The Kitchen Picture Ledge

For the last two weekends, I've been working on the first project in forever that I have actually been excited about.

Here's what the kitchen looked like before, a few months ago.

Part of my fun came from paying hardly anything for the project (maybe like $25 in various wood and a few bucks in getting some prints made) and finally finding homes for art that I'd had for a long time and never could quite place. It also solved the issue of art in the kitchen, which I've been struggling with.

I knew whatever went up needed to unify the four wall spaces, because any way I diced it in my head, hanging a picture on each wall didn't really work, but it also seemed awkward to leave one wall blank (or only have a piece of art on one wall and leave the others blank). I toyed with the idea of gallery walls that wrapped all the way around, but while I and every other design junkie on Pinterest love a good gallery wall, it seemed like a chore to try to put one together and worried me that it might clutter the space.

Then one day, inspiration struck with this ledge. No unnecessary holes in the walls, adds a nice bit of contrast, unifies the space and is super easy to build. Bingo. I love it just as much as I'd hoped, and it'll be incredibly easy to swap out art when I run across something fun and new. Here's the one on the right side of the kitchen...

And on the left. The clock is probably going to get relocated, because it's hung too low for me to put anything underneath without it looking weird.

This afternoon, I successfully completed a subproject of this project: building a large frame with mitered corners for a 12"x18" of this picture I took, in this very kitchen. (Is this what people call "meta"? Not sure. Maybe.)

I accomplished this feat using this AMAZING ratchet corner clamp. This thing is brilliant and it's only $6 (which I didn't realize until just now...what a STEAL). I don't actually recall the last time I was so jazzed about a tool, though I do tend to get pretty darn enthusiastic about a good clamp. There's just nothing else that solves problems as effectively as a clamp doing what it was designed to do. 

 

I decided to go clamp shopping today after having an attempt at a mitered corner frame go seriously sideways on me yesterday evening. Literally and figuratively. There was a lot of muttering and prying and poorly placed glue and tacks from my staple gun (including almost one in my finger...don't tell Todd or I'll lose my air compressor privileges). It took forever and I ended up with three out of four neat-fitting sides, which, for those keeping track at home, is one fewer than the standard picture frame features. 

This afternoon, I cut and assembled two functional frames less time than it took me to screw up one frame yesterday. Right tool for the job makes all the difference :)

I'm about to become a picture-frame-making fool. I can get glass cut to size from Lowe's for pretty cheap and this clamp actually makes mitered corners fun. Something I never thought I'd say.