Liberty House: Instagram Wall Art for the Office

I rang in the first day of 2013 by spending seven hours painting trim in my almost-office. Seven hours. I’m pretty sure there are people who have birthed children in less time, but what I have to show for my efforts is just a lot of no-longer-oak trim. To give myself a little sanity break between the hours of painting and caulking and repainting I did this:

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I jumped on the Instagram bandwagon last year, and it has been a fantastic way to capture little snippets of my life and work without taking the time to hunt down my big camera and actually edit my photos. So basically I’ve gotten lazy with my photography, and of course I wanted to celebrate that by creating an Instagram shrine on one of my office walls. So this is either a testament to my laziness, or to all those fun little moments that sometimes slip by without us even realizing it… you decide.

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I actually had my instagram photos printed through Prinstagram a few weeks ago (it only cost $12 for 48 of their mini prints) but I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with them. Then I came across these bird clips from Urban Outfitters while Christmas shopping, and it just all kind of came together.

Well, actually, that’s a lie. The idea came together, the execution of it hit just a little snag when my mailman decided to exact retribution for my inconsistent mail gathering by doing this…

I felt like this was the human version of one of those dog bones you put the treat in and keeps them occupied for like fifteen hours while they try desperately to get it out. Which worked, by the way.

So getting the box of clips out of the mailbox was the hardest part of this project, and after that I just drove some 3″ nails into the plaster, stretched a little nylon cord between them, and clipped away.

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There was exactly zero pre-planning that went into this. I just whipped the tape measure out, put one of the middle rows in first, and then worked out from there, spacing the rows every 8″ until I liked the size of it.

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Even though I still need to paint the baseboard heaters, build a desk, and replace the light fixtures, I think this room is showing remarkable improvement already.

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19 Responses

  1. Have any tips to painting trim? The trim at my house makes me want to kill myself and I can’t imagine (7 hours notwithstanding) finishing an entire room in a day.

  2. Got to love your postal workers. You know that little slip they leave when you have to sign for a package? Mine didn’t leave the slip recently and when I went to the PO before the holiday (long line, crying children, cranky patrons) and requested my package the clerk asked my how I knew I had a delivery when I didn’t receive a slip. Gosh Wilbur…I’m not expecting a package; I didn’t have anything better to do than come down here and screw with you three days before Christmas.

  3. I would have left the box itself inside the mailbox and written on it, “Mail carrier: remove box for your holiday tip.” Inside would be a “tip” of a different kind. And I would have secretly filmed the event.

    Love your Instagram wall! The best thing about it is that you can change the artwork whenever you want.

  4. The Instagram Wall is great! Ick…trim…have to finish some of that myself…how can I procrastinate?!

  5. I keep staring at those last two photos and wondering why anyone would ever cover those beautiful windows with lacy curtains!

  6. I’m totally not knocking your Instagram wall, because I think it looks awesome, but I couldn’t help but laugh after watching a Portlandia marathon New Year’s Eve: “In Portland, you can put a bird on something and just call it art…”

    It wouldn’t be the same without birds though! 🙂

  7. At least they put it in the box. They chuck my stuff over my fence. I caught ups chucking my new track saw over the fence and just about had a fit. Ended up returning the saw. Could they have broken it guess ill never know

  8. My mail carrier would have done the same thing, only I would have been happy that I didn’t have to make a trip to the Post Office to pick it up. I’m sure s/he thought s/he was doing you a favor and there was no malice involved. 🙂

  9. I love love love your photo wall! How exciting to see how far you’ve come! Happy New Years! May 2013 bring you peace, love, happiness, and health! Cheers.

  10. Diggin’ the instagram display, but the star of the show…. OMG those windows!!! Never realised how pretty they were covered with that goddawful lace!

    /me is envious 🙂

  11. Those windows are beautiful! And the Instagram display is just simple enough to let them shine! I’m a new reader (just popped over from The Ugly Duckling) and I’m loving everything I find! Even your Newman-esque mailman.

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