Quantcast

Bower Power

· 38 Comments

W-art

OUR 2nd HOUSE

Not wart but W-art.  It’s “W” art.  As in Will and Weston art.

Let’s be thankful we didn’t name them Frank and Fred.

This post is all about the art that hangs in their rooms.  I get so many questions about them, I figured it would be good to just answer all those questions and give you back info so that I can just link back to this post in the future.  I’m awesomely lazy like that.  First up is the W-art in Will’s room.  It’s currently just thrown together since his room is in a transition from toddler to preschooler.  Yes the difference between toddler to preschooler is vast 🙂

Will decided that he liked some of the art that previously hung in his room so the rest got moved elsewhere.  These items were pieces that made the cut.  Most of the frames were items I purchased at a local thrift store for $1 or two or I had for years.  I usually wait for 50% off sales even at thrift stores because it makes frames much better priced and you can always paint, stain or cover them to make them match.  If you are gonna splurge for a thrift store frame at full price, make sure it is well built by checking the mitered cuts on the back and it has glass and possibly a reusable mat included.  I will spend full price if it has those features or if it is very large or an unusual shape.

This monogram art is actually just free handed initials cut out of a free map of Tennessee.  It’s a map-ogram 🙂  The map letters were mounted to a piece of plain white cardstock with some Elmer’s glue stick and popped into the gold frame.

This striped ‘mat’ is one of my favorites.  It is just a piece of fabric laid into the frame after the art was placed.   The art piece is done by Ashley Percival – he is on etsy and I have a deep DEEP love for his whimsical style that so freely incorporates color and fantasy with animals.  They are really perfect for a kid’s room.

The frame below that is one that holds a printed out map of Six Flags Great Adventure.  Will saw a commercial for Six Flags here in Georgia and said that one day he would go to that.  I told him that his Nana used to work at a park like that #carnie and his eyes lit up like a teenage boy seeing Miley swing on that wrecking ball.  I printed it at home – nothing fancy.

The middle of the wall has a frame with a few stenciled numbers.  It is Will’s birthday.  I turned it sideways because I’m a rebel like that.

Below it is an old clock (we plan on replacing this one or changing it up), a framed spider (I got it from Peru years back in my college days), and a metal kettlebell looking piece.  Will does Crossfit for kids and LOVES it and even though he has technically never lifted a kettlebell, this represents that as well as his birth year.  I got it at Hobby Lobby with my 40% off coupon.

At the very top is a piece that I painted myself.  It is arrows to represent the boys.  I have always loved the word picture in the bible of children being like arrows in the hands of a warrior (Psalm 127:4).  I pray that my boys would be that in the world and that when I send them out, that they would be strong and sharp and pierce the hearts of those around them.  I freehanded the piece on a cheap canvas.

The silhouette is super easy.  I took a photo of Will’s profile and printed it out.  Then I mounted the photo on black cardstock and cut through both pages tracing the profile with an X-acto knife.  When I flipped it over, the black side was perfect for mounting on white cardstock.

Will had requested more monster trucks in his room…so one evening after he went to bed, I painted this abstract monster truck.  I love that this would be easy enough for a middle schooler to do.  Just draw your general outline of an item, then use a ruler to create straight lines throughout the piece.  Paint with four different colors each angular piece till it’s filled.

The owl is actually something that was a gift when Will was born.  My dear friend Brook asked me if she could paint me a piece for Will’s first nursery.  I told her that I would love an owl to go with his woodland theme and this is what she created.  She actually gave it to me the night I had my C-section and I remember that I still had my epidural in because I wanted to jump out of bed to hug her but couldn’t 🙂  Will to this day tells me that this is a very happy owl that watches over him at night.

So that is the art in Will’s room right now (ya know…besides his cotton ball art that he created himself).

In Weston’s room we don’t have a ton of art but here’s what we do have…

Starting at the bottom is a little nail art.  It is an arrow…because you know….I like all arrows.  And it of course had to point to the west….because Weston means “one from the west”.  I really like nail art but in small doses.  Big ones intimidate me for some reason…I guess I scare easily.  I made this one on a square 1×6 board with tiny nails and .

Above that is a puzzle that I picked up in Richmond years ago.  I was there visiting Sherry and we hit up some thrift stores….she bought a little giraffe and I got this puzzle-with-no-pieces.  It was plain wood and I painted the entire thing with white and yellow craft paint.

In the middle of the wall, I put a matching frame with photos.  As you can tell, I didn’t mix and match frames in here.  These are all from the Pottery Barn outlet clearance pile.  They were thrown in there I am assuming because they were dinged up and needed some love.  Some fierce Katie love.  Jeremy thought they would need a completely new paint job but once I got them home, I took a Magic Eraser to them and soon they looked brand new.  There were six frames in all and the total was $20 which is a great price considering they all had mats, glass and matched.

The very top has another picture with Weston’s verse.  Lots of people have asked how we named him…and this is the verse that we named him after.  Since his name means ‘one from the west’, we like that this Psalm is just his.  Since the frame was a little large, I mounted it on a photo of leaves to make it pop a little more.

And then of course, there is another Ashley Percival print over his toy chest.  I love this one because Will tells me that it is the boys in the family – Daddy,  Will, Weston and LJ.  I asked where the mommy owl was and he said that it was dead.  Gee thanks kid.

So that is the art…errr…the W-art in the rooms.  I honestly can’t wait till Will’s room is a little more finished because I am sure the pieces will change.  I know that phase will end one day when I am not allowed in their rooms anymore.  They may decide their walls will be a personal canvas….let’s just hope they have better taste than me.  Not that I would ever cover a wall with cutouts of Devon Sawa and JTT….nope…I have class people….I would choose POSTERS.  They hold up better to glitter lip gloss 🙂

Update : Looking for more info on something you see in our house?  We have a Shop the Bower House page with paint colors and links to accessories, furniture and decor!

shopbutton

0 Shares

Comments

  1. Katie! I love the painting of the arrows you did for Will’s room! You’re good!!!! Thanks for the inspiration….time to bust out the paints! Would love to see more of your art. 🙂

  3. I honestly burst out laughing when I read Will’s response to the owl mommy. Made…my…day! I remember playing “house” with my cousins (only child + homeschooled = cousins are equivalent to siblings lol) growing up and NOBODY wanted to be the dad – dolls, animals, real life house – no takers. Soooo naturally us group of girls would always kill off the dad. I know…horrible right? But we always made sure it was in the most romantic of ways to die and the mother most was still so devoted to her husband and her children she never remarried or had any other love interests. We were so nice haha.

  4. I love love love those arrows! And the initials out of the map! You’re super crafty!

  8. Thank you for posting this! You are so very clever and crafty! Definitely gonna steal/pin some of these ideas! (i.e. admire them and possibly get around to doing something in 3-13 months.)

  10. I am in LURVE with that arrow art. You are so incredibly talented! You should open an Etsy shop! I would SO buy that piece! (I can also imagine it in B/W!)

  12. I don’t normally comment – but when I saw the first picture of Will’s room I immediately loved the arrow painting. I was on the edge of my seat scrolling down to see where it came from. I cannot believe you made that! You are so talented! I could totally see something like that on Etsy or even Minted!

  13. He just sleeps in a pack and play next to us. We don’t have a nursery for him yet and don’t plan on one until he gets a little closer to that out-of-our-room-date 🙂
    xo – kb

  14. As others have said…any chance of that arrow art ending up as prints for purchase on etsy? I love it, but I have my limits as far as art goes: I might be able to do the monster truck, but not the arrows.

  15. Probably not. I don’t really have the time to convert it to a print with high quality…much less sell them but I am sure that there are artists out there that would be happy to commission one 🙂
    xo – kb

  16. You are really talented!

    I saw the link on the side to the Pinterest Challenges…. any plans to do those again? Maybe even with diff bloggers if YHL/others are busy/not interested. I know lots of other bloggers also picked up on your idea, so maybe it does still need a twist. I personally like it when the rules are really tight, be geared toward something specific like “knockoff”, or “upcycle”. OH…maybe like cutthroat kitchen…could be cutthroat pinterest! ha. 😉 Ok maybe I need more coffee…

  17. Oh, Devon Sawa. 🙂 I haven’t heard that name in years! He was my obsession for months after the Casper movie with Christina Ricci came out.

    P.S. Love your artwork! You are so talented!

  18. I love that you used Six Flags Great Adventure! I grew up about 15 minutes from there and have such good memories from going there as a kid! Did you ever go through the safari? The monkeys would just sit on your car! Rolling thunder was the first roller coaster I ever went on.

  19. Hahaha… JTT and Devon Sawa. So I’m not the only one whose walls were like a shrine. Don’t forget Joey Lawrence and a dash of Rider Strong.

  20. Such cute ideas! I love how every piece has a special meaning for each boy. I conquered my fear of nail art by creating a piece using fabric-covered Styrofoam and straight pins. It was much less intimidating knowing that if I put a pin in the wrong place, I could just move it and wouldn’t have a random hole to conceal. It worked really well and hangs in our entryway.

  22. I’m new here and this post is awesome. Such great ideas that could be personalized and tweaked. LOVE. Nicely done.

  23. SO cute! I love all the different colors and textures and how well they all blend into the themes of your room. Best of all, I love that a lot of them are repurposed things! Somehow that always makes things more interesting, to me.

  24. My thoughts exactly! Katie, if you ever wanted to sell your art in print or download form, you have certainly amassed an awesome collection that would sell very well!

  26. “I really like nail art but in small doses. Big ones intimidate me for some reason…I guess I scare easily. I made this one on a square 1×6 board with tiny nails and .”

    …A board, tiny nails, and what?!?! Come on girl! Don’t leave me hanging!

    Just teasing. Hey, thanks for doing a solid and skipping over the spider art in Will’s room. Eek!

  27. Ahh…newborn in the house brain! I guess I didn’t finish my sentence! I meant to write embroidery thread 🙂
    xo – kb

  33. I’m with Genevieve! I would buy a print (or an original) of the arrow picture. I absolutely love it.

  34. The thing I love about that verse, is, it says east and west. not north and south. if you keep going up (north) on a globe, you eventually reach the north pole and if you keep going you’ll be going south. but no matter how far east you go, you’ll never be going west. they are forever far from each other

    It’s like God knew exactly what he was saying even before we knew the earth was round.

  35. “Let’s be thankful we didn’t name them Frank and Fred” – took me a second and then I got it and laughed so hard. Too funny!

  36. This is great. I love a good gallery wall and this is so creative. There are so many small details I was oohhh and ahhhing all by myself here. My boys would absolutely never sleep in their room with a spider on their wall. Fake or not I would probably have to take it off of their wall every night. I love the vintage but modern feel to this wall. And the big W is great!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the latest via email!