Bedroom Makeover // DIY Wall Hanging

Does your home have a defined "style"? You know.... traditional, modern, vintage, farmhouse, cottage, rustic, contemporary, industrial? Over the past two years we've lived in our house, I've been trying my best to figure out what the heck our "style" is. Frankly, we just like a little bit of everything! I love a good farmhouse, but I want some midcentury modern chairs, a beautiful antique persian rug, an antler shed, some metal stools, AND some brass hardware.  I like a little of this and a little of that. What do you call such a thing? Eclectic? Confused? Random? You have no "style" at all?

Either way, I've finally come to the conclusion that defining our house and it's belongings really doesn't matter all that much. I've never liked anything to be too matchy-matchy anyway, so I just follow my gut. My only rules include:

1. Less is more.

2. When all else fails, paint it white.

3. The more light the better.

4. Always keep a good mix of feminine and masculine.

5. Bring the outdoors in.

Throughout our bedroom makeover and projects elsewhere in the house, I've tried to keep those five things in mind. It's so easy to get bombarded by pretty pictures in magazines or on Pinterest, but at the end of the day, my five rules keep me sane and on track. In a bedroom, I find that rule #4, the balance of masculine and feminine, is extremely important.

One of my favorite ways to bring masculine touches to a space is through metals. My Homecrest Chair was an excellent start, but I wanted to step things up a notch - bring in a bit of that "industrial" style but keep it us. I've seen a number of neat DIY projects using plumbing supplies, but I wanted something that seemed... Classier? Warmer? A little bit more feminine? So Tyler and I headed to the hardware store to see what we could find.

I tell you what, the plumbing aisle at Home Depot is amazing. I think I could spend hours there. Actually, I'm sure we HAVE spent hours there. :) I feel like my mind starts to think of all kinds of crazy ideas when we start sifting through the bins of pieces and parts, but what really caught our eye was the copper piping. It had the masculine/metal qualities we wanted but the color felt so warm - it almost has a blush undertone, doesn't it? Or maybe I'm just going crazy after so much time in the hardware store....

Either way, that was the start of our inspiration, and we've been running with it ever since! I decided to start out by making some art with the copper. I found an awesome DIY tutorial for a Copper Pipe Wall Hanging, and decided to give it a go. Sarah Sherman Samuel of the blog Smitten Studio does a great job of walking you through each step of the project, but I wanted to give a few additional tidbits:

• I had the hardest time finding cotton piping that wasn't too thick or too thin. I actually bought what I thought was just a bit bigger than 0.5", but it was a complete disaster. I ended up going with the thinnest piping I could find at Jo-Ann's. It was MUCH easier to tie. (I'm convinced I can still make something with the larger piping, so stay tuned for that. :))
• The instructions suggest purchasing 3 copper pipes measuring 1/2" x 2', but I found it was a whole lot less expensive to simply buy a single piece of 1/2" x 10' and cut it ourselves. Actually, the nice man at Lowe's cut it in half for us and then we used some pipe cutters to get our exact measurements when we got home.

  

• Cut your pieces MUCH longer than the instructions advise. A single knot takes a whole lot more piping than you may think, and tying is so much easier when you have plenty of material to work with. I found that 25 yards was oodles - even after making each piece extra long.
• Print a 50% off coupon online for Jo-Ann's. With the coupon, I think I was able to get my skinny cotton piping for under $20.

Why yes, this IS how we spend our evenings. Don't you?

It definitely wasn't the easiest DIY project I've ever tried to complete, but I actually really like the way it turned out! It's weird and uneven and completely perfect! :)