A Panel Trio & Some Antique Photos

I was visiting a blog today, kimsbigquiltiingadventure.com, when I saw she made the three-panel wall hanging thing like I have in my living room. Mine is a little different than hers, so I will tell you how mine was constructed in a moment. She cleverly used hers as a faux headboard, while mine is used in the living room to make three small pieces of artwork really stand out. The artwork I used here were three antique photos framed in five dollar Big Lots finds. Well actually, they're photocopies of original antique photos, because I keep the originals in a fire proof safe. If my whole house were to burn down, heaven forbid, then I want my antique family photos to make it out alive. Not that they're alive, but you know what I mean. I got a ton of old photos, sadly mostly with no markings of the back to say who's who, but I do know they came from my Great-Great Grandfather Shumaker's stuff, so they're of his family. Anyway, here's the photo:



The photo on the far left is an old photo of my grandma's farm before she and my grandpa owned it. Anyway, what you probably want to know is how did I make it? Well I went to Lowes and bought the cheapest thing I could find, which happened to be that pegboard stuff. I covered it with some of the heaps and piles of quilt batting that I have laying around. (Isn't it the best when you find some brand new batting at a garage sale for next-to-nothing?!) Then I stapled on my fabric (I think my staple gun {and my glue gun too} are extentions of my right arm...) and finally attached a hanger-thingie on the back so I could hang it onto the wall. Then I hammered a nail into it so that I could hang a frame on each panel, and viola, there you have it! At Christmastime, I take down the antique photos and put up Christmas bulb wreaths that I made with tons and tons of vintage Christmas bulbs (totally thrifted of course) and some ribbon I had laying around. I'll have to show you a pic of that later.

This one has an old photo in the background, however this photo also shows the wall color. Notice how the blue on the wall matches the blue fabric covering the panel trio. Not bad for clearance fabric... I really lucked out!

I better explain something a little better though before you go wondering what blue wall I'm talking about since clearly the panels are hung on a butterscotch colored wall. My living room and dining room (which I should just call a great room because that's what it is, but I'm more traditional and don't really like the "great room" idea) are in two different color schemes. The living room is blue, and the dining room is red (see photos below) And how do I pull that off, you ask, since the rooms are connected? Well first of all, luckily there was this thing on the ceiling that comes down about a foot to divide the rooms, which enabled me to put up two separate borders. Secondly, I used paint to divide the room. The two long walls which the two rooms share are both painted the same neutral butterscotch. The smaller end walls are painted differently... a rich blue for the south wall, and a vivid red for the north wall. It works because when you walk in, you can never see both walls at the same time (unless you're a rabbit who has perfect peripheral vision... I'm not sure what Licorice {my bunny} thinks of it, but I'm pretty sure he likes it too since he's always trying to escape the kitchen to head out into the living room/dining room). When describing it to my mom over the phone, she thought it sounded terrible and even used the words "crayon box." But after coming over and seeing it, she agreed that it really does work! (And she's a tough critic, let me tell you!) Here's a quick shot of the red wall:

This one highlights the wonderful Hoosier Cabinet I got at an auction a few years ago.

And last but not least, here is a photo collage of antique family photos in the foyer for your viewing enjoyment: