Memoirs of a Busby: Weekend Projects

Last weekend, Mom came up to help Eric & I finish unpacking and organize. While she was here, we actually hung some things on the wall. And that got me thinking about what other decorations we needed. All of the walls in our living room were bare. Especially the large space over our fireplace. So Monday night, Eric & I drove out to Hobby Lobby to see what kind of art they had there. And we found a few things that we liked, but nothing big enough to go over the fireplace. But we did buy a few other things that we thought might look good in our living room... and they were all 50% off! While we were there, we looked at the fabric and actually found one we liked. So we had the idea of stretching the fabric like canvas on a frame to hang over the fireplace. We figured that would be cheaper than any piece of art we could find. So, today we went back to Hobby Lobby to get the fabric and to look for a frame. However, we couldn't find a frame as big as we wanted (48' x 60'). Eric thought we could make it ourselves, and for much cheaper than we could buy one that big. So we went to Lowe's and bought the wood and accessories to make the frame, as well as a hand saw and mitre box for Eric to cut the wood. While we were watching the LSU game this afternoon, we cut the wood and assembled the frame. And finally stretched the fabric and stapled it on. It only took about 3 hours :) See our assembly pictures and final result below (I forgot to take picture while we were assembling the frame itself). I think it turned out pretty good!