Tag Archives: canvas

“If These Walls Could Talk” Gallery Wall – Week Two – Spring 2025 One Room Challenge

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I seriously love the One Room Challenge. It’s just the motivation I need to finish off projects. I’ve been puttering away preparing the gallery wall in our new bedroom, and with this week’s progress update launching, I got the energy to finish hanging everything after work today!

As a reminder, this room is bedroom addition we built last year. It’s going to be a room for our oldest, when he’s home, and also serve as a guest room or lounge! It’s a petite space, but I had big plans for this wall, and I really feel like it opens up the room!

If you are looking for tips for your own gallery wall, here are some ideas to consider:

  • let an overall impression guide you – my inspiration spaces contained art that felt light, with large white mats or lots of negative space.
  • Consider a theme – I chose items that represent the outdoors, wanting to make this narrow space feel more open
  • choose items with meaning -these walls can talk, because every item here has a story behind it!
  • for a collected look, mix multiple types of art, such as paintings, photographs, prints, and three-dimensional objects
  • DIY items, such as a fabric-covered picture mat or your own photographs
  • Use paper cutouts of your items to help you design the layout

Here’s a before-and-after look at the space:

This collection includes a DIY fabric-covered picture mat and a photo I took of Finn and printed at the local drugstore.

As I said, these walls can talk! Clockwise from left, a photograph taken from Fort Point, under the Golden Gate Bridge, that Steve and I bought at an art fair ~25+ years ago; an LED sign with my son’s name that my sister sent from Hong Kong; a small canvas print of a photo I took, featuring spring blossoms and Victorian houses; photo of Finn I took and printed; nasturtium print by Henry Evans calendar under a DIY fabric mat. My friend Penny gifts me a Henry Evans calendar every Christmas!

More treasures: paper silhouette cut-out from the Canadian National Exhibition when I was a child; strawberry ceramic bowl I bought at an art fair with a friend ~25 years ago; Vassar College pennant for my oldest; 1924 newspaper found in the walls of our last house; replica Group of Seven Canadian landscape painting my parents got on an Air Canada flight ~30 years ago; fern print from another Henry Evans calendar.

Last of the treasures: a beautiful branch painting by my mom ❤

I’m working away on some other projects that I hope to share with you soon! In the meantime, you can see all the other fun room transformations on the One Room Challenge website!

Julie AKA “Jewels”

Your Home is Your Canvas – Inspirations for Custom Art

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I want each item in my home to be meaningful, and custom canvas art is a wonderful way to personalize a space. I’m sharing four custom canvas ideas that I’ve used in my home. This includes several original projects as … Continue reading →

The Neutral Pillow Project

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Whether you lean towards Scandinavian-inspired, Modern Farmhouse, or California Casual, everything light, white, and wood is in right now – and I love it!

While I’m always excited to incorporate new looks into my home, it takes some creativity to do this – we’ve had most of our major furniture pieces for a decade or more.

One strategy that’s easy on the budget and environment is to change out accessories like pillows. Here are some light and bright ideas that you can use to give your room a new look!

Admittedly, my “things I have in the house already” is rather extensive, but I’m still proud that I managed to make all these pillows with them.

Here are the links to a tutorial on making simple throw pillows and tutorials for the window seat pillows, including bolster and flanged pillows.

Starting with: Ribbon-embellished geometric pillows:

  • I started by sewing lengths of ivory ribbon onto a linen-like fabric in diagonal stripes
  • I then cut out panels to create a chevron or herringbone pattern for two bolster pillows to add a neutral accent to my teal armchairs
  • With the leftover sections of ribbon-embellished fabric, I created one more throw pillow for our living room loveseat

Mudcloth-inspired contrast stitching:

Neutral doesn’t have to mean boring! I took some plain canvas fabric I had and, inspired by the oh-so-popular mudcloth trend, cut it into panels and sewed it together with contrasting navy thread:

There are a million more ideas for sewing simple pillows to change the look of your space – and when I try them all, you’ll see it here!

“Jewels”