One of my favourite ways to make a house (or a townhouse) feel like a home is to put pictures up on the walls.  A few years ago in our previous house, I embarked on a risky endeavour creating two collages on the walls of our living room/front hallway.  I briefly tried out some arrangements on the floor before transferring to the wall using only my eye for leveling and measurements.  I was impressed with myself that both collages worked out and they lasted on our walls for the remaining 3 years we were in that place.

But plenty can change over 3 years, and those pictures were old even at the time we moved last spring.  When I thought about settling into our new digs, I knew that I didn’t just want to put up the same pictures I already had in those frames I used in the collages, so I made it a goal this year to update those photos before putting them on display.

My husband and I didn’t prioritize decorating when we moved in though, so I didn’t get around to thinking about this until the last couple of months when I began planning for our nursery.

Turns out my decorating tastes and needs have changed in the last 4 years or so.  Going from a single-story house to a three-level townhouse means a lot more decorating, so there’s that.  Plus, where my original intent with the two previous collages was to showcase everyone we loved in our circle of family and friends, I found my intent this time was to showcase only my favourite photos; instead of being focused on including everyone, even if the photos were substandard, this time I only put up a few photos that I really love.  And I put up a few extras of us!

Also, given that we have so much more space, I wanted to introduce a little more art.  Previously Tavis and I created a picture on a large canvas and that hung in our bedroom at the old place.  In this new place, it fit beautifully on a tall wall on the landing going up to the second floor.  We recently did a Paint Nite where we produced two more canvas art pieces, so I wanted to show those as well.  To go along with the canvases, I printed off a number of photos we’d taken of flowers from various locations over the years, and hung those in a cluster in the stairwell.  And finally, I did a small collection of landscape shots in the kitchen showing places Tavis and I have traveled together.  I like that we created our own art galleries in a few spaces rather than keeping the focus on portraits.

Now that the walls are decorated, it really does feel more like home here.  I also decorated the nursery, but perhaps those are details best left to another post!

S