DIY Hanging Wall Letters

So maybe my baby is just about 6 months old now and these letters have been up for over 6 months. It's better to be late than to never post this, right?

How can you have a nursery without the wall letters these days? I hate doing things that are super trendy, but I really wanted the letters and came up with a hanging method that's pretty unique. This project was a combined effort from Hubby and I and it was really fun to work on a craft together!

Please forgive me for not taking the time to Photoshop these properly. I'm a graphic designer by day and don't have the energy or motivation to use it even more at night. The color is slightly off! The letters are actually navy blue with bright red ribbon, but they look more like black with orange/red ribbon.

So I (well, Hubby did it since he wouldn't let me near spray paint while I was pregnant) started out by spray painting the letters. Like our little cardboard spray paint work area? I had a few more projects I was also working on at the time. Hubby got really into helping with this, so he made those thin wood strips and covered them in painter's tape. He decided it would be easier to make sure the whole letter got painted by having the propped up.

After the paint dried, we used a staple gun to attach the ribbon to the back of the letters.

Now comes the complicated part...
I wanted to hang the letters on something, but nails or thumbtacks just seemed too boring and wouldn't fit with the room. I'm so proud that I came up with this idea of using drawer knobs and it actually worked! With some help from Hubby and Kitty, we figured out a way to make this work.

We bought 6 drawer knobs from the store. But if you look at the hardware that comes with knobs, the screws are flat on one side because they sit inside a drawer. In this case, that wouldn't work for the wall. We found these long pieces that look like screws, but they don't have a top or pointy bottom. We cut them into smaller pieces to use on the wall.
In order to get the screws into the wall, we used hollow wall anchors on each one. Then the drawer knobs could be screwed into the other side easily.

Time to pull out the laser level Hubby got as a gift a few years ago! This was the perfect excuse to use it and it worked great.

I laid out the letters on the floor so I could measure the distance between each one and then we could match it on the wall.

Here's the wall with the hollow wall anchors and screws.

As I said, it was really easy to screw the knob onto the wall once everything was up.

And here's all the letters hanging from the wall!

We love how it came out and it's so fun to walk in the nursery and see all our hard work!

Creative photo display ideas?

Like every new mom, I'm obsessed with taking photos of my baby and showing them off to anyone who will look. My tribute to Connor at work is getting a little out of hand already! (I didn't do that desktop photo though. That was my coworker's idea to welcome me back after maternity leave)

To the left of my computer, I started adding more and more photos each week as I pick my favorites. I think it's getting a little crazy and I need a way to display them in an organized way. (Remember, I work in a cube with gray fabric walls, so it's not like I can do all this crazy stuff in there.) I had fun doing some internet browsing one night for some ideas.

Here's what I found and PLEASE leave me some comments with your ideas as well!

Clothespins
I figured I'd see a lot of versions of the clothespin displays. It's easy and cheap!

Ribbon Wall
Photos on ribbons is a good idea! Wouldn't it be nice if I could have the cupcake tower at work too?

Gutter Topper
This caught my eye because it was made from gutter toppers. I don't think that's the technical name because I'm not sure what they are and I frequent Home Depot a lot. Still, it's a very interesting idea that looks great.

Tree
Not appropriate for work, but I still loved the idea!

Silver Clips
This caught my eye because these silver clips from Ikea look like binder clips. And binder clips are very work-friendly, right?

Clipboards
This is really creative! It takes up a lot of space, but it would be fun if I had a big open wall.

Cable Display
This was a Pottery Barn knock-off idea that looks really nice. I like that they used it for kids' artwork too!
So what display ideas have you tried in your house or at work?

DIY Grommet Man Cave Curtains

The man room is the one place in the house that I don't get to decorate. I can have my opinion, but in the end, it's Hubby who decides how he wants to decorate. However, I did offer to make manly curtains for the room to block out the sun while he plays video games!



First, I special ordered 10 yards of striped fabric (picked by Hubby) for the curtains. For the black portion at the top, I bought a heavy industrial fabric so the grommets wouldn't pull on the fabric and rip it.

I washed and ironed all my fabric before starting. Annoying, but worth it in the end.
I attached the black fabric to the striped curtain panels.
I finished all the edges except the bottom and cut off the excess.
I've never used grommets before, but it was pretty easy to follow. Each package came with a template and 8 grommets.

I measured each curtain panel and marked the area where I wanted each grommet placed.
Then I used the template to mark each circle.I cut out all the holes a little smaller than the size of the cirlce. I'd rather be too small and have to cut more than have a hole that's too big and can't be fixed.
The front and back grommet pieces snap on and I tucked the excess fabric inside.
(FYI, snapping the grommet was a bit of a challenge with such heavy fabric. This is where Hubby is asked to help!)
Finally, I hung up the curtains and then hemmed the bottom so they almost hit the floor.