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Industrial Style Word Art using Engineer Prints

OUR 2nd HOUSE

It’s been a while since we were in the ole room de la dining, eh?

Well, since we hung up the curtains, not much has been going on in there.  No dining.  It’s like one of those rooms that is better than it was (barely) and since it’s not completely hideous, it’s ignored.  There are far more pressing issues….ahem…weston’s nursery?….but since painting the nursery depends on the windows in his room being fixed, and the window will need to be fixed by a pro, and that same pro will have to do a bunch of other exterior wood repair, as well as paint the house….well, the nursery was gonna cost one gorgeous Jessica Alba of a penny.  No Lincolns here.  Sorry Daniel Day-Lewis.  Still love you in Last of the Mohicans.  And ET 🙂

Anyhoo… the house is gonna cost a lot of moolah…so that we can start on our four month old’s room.  Sad but true.  And so in the mean time, I’m hemming and hawwing over the dining room.  I hate that we converted it into a dumping ground for all our projects materials.  Every time something gets done…everything gets pushed into the dining room.  But try to look beyond that.  Look at those canvas’ I hung on either side of the hutch.  Way.  Too.  Piddly.

The piddlyness is exactly what I was thinking about when I saw these bad boys at Ikea.  They are big.  OVER 28″ x 40″.  I saw them and went nuts.

Actually certifiably nuts because this is what my cart looked like after check out.  Yes.  I am the crazy lady who decided to go to Ikea with two kids (one only seven weeks old) and a stroller and bought clearance furniture.   You should have seen me loading the car.  The security guard parked there and laughed at me.  Not. Kidding.

Sooo…I had my two frames.  Now it was time to come up with cheap art….because dang, $24 a frame is expensive in my book.

I decided to come up with something very industrial….but still personal.  That’s when I decided to type up some of our favorite spots.  (hence this blog post title)  These are all names of places that hold special meaning for the story of Jer and I.  The place we met.  The town of our first official date.  A random street where we had our first kiss.  The birth place of our boys.  Our honeymoon spot.  If you wrote a movie of our life together so far…this is the main events.

I liked it but I wanted it to print a little worn…like an old poster.  So I added some overlays till it was rough and tough but with highlights and texture (like our relationship!).

I saved them both as JPEGs on a flash drive and took them to Staples for printing.  They both fit on a single big sheet so the cost was $5 total.  The nice printer gal sliced them up so they traveled easier.

Thankfully they just fit in the opening of the mat.  I had anticipated them not fitting at all and I would probably need to cut the mat to be a little larger…but hooray hoorah!

The frames actually don’t have glass.  THANK GOD.  I would have broken it in two point zero seconds.  And Will would have broken it before that.  The amount of things that break in our house is unreal.  That’s why I was overjoyed to find that the ‘glass’ was just plexiglass covered with film on both sides.  After I peeled it off, it looked like real glass but with no danger of the Bower’s crashing it.

All assembled and hung up….

I’m obsessed with it.  I think the entire space is gonna be redecorated.  Let me rephrase that.  The entire space WILL be redecorated.  But these will stay in here.

And yes…that hutch needs to be gone.  It just doesn’t go.  It’s like Billy Bob with Angelina.  We all know how that ends.  With too many visits to the tatoo removal specialist and that vial of blood going to waste.  Vampires everywhere were appalled.

So that’s my little art install.  Have you been making any cheap art lately?  Or discovering giant frames?  Or amusing security guards?

p.s.  This isn’t our first rodeo…err…art made with special cities.  Check out this oldie art post!

***UPDATE:  Yes.  I mispelled it.  I blame the mommy-brain.  or mommy brian.  what have you.  Also – check out what they look like now…click here

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Comments

  1. I absolutely love your writing style, the whole Angelina/Billy Bob thing cracked me up! The prints look great too. That just may be a new addition to my home.

  3. That’s a great idea! I haven’t walked through the frame section at ikea in a while- didn’t know they had such big frames. I’m stealing this idea! My dining room collects junk from all over the house too 😉 Glad I’m not alone.

  4. I love the ideas you give for affordable art! The prints look terrific. I really like the hutch, it just seems like it needs to be a darker color? Like what you did first on the island? I am nowhere near as talented as you are with decorating, but my first thought was, the hutch should be darker. 🙂 Just my two cents!

  5. Great idea for some sentimental artwork!

    Random story – I was once in France with some classmates back when I was 17. We were in Paris at this old hotel and we were super tired from traveling and walking everywhere so we loaded up on the elevator instead of climbing up lots of stairs. Well, we OVER loaded the elevator to the point that we made it go down. There were maybe 6 of us on it with luggage and it was supposed to be 2 or 3 (crazy small elevator!). The guy, who I couldn’t understand at all, counted us (on his fingers and in French) and said some probably choice words… needless to say we probably didn’t entertain him like you did but we thought it was kind of funny… that is until we had to walk up an additional flight of stairs from the basement!

  9. I’m not sure if you wanna know this…but I think your honeymoon city is spelled wrong. There’s 1 too many “i’s”.

    My hubby & I also went to Riviera Maya. We loved it!

  11. Is that Brainerd, MN? We were just there last month so my husband could interview for a job!
    I’m glad the frames aren’t real glass. We got a huge Ikea frame, and haven’t hung it up because it’s glass and super duper heavy and we don’t trust our apartment walls to hold it up.

  12. Its kinda creepy that 5 mins before reading this post my friend and I had a long convo about Angelina. But I really like the texture and also your hutch.

  18. Love the prints! You put so much work into that hutch though, are you really going to get rid of it? Or will you find a new place for it in the house? I don’t know if I could commit to making over furniture like that and then not use it!! 🙂

  19. You rock – I think another post on your finances is due. How the heck do you do it. Rock as a mommy, already lost your baby weight, beautiful home, lots of crafts, blog… Yep, you rock!!! I was blessed to be pregnant with you 🙂

  20. Such a fun idea, Katie! I’m not trying to be annoying, but I don’t think there is a third “i” in Riviera Maya. I only noticed because it’s one of my meaningful spots too…where my husband and I honeymooned. Love that place!

  22. I agree with you on the hutch, but didn’t you get that not too long ago like last year sometime?

  24. I love your prints , they are a wonderful idea, But I have to tell you that you spelled wrong Riviera Maya , you have and extra ” i” . I am Mexican and tickles me when I see something that is misspelled in Spanish or in this case a City.

  25. I love this idea – very personal, and definitely fits in well to your large dining room! We have a lot of large, blank walls in our apartment, and sometimes I forget that bigger is sometimes better when it comes to wall art.

    Sorry to hear little Weston’s room is going to take so much to get done, but I’m sure whenever it does get finished, it’ll be great!

  26. Ooops! I guess it’s good that it only cost $5 so it won’t kill me to reprint. Now to figure out what I am gonna print on the other side of the paper!
    xo – kb

  28. Ima be upset if you ditch the hutch! lol! its so cute! Add some stuff to the top of it to give it some height and it’ll look better. And either paint it a fun color or paint the paneling.

  36. Oh girl…I have not lost the baby weight…and the house is always messy and basically I am always behind. It’s nice to think I have you fooled though 🙂
    xo – kb

  40. Are you waiting for someone to sponsor you to do Weston’s room? Is that why you are dropping all the hints about it not being done yet?

  43. At least it wasn’t an expensive mistake! Another bonus to finding cheap ways to make art 🙂
    P.S. I had to backspace and correct like 5 times in this short comment. #suckattyping

  44. Love the prints! I’m curious why you can’t work on Weston’s room until the windows are fixed. We had new windows put in (not replacement windows within the old molding, but fully torn out windows with completely new ones put in) and all we had to do was shift the furniture a few feet from the windows for a day or two — no big deal. (I don’t think it’s a big deal that you haven’t done his room yet. I was just curious about the nature of the window repairs. And I am anxious to see whatever you wind up doing for him. It will be hard to top Will’s nursery.)

  46. Well, all the trimwork in this house was painted and not primed…so it’s all chipping and flaking off. The problem is not with the window itself but the woodwork trim that surrounds the window. So once we get the wood repaired, we will tape off the room and spray all the trim in there (like we did in the office and kitchen). We spray before before we paint and we thought about doing it with a brush later, but its not as smooth of a finish…so that is why we want to wait. Does this make any sense?
    xo – kb

  47. Is it just me or is Will sitting in the bottom of that stroller? Love this idea.. Ikea always has the best stuff and I’m loving the large print ideas from staples.. this one needs to be on pinterest too!

  48. I am obsessed with you hutch, and while relegating it to a basement might sound like a sad demotion, it’s not as though you have a dark dungeon of a basement. I agree, it doesn’t really work with your dining room, especially now that you have the industrial prints, the curvy, country lines do kind of clash. The space definitely calls for something a little sleeker.

  49. What does it matter to you anyway? If you have such a problem with sponsored posts — that KB is always upfront and honest about — then don’t read her PERSONAL blog. I’m sure she could live with having one less snarky comment to reply to every day. You get to read the blog for free. Blogs are not free to produce. It takes time, money and a lot of hard work. Why shouldn’t she get paid in some way or another? Do you work for free?

  50. Speaking of clearance Ikea furniture, “my Ikea” (which is three hours away) marks the AS IS items down another 50% the second Wednesday of the month. I just happened to go that day with THREE boys in tow. 🙂 Fun times! Anyway, you should check and see if “yours” does also.

  52. Ack! No way! I went back and looked at your old art, too. Couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Cherry Hill, Tabernacle, and Hello Medford Lakes! I currently live in Medford, NJ!
    I’m a transplant from Raleigh, NC but my hubby is originally from Mt. Holly (now Lumberton, NJ). Being from the south, you seem SO Georgian to me! And I mean that in the nicest way possible – believe me! Love to you from your reverse transplant twin! Oh, and I love the art! 😀

  53. Note: I accidentally posted this to the older post. I meant to post it here! Sorry!

  55. I sent out 40 invites to a bridal shower and wrote “fiancé” instead of “fiancée”… Yeah I referred to the bride-to-be as a male… And my baby is the same age as Will, so baby brain want a valid excuse. What’s an extra i in a Mexican name compared to that? You’re safe!

  56. Love it Katie!! I think you are referring to Brainerd and Shallowford in Chattanooga? Just a few miles away from me! 🙂

  61. I’m cracking up at all your responses to the misspell. Don’t people read the other comments? You know already! I’m also irritated at that security guard. Couldn’t he have helped you rather than laughed? Good grief. Well, I absolutely LOVE this idea! I’m already making a list of places for my own- you did this in Photoshop, I’m guessing? And what were the dimensions for the frames just incase I decide I love those frames from Ikea too….

  62. Love the prints, mispelling and all. 😉 (and wow don’t people read other comments before making their own, you were bombarded with redundant comments 😛 )
    What program to you use to make these?? I have a iMac and I would love to make my own posters, just not sure whats a good program to do this on?

  63. Katie,

    You are always my fav! You seem to handle everything with a bunch of grace – that I could only muster on my best day.

    Jillian

  64. I just wanted to say, after seeing all these lovely readers helping by pointing out the typo and you responding with some version of “It’s my fault, poop!” I just want to say: YOU ARE AWESOME! Love it, and will definitely be stealing the idea. Thank you for being so creative and sharing it Katie!!!!

    xoxo

  65. I love it! This may be a dumb question, but did you type up the prints in MS Word then save as a jpeg, or use a fancier software?

  66. I’m going to guess that you are talking about Shallowford and Brainerd roads in Chattanooga.

    I got all excited when I saw that since I live nearby those.

  67. Love the prints! Just a thought, since the dining room isn’t used as much, why not turn it into a room that would be used? Craft room? Family work room (where homework can be done, etc.) Man cave? Woman cave? Just thinking out loud.
    Lauren B

  68. I think we would use it as a dining room if it wasnt so scattered. It is just nicer in the kitchen since its donezo.
    xo – kb

  75. Love Ikea frames, but I also love American Frame – http://www.americanframe.com/
    Prices are reasonable, assembly is easy, and the best part, you can digitally load in a pic of your artwork and play with different matte colors and frames! I framed our all college diplomas from here using the fancy wooden frames for a quarter of the price the bookstore charged.

  79. I’m probably too late to expect a reply, but I just happen to have completed a project with the SAME frames in our living room the other week and I’ve been trying to figure out how I want to hang them. I had mats cut because the artwork I used was smaller than the mat that came standard. I was able to put the standard mat in behind the new mats and still close up the back- so the weight is just a bit heavier than what you probably dealt with. We have plaster walls- would you just (or did you) use nails? Did you anchor screws instead? Did you do use one or two per frame? I’m nervous that 3M strips and/or hooks won’t be strong enough. If you have time to reply I’d be oh-so grateful! Thank you!

  81. I love this idea.

    How did you know what size to print? Did you just tell the people at Staples that it needs to fit inside a ‘A x B” size mat or frame? I already have a similar piece of artwork from one of your older posts but I use it as wallpaper on my laptop. I’d love to blow it up and put it on the wall.

  84. Ugh, I just went to Ikea a few days ago with a friend. It was fun and I got great stuff (I also got the kid-art easel), but we’re both pregnant and we each had a toddler with us. I thought THAT was bad. Wow. Did you leave the store with the sweats? ‘Cause I sure did! Ha!

  85. I usually LOVE your style, Katie, and I love reading about your projects, but I’m just not a fan of this. These modern subway art style posters do not seem to fit the classic/traditional feel I get from you.

  86. Im may just be a a new mama fog.. but what filters did you use to make it look worn?

  87. shoot..! i guess i am.. i meant***

    i may be in a new mama fog… lol man.. i didnt know you still loose your marbles after the babys here!

  88. Oh, poor Katie B! Totally something I would do – with the spelling. You should blame Staples. In fact, you should sue Staples. 🙂 On another note – I love that hutch. If I lived anywhere near you, I would totally stalk you for a yard sale. I hope she finds a home somewhere else in your house. If I can’t have her, I want to be able to see her. Thanks for this post – I didn’t know how easy it was to enlarge art like that.

  93. Isn’t the plexiglass in the frames great! Pretty much every frame in my house now has plexiglass in it, either myself or my wonderfully crazy daughters broke all the glass, ooppps. I bought a sheet of the thin plexiglass at Home Depot and replaced them all. Now I don’t have to worry as much when my kids are jumping on the couch and knocking the frames on the wall.
    P.S. “baby brain” caused me to misspell my second daughters name on her birth certificate, we only picked the name on the way to the hospital. I spelled JoESphine instead of Josephine. Love how the art turned out :).

  94. I totally just mis-spelled “BEAUTIFUL” in a graphic on the blog today. Really? What can I say, late nights… and “BEATIFUL” is a fun word too, right? 🙂

    PS, I seriously laughed out loud at your IKEA cart. You’re awesome Katie B. A-W-E-S-O-M-E. 🙂

  96. I just hate how some people kept pointing out that Katie made a spelling mistake. So what? Who cares? Seriously some people just gotta give it a break since Katie was brave enough to even post pictures of the mistake she made. Do ya’ll think she’s too worried about having made the mistake? I think not. I love Katie’s writing style. It’s so funny, but real at the same time. LOVE THIS BLOG! You rock katie.

    I’m only 16 years old and read home design blogs because I love interior design, and I think Katie is AMAZING!

  97. Love it! Such a great and affordable idea. Ahhh…La Romana…reminds me of our incredible honeymoon in the DR. And Bryson City…NC?…we live the next town over! Such a small world!

  99. I had the exact same reaction when I found those huge, cheap frames at IKEA. There may have been some jumping and squealing. And guess where I put the frame…in my dining room! 🙂 I was also very excited about the plexiglass, since the whole point of our trip to IKEA was to replace another frame that had fallen and shattered.

  100. Love! One of these years I’m gonna hook myself up with some cool art like that. One of these years… 😉

    BTW, don’t sweat the typo. I lived on Riviera Drive for SEVEN YEARS and still had to stop and think how to spell it each and every time I wrote out my address. And worse, whenever someone verbally asked me for my address and I gave it to them, they’d always ask me how to spell it! Picture me struggling to recite the spelling of my own street name while someone was staring me in the eyeball!

    Also? I never noticed your typo until you pointed it out. I was too awed by the art itself and apparently still can’t spell. haha

  101. Question. Any way you could post the files to be editable by us so that all of your wonderful readers can make their own $5 staples art? 🙂

  102. Laughing so hard because I am often the crazy lady in IKEA..last trip I had my two boys with me and a cart load of swell items. I actually put my youngest in the blue bag (they are quite strong) to make more room for stuff. Survived checkout but got to the snow covered parking lot and the cart tipped over, kids were screaming, swell stuff was everywhere…ah, love that place.
    Your art looks great!

  103. Wait, I missed the ET reference, was DDL in ET? And the Last of the Mohicans, o yea 😉

  104. I love all your responses to grumpy people. You never disappoint! or dissapoint! or disapointe! heart ya!

  107. You thought you were just sharing your super cool new art. What you didn’t know is that you solved something that I thought was odd for, oh, a year and a half? When I got to the pic of the plexiglass and film, I immediately stopped reading, went to the small Ikea frame I got as a birthday gift a couple of years ago, and discovered that the weirdly printed glass was actually plexiglass with film on it! I never would have thought to check for film, because it was on there really well. Now my frame looks the way it’s supposed to. Thanks for the aha moment!

  112. I’m secretly glad you came to that conclusion about the hutch! Don’t get me wrong, it is a GORGEOUS piece of furniture and you definitely did a great job restoring it. That being said, it has always felt off to me in the room… maybe the proportions are just off? Either way- I LOVE the artwork, even more so with the spelling mistake. Totally something I would do 🙂

    Oh and I once had a car stolen from me, and the security guard didn’t believe me. I was driving to work, and I knew exactly where I had parked because we had to park in a really obnoxiously far lot. Not to mention, I had misjudged the curb, so there were tire marks right next to the spot. Got off work… and my car was gone. The security guard drove me all around the parking lot to help me ‘find my car’. When it then came to light that the car next to my empty spot was actually a stolen car they had abandoned… aka mine was ACTUALLY gone, he got strangely quiet.

    Moral of the story: not every single female is an idiot with cars 🙂

  113. a little bit of muscle and a whole lotta will power 🙂
    Seriously…I just have one carseat behind the driver and one in the middle so that other backseat folds down 🙂
    xo – kb

  116. I used those picture hanging nails…the ones that come in two parts – one hook with holes and the nail goes through the holes to support the hook and whatever you hang on it. This one I used the 50 lbs hook and nail…so that will probably support much more than your art.
    xo – kb

  117. I would but I only have them saved as compressed files so nothing with the different layers or parts.
    Sorry.
    xo – kb

  120. I measured the inside of the mat and then told them at Staples what size I wanted to print. I always bring my laptop too…just so that if something seems off, I can quickly edit/resize for the print to turn out correctly.
    xo – kkb

  122. Don’t worry. Now that you gave her the idea, it’ll probably be available to purchase through the Print Shop soon.

  123. Oh gosh…I wish I had the time to do custom art!
    I won’t be offering it but apparently a gal does some custom pieces like this through her etsy shop…scroll up for the link 🙂
    xo – kb

  124. Oh no, not individual pieces for each person. But maybe access to a customizable version of these types of projects you do?

  125. I’ll definitely keep it in mind for future printable projects. Of course, everyone would need to be responsible for their own spelling 🙂
    xo – kb

  127. Next2Nothing, That’s kind-of a snarky comment. I googled “Next2Nothing blog”, and found your blog. Seems as though you must be jealous b/c your blog has gone nowhere. I also found some comments you left on this site: http://getoffmyinternets.net/forums/lifestyle-bloggers/katie-bower/page-21/
    You should be embarassed and ashamed of yourself. If you don’t like Katie(which is obvious by your comments), then stop reading please. You just sound like a grown-up bully. That’s not a very good example for your little one. I’m sad for you!

  128. Wait…so…those Ikea frames with the plexiglass thing…that sheet peels off and you can use it!??!?! I feel SO stupid ahahahhah I kept saying to my fiance that I was so angry they had black recycle symbols all over them!!! This is hilarious. Shame.

  129. Agreed! Life isn’t perfect.

    Plus, it’s a fun party game — “find the misspelling!” 😉

  131. I just clicked over to that site…I can’t believe there are sites out there, seemingly, just to b*tch about bloggers! It’s not as though anyone is forced to read blogs! Some people really never grow up…they all sound like they’re in high school! :/

  132. I can totally one up you on the spelling mistake. We signed our first son’s baby announcement “Proud parents, … ” except after I had put most of them in a mail slot and delivered the rest to neighbors, during my last delivery to my next door neighbor, she pointed out that they actually said “Pround parents.” Totally a result of mommy brain and I agree, dang photoshop should have warned me with some squiggly lines or something! Help a new mom out! She said I should fix it and print one correct one for his baby book. But I feel like it’s a good memory of that crazy time in our lives and I don’t want to erase it! I love your mistake, but I also feel your pain!

  134. These look awesome! I’ve been wanting to try some kind of subway art, and this looks perfect!

  137. I think your hutch could stay if:
    You build a 10-12″ base to raise it up higher. And paint it: maybe the bottom black, and the top ivory or all black. Just sayin’

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