Paddy's World...

A long time ago, I blogged about wanting to place a big map in Paddy's room.  I ordered it from Amazon, got it before we moved in, matched a light blue to the map for the other three walls, and then was ready to move in.  Krissy came to the rescue and pointed out that I would probably want to hang the map before our goods were delivered so I wouldn't have to move furniture around, etc. to do it later.  So, Krissy, her daughter and I had a fun night hanging wallpaper.  This was my first adventure in wallpapering.  I was pretty clueless, so thankfully, Krissy is a patient and helpful teacher!

Before:

During:

The surprising thing about the map was that it was supposed to be 13 feet long, which would have been too long for the wall we put it on, so I figured we would just trim it...well, it came up about a foot and half short of covering the whole wall.  This drives the 'neurotic me' a little nuts, but I think we placed the map in the right place so that your eye isn't immediately drawn to the piece of wall without map!

The other bummer for us is that Iraq and Afghanistan had to be cut out as they fell where the window is...

I am very pleased with how the map turned out...and I think Paddy likes it too...

come on in and check it out...

 After:

 and here is the 'keeping it real' photo...notice where we ran out of map...

And here are a few shots of the rest of Paddy's room...almost all of this is from his nursery in Boston...

Most of these pictures on the 'gallery wall' were in his Boston room; however, I added the painting of hot air balloons that our sweet friend, Catherine, gave to Paddy.  We also added the very old Army pennant that Sean and I got at Scott's in ATL...


Changing table...since we have 're-purposed' the Brimfield cart in this house, my only other decent option was this buffet we bought in Michigan several years ago.  In Columbus, this was outside in our entertaining area.  In Boston, I did a horrible job refinishing it, and then, I didn't fix it :), but went ahead and used it in our dining room to shove as many pieces of entertaining gear in here that I could.  Don't you love multi-purpose furniture?

Reading corner...with Ari's "Let Go" picture...

The coat rack that my dad made is getting lots of good use...

Thankfully this closet could fit his little dresser (that was completely scuffed up in the move!)

The closet is helping store the 'nicer' books...

Some fun trinkets and books on top of the dresser in the closet...

The beautiful growth chart that Michelle made...I smile every time I see this because I just think about how much time and love went into making this...

That's all we've got :)

Paddy's Room - Wall Idea

So, because I have been feeling a complete lack of inspiration on the blogging front, I figured I would try to jump start myself by posting about some design ideas for the new house which may or may not pan out.

I am obsessed with maps lately, so when I stumbled across these maps (I was able to get it for cheaper, but I guess the company I purchased from is now out of them - however, these are still almost 1/2 the price of the exact same one that UO is selling!) that would take up an entire wall, I knew this was what I wanted to attempt in Paddy's room.

Image via Urban Outfitters 

Now, I would love to hang this in a way that I might be able to re-use it in the future, but I haven't had a brilliant idea for how to do that.   The whole map is more than 8 feet by 13 feet, and it comes in three large pieces. If you have any thoughts, I would love to hear them!  The only thing I thought of was binder clips??  Not sure if those would be strong enough to hold these pieces up since they technically should be hung like wallpaper.  Poor Krissy - she keeps offering to help me paint, then she spilled the beans that she knows how to wallpaper.  She is in trouble...I am going to probably take her up on ALL her offers :)

Then, I will probably paint the rest of the walls a light blue to go along with the map...I finally bit the bullet and ordered the map, so I will try to color match once I receive it.  

I also love the chair in this pic!  For now, Paddy will be stuck with the vintage orange beauty :)

So...should I start a poll on how long it is going to take to hang this bad boy?