Livin’ On The Ledge

Great…now I’ve got Aerosmith stuck in my head (you know…the song…livin’ on the edge?).  But it doesn’t matter because it’s PINTEREST CHALLENGE REVEAL DAY!  Apparently that was deserving of caps.

Pinterest Challenge Winter Edition

You can check out my Pin-spiration back here, or more like in-decision pin-spiration since I had about a gah-gillion different projects I wanted to tackle…cuz that’s a word.  But I ultimately decided on tackling a postcard ledge project for the living room.  Wah-bam!

Postcard Ledges In The Living Room

Yeah…so you remember all those hula girl postcards I put up in the entryway? Like a few days ago?  Those came down.  I just wasn’t feeling it.  But I’m totally feeling them in the living room on the set of ten postcard ledges that the Colb-ster and I made.

Postcard Ledges

Pre-postcard ledges, the living room art situation was pretty boring.

Sad Artless Living Room

I still had the set of falling down, fall art that I created from some yard leaves and some spray paint that I pretty much hated from day one but still kept it hanging on the living room wall until I came up with something better…six months later.

Sad Artless Living Room

But let’s talk about the postcard ledges and how simple they were for us to make.  There are many tutorials out there for building your own postcard ledges.  But we threw caution to the wind, didn’t read a single tutorial, and decided to wing it.  That’s what Steven Tyler would do, right?!  What would Steven Tyler do…WWSTD?  Haha…I don’t think that’s going to catch on…it sounds too much like a disease.

So first up, cutting the boards.  We always seem to have a ridiculous amount of scrap pine laying around to use for projects, and this project was no exception.  Meaning…this project was FREE.   Colby ripped down some pine boards to 3/4″ x 1-1/8″ in four foot lengths, then notched them out with the table saw.

Notch Pine Boards For Postcard Ledges

Since postcards are super thin, the 1/8″ kerf on the table saw blade was more than enough to notch the pine boards.  The groove would play the role of official postcard holder in-er.

Notched Pine Postcard Ledges

With all ten boards cut and notched, I stepped up to the plate and batted a homerun primed and painted the ledges.  It just took one coat of primer and a coat of Valspar’s Betsy’s Linen in gloss (leftover trim paint from the rest of the house) to fully coat the ledges.

White Painted Postcard Ledges

After they dried overnight, it was installation time, which was a snap thanks to our trusty laser level.  Seriously…we use that thing for all the time.  It’s just a cheap little Black & Decker laser leveler but it makes hanging things (curtain rods, art, trim, etc.) so much easier than our usual eyeball-it method.

Using Laser Level To Mark Ledge Locations

We went for about eight inch spacing between the ledges with the bottom ledge a little over a foot up from the back of the couch (more on our reasoning for that in a moment…stay tuned).  Then it was just a matter of slapping each of the boards onto the wall with the Paslode finish nailer (a simple hammer/nails technique works too…we’re just lucky enough to own a finish nailer).

Nailing Postcard Ledges Into The Wall

Voila…hung postcard ledges.

Installed Postcard Ledges

The only drawback to nailing the ledges directly into the wall was that we were left with a trio of nail holes in each of the boards.

Nail Holes To Be Filled

But it was nothing that a little dab of DAP couldn’t hide.  Just a little dab into each of the nail holes and they disappeared right into the painted wood.

DAP For Nail Hole Fixing

The next step was my favorite…arranging the post cards.

Adding Hula Girl Postcards To Ledges

I could arrange them all day.  Goose, however, was less than thrilled.

Adding Hula Girl Postcards To Ledges

Oh, sad moping Goose.  If you ignore him for two minutes he gets all sad and whiny.  He takes after his mom!

Here’s the closeup shot of the postcards on the postcard ledges.

Hula Girl Postcards On Ledges

Oh how I love those hula girl postcards!  I’ve had the postcards since way back in my college days when I hung them all over my dorm room walls.  I’ve hung onto them all these years (I’m really not that old, I swear) with the idea that I would use them somewhere someday.  It’s taken me awhile, but they’ve finally come out of the closet.

Postcard Ledges

Colby really loves the postcard ledges too.  Colby’s funny.  Like most guys he’s supportive, let’s me do my decorating thing, and pretty much stays out of my way.  He always says he likes something (even though sometimes I swear he doesn’t).  But when he told me he liked the postcard ledges, and couldn’t stop talking about them all weekend, I knew he REALLY liked them too.  They’re the perfect fit for our living room…color wise and scale wise.  I love how the postcards have blues and oranges running through them, tying into the aqua curtains and media cabinet and the orange lamps and pillows.

Postcard Ledges

The one thing I don’t like about the postcard ledges is that awkward empty space between the top of the couch and the first ledge.  But there’s a reason for that.  If you squint REALLY hard you can see an unfinished, narrow, pine sofa table behind the couch.  It’s just something Colby whipped up one day down in the mancave.  I’m thinking I want to put some sort of vase arrangement/display thing on the narrow sofa table to help fill the empty wall space.  But if that gets weird, we can always add another pair of postcard ledges to even it all out.  As always, we’ll keep you posted on what we decide.

Angie…out!

Pssst…Show of hands, who tackled a project?!  C’mon…I know some of you did! Tell me what you created?!  I’ve gots to know!

18 Comments

    1. Yes! Thank you! AND…FYI…if for some chance you need some decorating/painting help for your new West Coast pad, give me a call. Or even just some moving help! We will GLADLY take the trip out to help!

  1. We LOVE all things Vintage ~ and these vintage inspired post cards are super cute! Way to go with the ledges!

    1. Oh…tell me about it! Pleasing both the wife and the husband is no easy task! Do you have that problem getting dude approval too?!

    1. Thanks Megan! The sofa was a long time coming…like you were rocking a little love seat for a LONG time that we weren’t thrilled about but kept around anyway. It was SOOOOO worth the wait to get something we really loved! Loved your project too by the way…adorable!

    1. Ooooooh….thanks! This is so exciting!!!!! And your blog is adorable! How I have I not come across it before?! Quick question…I’ve been bestowed the Liebster before…I’m I still allowed to pass it on and participate?

  2. Oh man, those are awesome. We were just in Hawaii over Christmas and I stared and stared at the vintage type postcards and didn’t know what i would do with them. I now wish I had bought them! Pinning this for future reference….I just love how it goes into the corner.

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