We have this big wall in our downstairs guest room that used to be a flannel wall.  I’m not exactly sure why it was flannel, but I think the former owner used it to piece together quilts.  Maybe.  Regardless, I didn’t really want a white flannel wall in our guest room.  (Scott didn’t have any opinion about the flannel wall, to my knowledge.)

I ripped down the flannel without thinking through the consequences of my actions (a.k.a. what the wall would look like under the flannel).  Wouldn’t you know, there wasn’t normal wall board behind it, since it was supposed to serve as a sort of tack board.  Makes sense.

Fast forward a bit, and we’re having our first guests at the new house this weekend.  Even though I know they’ll love us no matter what the state of our house, I wanted things to look nice in the guest rooms.  So I took some maps downstairs today, meaning to tidy up the room a bit and finish that project later.

Before I knew it, the wall had transitioned from splotchy beige (which fought with the weird peach and the other beiges in the room) to our very own map wall.  This was the inspiration:

Admittedly, our map wall didn’t turn out quite like that, but I’m hoping that it will get better and better as maps find their way to our house.  (If you know any maps with light blues and greens that need a home, I know a place.)

Anyway, this is how it looks:

Most of the maps are from an extra (and not super current) atlas I found in my car.  A few of them, however, are from places Scott and I have been together.  We have a couple of maps from Bologna on the wall.  We got lost a lot there, so two maps were definitely necessary.  We also have a map of Lugano, my favorite town in the world, and a map of Rome.

How did I connect said maps to the wall?  I thought I’d take advantage of the weird wall board instead of fighting it.  I didn’t want to apply the maps with any kind of glue or decoupage material, because I wasn’t sure if it would be a temporary or long-term solution for that wall.  Clear push pins to the rescue.

Someday, the wall will have a few more “old world” maps, and the walls will be this color:

I’m currently just enjoying the fact that the flannel wall has been claimed as our own.  The guest room is guest-ready, and our house is becoming truly ours more and more every day.