Stop the bus! I’m getting off at Jennifer Nguyen’s house and moving in! Wow! I love everything she’s done with her art. And I love that she takes us step by step through the process, including links. And, can I just say, I believe every woman should have images of herself that make her feel beautiful and I love that Jen included those in her closet so that she can feel that way about herself every day. (And boudoir sessions are so much fun to shoot). Come take a stroll through Jen’s home…
I am super grateful to be part of Wendy’s Art Wall Display project. I have seen so many great and inspirational ideas and I hope that my post can give you readers some inspiration also.
It’s been 2 years since we’ve moved into our house and it’s been a work in progress. Moving was a good excuse for new furniture and decor, which I have yet to get (So you might see mismatched furniture in the pictures that I am sharing). The one thing I was sure of, was that I wanted photos on my walls. I didn’t want a simple print of a flower because it matched the color of my living room. If it were going to put up a floral print wall art in my living room, I’d want it to have meaning, either the image would be taken by me or it would be an image of my favorite flower, a tulip or a lotus, the official flower of Vietnam. Whatever were going to be on my walls, I wanted it to be meaningful.
The one thing I hold most dear to my heart is my family, therefore I opted for a 36×24 metallic linen print in my formal living room over the ever so coveted spot…the mantle. The metallic linen print is gorgeous! The print is mounted on styrene and is framed glassless. The linen texture gives it that extra kick of sophistication and without the glass, it sets off a more artsy feel. As you can see from the view of the dining room, the print and frame are pretty big. I wanted this image taken by Nichole Van to be the focal piece of the two rooms. I thought the frame was an important piece in making this art work complete. My first instinct was to go to Aaron brothers. I fell in love with a specific frame but with the Aaron brothers discount it would have been $450. So I headed out to Michael’s Arts and Crafts thinking it would be a little less expensive, the exact frame was there and it cost a little less. I thought I’d try the local frame store just for kicks, even though I figured their prices would be more than the chain store and it WAS NOT! The frame in the picture was very similar to the one at Aaron brothers and Michaels and it was only $175! Score! So if you have an important print that you’d like to frame, shop around, your local mom and pop framing store may save you some good change!
Sitting on the bookshelves flanking the mantle and on the floor in front of the fire place are desk print (8×10 and smaller) sized frames. They are there for a lack of a better place to put them.
The living room also displays what I hope to be a series of coffee book albums of my family. For now, there is a 6×6 fabulous flush mount album of my family in Utah, also taken by Nichole Van.
One of my favorite photos is a 3 piece split panel canvas that sits in the entry way to the garage. At Nichole Van’s Professional Lighting Workshop, she showed me a similar 3 piece split canvas of her kids in the same truck. I knew I wanted the same thing when I booked my session with Nichole. Nichole captured this image so perfectly. My eldest son is in the middle. He is often referred to as the middle child because my 2 oldest girls are treated as one and my youngest is the “baby” of the family. That leaves B as my middle child. He is often by himself, by choice. He has always liked to play independently. So having him as the center/middle of the canvas was spot on. My two girls are always together and their expressions in the photo really do show their personality. The “baby” of the family is with me and he seriously is always happy and smiling like the image portrays. I chose this image to split because it’s on a truck, hence garage, next to my garage… and the perfect accent sits under the canvas an old key holder to hold our keys!
Photos also make my kids happy. I think they feel a sense of pride seeing their faces so big on canvas. Not that they are that narcissistic but because they know I am proud of them, having pictures of them all over the house is me showing off how much they mean to me. I wanted them to be reminded of how beautiful they are inside and out so I blew up 16×24 (with 2″ black wrap) canvases of each child and put it in their playroom. This is their narcissistic wall, where they can show off their art work on the art cable that I created with curtain tie backs and ribbon.
My kitchen has very little wall space for any kind of art work or wall decor therefore I felt even more pressure to put something really nice or really cool up. My husband really wanted to put up a google TV in hopes that I’d become a better cook by watching the cooking channels and tutorials so I gave him the only wall space we had in our kitchen. But I really wanted “art” up in my kitchen so I took a picture of wooden spoons filled with the the main spices in making Pho (a traditional Vietnamese noodle). If you haven’t signed up for Groupon Daily Deals yet, you really should! Every so often Canvas on Demand will have a groupon for $45 for a 16×20 gallery wrapped canvas. Whenever I see this deal, I buy as many as I can. That is a better deal than my professional cost!
Nothing too special here, but I wanted to share my boys’ room with you. I bought inexpensive frames from Kohls and put up a small gallery of 8x10s above their dresser. I like these frames because 8 x 10 images are relatively inexpensive to print. So every so often I switch out the photos. I am usually very OCD about things and like things to coordinate but in their room, I let it go. the images in the frames don’t really match the colors of their room, they are processed different styles, etc. But the boys love seeing recent photos of themselves. They look at the photos and say, “oh that was me in Maui, remember…” So I just print whatever photo and switch it out when I remember to.
The next 2 photos that I am sharing are very dear to me because they are my 10 year wedding anniversary pictures with my love. Originally, I wanted to hire a photographer and go all out and have a huge shoot but time caught up on me and before you knew it I was in Las Vegas at the Cosmopolitan celebrating my anniversary with my husband and there wasn’t any time to hire a photographer. So I set up my trusty tripod and took a series of pictures myself. These 16 x 20 pictures are also metallic linen mounted on styrene frames without the glass. You see a trend here? I love this look.
I few years ago, I took some boudoir pictures with Wendy, from Blue Lily Photography. I bought the digital files and made a little album for my husband. But the album just sat tucked away and the pictures were forgotten. I was hesitant booking this boudoir session but my friend told me that I would regret it 10 years later if I didn’t do it. It’s been 2 years and I am really glad that I did it because I am not getting any younger. When I see these pictures in my closet while getting dressed it makes me feel sexy and sometimes it puts me in a mood to dress a little nicer and not grab the regular jeans and tshirt (nothing wrong with this look, I live by it 80% of the time), and those are the days I feel good. Let’s face it, when you look good, you feel good right? It turned out that this boudoir session was not only for my husband but also for myself. So ladies…. Valentines day is just around the corner (wink, wink).
The last wall display I’d like to share is a very long awaited gallery. If it weren’t for Wendy’s series of wall displays I wouldn’t have bought it. I’ve always wanted to put together some type of wall collage up in the house and I didn’t know where. I didn’t know if I should mix frames, canvas’, standouts, etc. When Wendy asked me to join this inspiring project I quickly ordered this SUPER easy to do wall gallery from The Perfect Picture Wall.
As you can see I have a very long hallway from my front door that leads to the family room. This hallway seems very cold walking down because the walls are empty! Like I mentioned earlier, I don’t want to just buy any old wall art that doesn’t have meaning even if it looks beautiful. Hence, these walls stayed bare, until just a few weeks ago. The photographers that shared their homes and walls inspired me to dive in and get mine started. I plan on buying 2 more kits to fill this wall and the wall opposite of it.
The one last thing I wanted to leave you with is a tip on hanging your frames. I use QuakeHold on all of my wall hangings. Take a small piece of putty, knead it and roll it into a ball. Then put the ball of putty on the bottom corners on the back of your frame and push up against the wall. This is wonderful. You can dust your frames and not worry about it shifting. Your frames will look perfectly aligned 
You can buy QuakeHold at Home Depot and Lowes.
Thank you so much Wendy for the motivation and inspiration.
Wow! Thanks, Jen!
