24 August 2010

painting tutorial

Do you get to paint your house? If you own it - duh, of course you can do whatever you want to it. Renting, on the other hand ... I went through my entire lease today to find what the rules are about painting walls and there was nothing. So I called the management office and was told, "Probably not." The girl is checking with the head manager but was doubtful.

SAD! Especially after finding a fantastic advice post on the MADE blog earlier today about painting the inside of your house. (It's not just sewing!) So I'll just refer it to you instead:

Home improvement: everything you need to know about painting walls, vertical stripes, paint tools, and a little crown molding

Isn't her daughter's room FANTASTIC? Not the color scheme I would use - I'm required to have pink in my girls' room. But it looks amazing. Can't wait to see Dana's posts on painting furniture and do-it-yourself artwork ... I'm still staring at my computer armoire trying to figure out what I want to do with it, and the kids' dressers haven't been touched yet either. (Cooler weather, I'm waiting on you to haul this stuff outside!)

One thing about not being allowed to paint means that whatever I do in this house, it has to move with me to the next one. That's not so bad. I have one idea for some artwork on our walls. We figure we're going to move around quite a bit, and I think it would be a good collection to start of nature photos from each state (and DC) we live in. What do you think of these to start?

Washington DC: the White House Rose Garden

Maryland: the botanical garden at Wheaton Regional Park

Mississippi: magnolia at the Vicksburg National Military Park

My dad shot the pictures in DC and MS, and I took the one in MD. I'd like to have them fairly large - an 11x14 at the smallest. You can't get that size printed at Walmart, so I need to find an alternate location. And printing on canvas is EXPENSIVE - 40 to 60 bucks at Walmart, and that's just for a normal-sized print. I saw this post a while back on How Does She that tells how to mount pictures on foam-core board, which you can do of any size photo because you cut it yourself.

family room picture displaying

Yep, I think that will do it.

3 comments:

april b said...

Great ideas for nice art. I wish I knew where to get large prints at a reasonable price. Let me know what you find out.

Unknown said...

When it comes to canvas, if you don't mind a thin canvas that you can mount to a frame or onto a large canvas, artscow will do things cheap.

Otherwise, i love the painting ideas and her stripes are FABULOUS! We aren't allowed to paint either so I feel your pain. Some day ...

Well hopefully they come back with more favorable a response so maybe you will luck out.

Liz Autry said...

http://www.adorama.com/ is what my dad uses. They are good quality, professional prints. There are three different types of paper, and the pricing ar as follows for the listed big prints: 11x14: 3.99/3.99/4.99 16x20: 9.60/9.60/11.68
and they do go larger. I hope this helps. :)