The Art Wall Evolves….

After a long, I might say unplanned break, I’m finally back and blogging again. I think that’s the longest break I’ve ever had, though I suspect more might be on their way as Christmas approaches. There has of course been lots happening behind the scenes, and hopefully I’ll have time to share some of the projects we’ve been up to, the new products we now have available, and other news before the madness starts.

So I thought I’d start with an update on our Chalkboard Art Wall. This has been a really successful addition to our home – I don’t think I would ever be without a chalkboard wall now, they are so flexible and useful. This being the case it was very easy to make a few changes. The photograph below shows the original wall I created for displaying artwork. However with the boys being a little older now, and a homework area being required, part of the wall had to be sacrificed to make space for a computer desk and filing system, along with the existing storage for all the art supplies. I was loathe to encroach upon my beloved Chalkboard wall, but space is at a premium, and needs must.

So there are fewer frames now, and I decided to replace the chalk frames with real ones. I dug out a few old frames (minus glass and backing board) from the garage, and bought a couple of extra (small cheap ones), and suspended them with a couple of panel pins knocked into the wall. This makes them really easy to lift off and replace as and when required.  A few additional decorative details were also added with chalk.

As you can see, all this actually makes quite an attractive display in it’s own right even without any pictures. The matching gold of the frames meant that the different sizes and shapes and mouldings of the frames didn’t matter, and the contrast against the black of the wall gives a rather classical look. It would probably look just as good in silver too.

The image above shows the frames filled – you can just blu-tack a few pictures in place, or draw chalk pictures, or have a mixture of the two. Again, I love the complete flexibility. If we had the space, I would have a few more frames, but maybe one day….after all, you don’t have to use a wall like this just for children’s artwork, you can fill the frames with anything you want!