Wednesday, January 2, 2013

30 Before 30: My Wall


I've been living in the same apartment since I moved back to Pittsburgh in 2010. It's been two and a half years of blissfully living by myself. There are many excellent advantages to living alone: always leaving doors within the apartment open, ignoring the sink (and counters) full of dirty dishes, or falling asleep on the couch watching The West Wing (admittedly, also Teen Mom) three nights in a row. Included in that list is total and compete control over interior decorating. I always knew living in Boston would be temporary, so I never invested too much time into the apartments I could never reside in alone. Because I love just about everything about my apartment (shower stall: BE DAMNED!), I'm not interested in moving out until I find myself a house to buy. So, instead of moving, I'm starting to undertake a number of projects to give me a feeling of change, even if I'm staying put.

One of those projects was to redo my wall.

My wall is truly a favorite feature of this apartment, but its initial organization was fairly haphazard as I wanted to feel settled here as quickly as possible. So I put my wall on my 30 Before 30 list. For two reasons. First, I wanted to make sure it got done. Second, I wanted to make sure it got done right. I knew this was no undertaking I could start on a whim. It was something I needed to plan out. (I've been scouring DIY/lifestyle/design/decorating blogs for months.) That I needed to collect items for. (This was the fun part: new prints/new photos.) That I needed help executing. (Enter my dad.)

We spent a Saturday afternoon tacking the new arrangement up on the wall while listening to The Weakerthans. (I had bought my dad a bunch of new records for Christmas. So far, he's keenest on them, which is totally awesome.) It was a bit frustrating at first. My patience can easily wear thin. And also I have the attention span of a fly. But, after relaxing a bit and realizing this project was going to take a chunk of my day, I stopped rushing to get to the end. Though the results are far from appearing professionally done, I'm pleased with the result. It was the perfect way to refresh my place a bit before the new year.

View of Wall 1

View of Wall 2

Narwhal print by Tugboat; Downtown map print by Brian Taylor.

Map of Pittsburgh from Alternate Histories.

First CONFETTI poster, Phil Collins, and bikes and powerlines.

Next up on the apartment to-do list is slightly more terrifyingly tedious project. It involves sanding, cleaning, and painting. (Yikes!)

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