge and save where it doesn’t matter or where someone won’t notice!
I ordered my 3 frames from Ikea and ended up spending less than $100! I will say that if possible, I would pick up the frames from the store to prevent any damage to them that could occur during shipping. The frames themselves are plexiglass and not real glass and can crack easily during shipping.
measurements:
frames:
Frames were purchased at Ikea.
Frame dimensions: 24 x 35 3/4
Cost: $75.74 (including shipping + tax)
matting:
Matting was purchased from Mat Board & More.
Smooth White #BW222, Outer Size 24×36, Opening Size 13.5 x 10.5
Margins: Top: 5 1/4, Sides 5 1/4, Bottom 20 1/4 (Top Center)
Made to fit an 11×14 photo
Cost: $134.94 (currently has free shipping)
table: world market | chairs: amazon | rug: world market | runner: amazon | fig: similar, similar
stay tuned!
We still have a bit of work to do in this space, so stay tuned! I am thinking about ordering this rug (on sale) and then getting this mirror to go over our bar. We don’t have a lot of space in our dining room, but I’m trying to create space for this bar cart. I think they are just so fun to decorate for each season!
