When I was single, I did a lot of late-night decorating.  I pulled my full-sized bed and full-sized solid wood dresser around my bedroom to try them in different spots.  I painted walls at midnight (which didn’t turn out well, but it was funny).  I had adventures.  It might have been a weird habit, but I really enjoyed late-night creativity.

Since my husband is out of town this weekend, I decided to try out some projects that have been on the back-burner for a while.  First on the list was getting rid of a stack of picture frames that have been sitting in a stairwell for months.  I think they’ve actually been there since the week we got married almost a year ago.

When Scott moved into what is now our house, I had lived there alone and with roommates for almost exactly two years.  The walls were already full of pictures and paintings and things that I had placed there with great care.  It was really kind of tough to shift my things around to integrate Scott’s prized possessions.  But shift I did, and it was fun because it meant I was sharing my wall space with Scott.

Try as I might, there were still pictures that just didn’t have a spot.  A few of them were mine, but most of them belonged to Scott.  To resolve that problem tonight, I decided to go with the popular “gallery wall” idea.  I’ve heard great plans for making your own gallery wall.  You’re supposed to select frames of the same color or style.  Or you can mix up the frames a bit and go with a similar theme for the artwork in the frames–all black and white photographs, for example.  The main point is just that your wall should have some sort of cohesive look so that it doesn’t turn into a scattered mess.  And I couldn’t agree more.

Once you’ve picked the frames and items that are going into the frames, you are supposed to make paper templates of the artwork so that you can play around with putting them on the wall in a certain way.  You can space them just right, measure, and get nails and such in their perfect spots.

I didn’t quite do things the ideal way, however.  I laid out the stack of pictures on my guest bed.  I threw away the two frames that were totally broken, and I started putting things on the wall.

Without any trace of a ruler or level, I moved through the project.  I had a beer, I tried my very best not to fall off of the ledge along the stairwell.  I’m clumsy without any help.  And in the middle of all that, I used the power drill with my left hand sometimes.  I also questioned my sanity, but it turned out surprisingly well.  Which induced a sigh of relief.

Want to see the final result?

Yes, it’s asymmetrical and slightly messy.  But I like it.  It took football snowflakes and family memories, a little bit of nice art, a map, some quotes, a family tree, and the A-Team, and it made them all a weird family.  It suits our new little family.

So that was my night.  Tomorrow, I’ll be decoupaging for the first time.  And what totally logical combination will we find then?  A map of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia and a filing cabinet, of course.  I’m pretty excited about it.

One thing I’m n0t any good at is taking pictures late at night.  Sorry.