Ski Map Art
In the world according to Angie, there’s nothing that makes home feel like home as a little decorating and picture hanging. Especially when that art means something. This weekend we bunkered down (thanks to hurricane Irene bearing down on the East coast) and weathered the storm (so far…fingers crossed…the other neighbor’s tree doesn’t come down into our living room…it’s still pretty windy out there). We recently finished painting the hallways a gorgeous grey color:
And that wall to the left was just begging for some art! And I knew just the right project for the space…ski map art. This project dates back about five or six years to when I had my own apartment in Bangor. I’m an avid skier (ok…obsessed skier…I’m one of those that lives for Maine winters) and had saved a couple of my favorite ski maps and brochures. I decided to display my precious ski maps and took some basic white frames, spray painted them silver, and hung them on my walls, gallery style. Here’s a sample of one the frames. This one is Sunday River:
I’ve added to the collection over the years, including some brochure pictures, magazine pictures, and even some snowshoeing pictures. This is actually the inside of a brochure for Sugarloaf that I scoffed up for FREE:
Ahhhh…Sugarloaf. You make my heart go pitter patter. What can I say? I love winter and this obsession has helped create a nice little hallway gallery. My gallery has moved from my old apartment, to our last apartment, to our current house’s basement where they’ve lived for the past year and a half until now. I dug out all the frames and performed one of my favorite acts, the lets-make-paper-cutouts-of-all-the-frames-and-hang-them-on-the-wall-for-a-few-days-to-make-sure-I-like-the-arrangement act. It’s a doozie! And lucky for you I do repeat performances so it may come out again. So here is my layout:
I had collected a few more maps so I assembled a few frames for those too. Here’s the quick and dirty on that little project. I used this spray paint:
One of the cans is about five years old and it still worked like a dream. Hint: you can get this at AC Moore and don’t forget to print off your 40% off coupon from their website to save an extra two bucks. Then I just spray painted the frames:
Easy as that. And no, I chose not to sand down the frames. Just call me a rebel. Actually, it was about ten o’clock at night and I was frantically trying to spray paint these frames before the rain and hurricane rolled into town since I do my best spray painting outside. After letting them dry for 24 hours it was time to hang each frame in their appropriate spot:
We used picture hangers to do the heavy lifting for us. Those things are awesome! They’re hooks with nails that angle downwards to provide a more solid bond to hang pictures from. They make them in all sizes and weight limits and they’re my go-to for picture hanging.
Another note, I also labeled each cut-out so I was sure I knew which frame/map/picture was supposed to go where. I’m a little OCD like that. I had to make sure that the Sugarloaf map wasn’t next to the Sunday River map…you know…in case some fights broke out between them while hanging on my walls since they’re rival mountains. My money is with Sugarloaf being the victor. He’s my favorite….shhhhhh…don’t tell the other mountains. So the gallery REALLY shaped up well.
And here’s another shot from the other side of the hall:
Oh, and how about one more view…let’s take it to the stairs. This picture is taken from the staircase, looking down on the gallery:
After hanging all the art, I was ecstatic. It finally felt a little homey in the hallway and I was so down for that happening. We’ve lived in a major construction zone for so long, it really helped keep the motivational train going…choo choo! Hmmmm…now if I could only finish sanding/mudding the dining room! I’m sure the gallery will grow and morph over the next few years and I’m thankful for the extra space for that to happen. Hmmm…motivation for going skiing. Perhaps. Like I really need motivation to do that! Maybe we should go hit up Vermont this year for some serious skiing!