Ju Ju

Now that you all have seen how we successfully treated the big ol' wall behind our couch I thought it might be fun to let you in on a little secret....Our big, beautiful map panels were not our first attempt at this wall. Nay, a few months ago, we put more than a few holes in that wall in an attempt at a totally different solution that turned out to be...............well, let's see how can I put this......A. DISASTER.

So, way back at the beginning of the year I spotted this wall decor at Target. 

Photo from google search

The "Palm Leaf Fringe Wall Art" or Ju Ju's as I call them were from the Nate Berkus Collection. I loved the texture, shape and pop of black. In my mind I could see a bunch of these ju jus layered atop each other over the couch. So, I did what any smart Target shopper does and I waited for them to go on sale and then loaded a bunch of them in my on-line cart and waited for them to arrive on my doorsteps.

Once they came in we got to installing and the plan was.....are you ready for it?  There was no plan. Literally, my smart self just thought, layer, one on another and go wide and tall and BAM little heart eyes would pop from my eyes.

Wellllll.................

You can't get it right every time right? 

Oy. It wasn't the worst thing I'd ever seen but it wasn't good. The whole concept read as sloppy and just kind of weird. The pieces also seemed to bring a bit of a tribal vibe to the space when mixed with the rug. I don't know, it just did't feel right. So, I took them down one by one, Brent rolled his eyes and we just kind of hit the pause button for a few months. Then, one day I decided to focus less on what to put over the couch and more on what to do with all of my ju ju pieces I had stacked in the corner of my master bedroom. I had a lot of these guys and with a diameter of  20" I needed a big wall to fill them with. 

Insert the large landing wall at the top of the stairs. 

This wall leads you to our master bedroom and is 14' wide. Instead of trying to recreate the original layered vision we decided to go with a traditional grid install. I worked the math (scary!!) and Brent worked the drill and in about 30 minutes we knew the Ju Ju's had found their home. 

Oh mistakes....they sure are brutal, but when you get on the other side, sometimes you just have to laugh and learn, but mostly laugh. 

Unless otherwise noted all photos are my own. 

We've Got the Whole World....In Our Living Room

Y'all we are making moves and have actually started nailing some art to the wall! 

I've talked before about the extreme difference in scale between our 1st house and our 2nd. Not only is our current house bigger, with more rooms, baths, etc..but everything is bigger scale wise. For example our kitchen table in house #1 is now the entry table in the foyer of house #2. The couch that was in the living room of house #1 is in our master bedroom in house #2. The size/scale difference is not a problem per say, it has just taken some time to re-think/find places for the the pieces we have and then try to figure out how to fill some of the bigger walls with new pieces of the proper scale. One wall that has been in particularly trying is the ginormous wall behind the couch in our living room.

This wall:

At 20 feet long and 10 feet tall we have really struggled to figure out what to do with this huge space. As the room as been slowly coming together we have been tossing around options and keeping an eye out for the perfect solution.

A gallery wall? A series of large mirrors? Picture ledges? We thought and thought, but nothing felt quite right. Then, a few weekends ago we were in Chattanooga for our annual 4th quarter birthday celebration and stopped in one of my favorite stores - Southeastern Salvage. It's one of those places you just pop in, never knowing what you might find. As we were perusing the isles Brent happened upon a map of the world broken up into 4 large, individually framed pieces. He pulled me over to take a look and I was instantly interested. The green and blue coloring + antique mirror detailing were really striking plus we had a feeling the scale was perfect for our XL wall in our living room. Plus, Brent and I both love to travel and have always liked the idea of incorporating a world map into our home in some way.

Each panel is 24 1/2" wide x 60" high. The plan was for the art to hang over the couch and because we didn't have the exact dimensions of the couch with us we were a little skeptical the pieces would be too large. However, Southeastern Salvage is not the kind of place you leave something you might be interested in with plans to come back, because it is almost always long gone by the time you figure out it's perfect. So, we talked to the associates and found out we could return the pieces if they didn't work within 30 days, so we decided to take a chance and bring them home to try. 

Well, guess what..........

They fit like a glove. The colors bring all of the elements in the space together - from the olive green bolster pillows I had made last year to the blue hues from the ocean painting over the left built-in. It's crazy what a full wall of color, texture and interest can do to make a room feel so much more complete. As much positive impact as some of the elements we had previously added (rug, couch/pouf/pendant lights and new built-in doors) to the space have contributed to this rooms overall vibe, nothing holds a candle to the way these framed pieces make this room feel equal parts cozy and refined. 

All photos are my own.