My Religion is Simple: The Great Wall of Awesome

Remember this list? You'll notice that I mentioned decorating the staircase wall. Here's why:

Kind of boring, huh? I had a million different ideas and all of them included incorporating some of my favorite prints and pieces that I have been accumulating. When I saw this photo on Pinterest, it became my inspiration.

via MarthaStewart.com

To jazz it up a bit and tailor it to my style, I decided to paint a horizontal stripe in between the frames instead of leaving a blank space. I kept going back and forth on the color of the stripe. Initially, I wanted the color of the line to be a dark blue. A dark blue will coordinate with the blue that I am going to use to stencil the curtains in our living room. But then I realized I didn't want it to be all matchy-matchy and imagined a lighter blue. And then a bluish-green. While I debated on the color of the stripe, I marked off my line and laid out the wall a la Young House Love.

For the stripe, I ended up with Araucana Teal by Martha Stewart. I thought that the blueish-green of Araucana Teal, paired with Nurture by Behr (the light blue already on the wall), would not only go nicely with the rest of our downstairs, but also give off a laid back, beachy vibe. We like to pretend we live closer to the beach than we really do.

I really like the results.

I like to fill our house with things that make us smile or laugh, and this wall is a nice mix of special pieces that do the trick. Starting in the upper left corner, we hung some canvas map art. There's more on how I made them here, but they're super special because each piece represents somewhere significant to us: where we met, where we got engaged, where we got married, and where we live.

Next to the map art is a gift from my parents. We got married in Pismo Beach, California, home to Splash Cafe. Splash Cafe has the world's best clam chowder, and the aesthetic inside is just as entertaining as the food is delicious. The walls of the restaurant are adorned with cool murals depicting clam-people surfing, sunbathing and swimming. This piece is a replica of what you'll see inside Splash Cafe. My parents gave this to me for my 28th birthday which was only a few months after we got married.

We love our dogs. I mean, we LOVE our dogs. And they're crazy about us too. So when I saw this print ("Please let me be the person my dog thinks I am.") on sfgirlbybay, I had to buy it.

We also love California, perhaps slightly less than we love our dogs, but still. This California Love print seemed only fitting. It's from an Etsy shop, Love in Letters. I had it tagged as a favorite, and Nick surprised me with it out of the blue. Nick knows that Etsy (and food) is the way to my heart.

The top floral print is just a pretty piece of scrapbook paper. The three pieces beneath it started out as tile coasters I found at Anthropologie a few years ago. I knew I'd never use them as coasters and have been saving them until I could properly put them on display. When I found three square frames at a thrift store, I knew they'd be perfect for the coasters. I sanded them and spray painted them white and then glued the coasters to them. I think they look quite nice.

Next, I included this beautiful pair of original oil paintings I found at a local thrift store. They're coastal scenes and they're gorgeous. Seriously, an awesome find. They are signed Murane and the back of each painting shows the artist's information as Ruth Z. Murane from Santa Cruz, California.

Ah, and then there are my cows. They're not really my cows, but they reminded me of cows I fell in love with near our house. I would drive to and from work each day and see these beautiful brown and white calves sitting in a field near their mom. They were so small and precious with thin, wobbly legs, and they etched a place in my heart. They just made me smile. Why I still eat meat is a complete mystery to me. Anyhow, rather than get out of my car and trespass on someone's property to take pictures, I thought a print of Rachel Parker's original watercolor painting would do. I found this vibrant print on her Etsy site.

To the left of my sweet cows is a swatch of fabric framed with a white matte. The colors and pattern of the fabric remind me of a peacock.

I really like this photo of our bikes in Monterey with the ocean as a backdrop. Ah, to be back in Monterey again. Most of the frames on this wall are thrift store finds or old frames we already had with a fresh coat of spray paint. This frame, however, is brand spankin' new. It's from Aaron Brothers, and I'm smitten with that whole distressed wood thing its got going on.

I got this D print from Young House Love before they did away with their print shop. I guess you could say that I have a piece of history on our wall then, right? (I think I accomplished that with those beautiful Murane paintings, but you know what I mean.)

And last but not least, we have a sweet note card of a dog smelling another dog's butt. My mom gave me this print, and boy, does she know me well. Classiness runs in the family, I tell you. She ordered it from snew, an Etsy shop.

So there we have it, one more thing to strike from my list.

I have a couple more projects in the works. With the way things are looking in baby land, I'll have this list completely finished before my uterus knows what hit it.