August 26, 2020. Sheltering at Home Week 24
The remodel is done. The furniture is back in the house. The carpets are laid. And now it’s time for the hard part: Hanging pictures.
Which of the dozens of paintings, photos, quilts and rugs we’ve collected over the years should we hang on our walls — and where?
A couple of weeks ago, Jon and I spent an entire Sunday on the picture-hanging project. We got as far as pulling everything out of storage and propping it up against walls and furniture all over the house.
By day’s end, we had managed to put up only one item, our Navajo rug. It now hangs in the living room over the new mantel.
Trouble is, the Navajo rug has aged a bit since we first acquired it. The whites aren’t white anymore and it looks dingy next to the newly painted, bright white fireplace.
In other words, one day’s work, zero pictures on the walls. At this rate, we’ll be hanging pictures, and taking them down, for weeks to come.
Meanwhile, the living room is a veritable art museum of paintings, posters, quilts, photos, lithographs and giclees.
I kinda like it.
Help! Leave a comment below and let us know how you decide how and where to hang your art work. Does everyone in the house agree on what to put where?
More about that wall we took away at “Too Many Walls, Not Enough Bathrooms.” Next time you’re in Hungary, surround yourself with beauty at “Matthias Church — Budapest’s Splashy, Gorgeous, Over-the-Top Church.”
I love seeing inside your new home! The patio looks fantastic.
Wow, that photo of Christina on her wedding day is gorgeous. And so special that it could be at the mansion. Scott and Ruth would have been so pleased.
We moved into our new home a few weeks ago and hanging art was very fun, a little challenging, but not nearly as tough as your art-hanging simply because we haven’t amassed the amount of art you have.
Please please please visit when it’s safe to do so!
Can’t wait to visit. I’m going to start a bucket list of places I’m most dying to be in again. I have a fantasy of getting in the car with Jon and driving all over the country, spending a night or two as uninvited guests with everyone we know. This would take a while.
Pls send pictures of your new place. I’m having trouble visualizing it. And there’s something in me that loves to study floor plans and other people’s decorating ideas. Other people read romantic novels before they go to bed at night. I watch HGTV.
Hey, Barb, Just in case it’s been a while since I told you – I love getting your riffs! Your ability to capture and echo parts of my life are a bit uncanny. I deeply appreciate your perspective – it really helps, especially in this so not “normal” Normal.
We are about to embark on a home renovation project – hoping you can share the name of your contractor?
I am taking a page from your, well, “courage’ to proceed with something that was going to be relatively easy a year or so ago – Hopefully, I’ll get to the picture hanging stage!
By the way, your photographs are really inspiring and poignant. Have you thought about hanging some of the paintings kept more for memories in other rooms and enlarging, printing and framing some of your photographs to hang in the living room? Just a thought –
Keep sharing –
Anne
Michigan TriDelt ’64
Thanks, Anne. I’m finding that remodeling while sheltering at home works very well. It’s something major that can be undertaken from home. It brings people into your daily life. It’s creative, and it gets things done that might not otherwise get done.
We are finding it fairly easy to keep really good social distance with the workers. The indoor contractor put up sealed plastic walls between our part of the house and the work site. The landscape contractors stay outdoors. We have conferences standing far apart and wearing masks.
The one downside has been that communication and oversight (on our part) of the execution of the project is not as good as pre-pandemic. In the case of the hardwood floors, some decisions were made during installation that we were not on hand to head off because the work area was sealed off.
Good to know that my riffs on pandemic life are resonating. One of the reasons I write is it’s a way to come to terms with things that are bothering me, whether it’s my own shortcomings or my worries about what’s going on out there. I like to imagine that my readers get a little relief from their own worries by reading that someone else is going through the same thing.
So — a big hello from my shelter to yours!