Apartment Improvements Round 1

This weekend I had big plans to do some spray painting and decorating.  Well, some of that was done... most was not.

First, I had to do something about my front door.  The front door to my apartment has three frosted windows in it.  Not sure why - since that defeats a good portion of the privacy.  Also, there is a hallway light directly in front of the door.  The first night in my apartment, it was so bright it was like I left a light on.  The second night, I taped some cardstock paper over it to kill some of the light.  It has been like that for a month.  So on Friday, we stopped at Home Depot and found some contact paper (that you use to line shelves).  I thought this would be a good alternative to help dim the lighting since I did not want to put a curtain on the door.

Well, we managed to find some paper and when I added it (3 layers in each pane), it actually looks like it's supposed to be there. WIN!

Then, I wanted to get started with attempting to organize my hallway mural of photos.  I was using the idea from Young House Love.  I don't have as many frames as they have, so I was a little looser with my set up.  I followed their lead and made a newspaper outline of each frame and size to help me layout the walls.

Here are the 3 walls in my hallway with the outlines taped up.  I figured I would start with smaller bunches on each wall and then I could add out from there.

 Hallway 1 next to the door

 Hallway 2 between the bedroom and the living room

Hallway 3 next to the bathroom door

After laying out the frames to see if I liked that order, I started measuring for the nails.  Honestly, I followed YHL's process almost exactly.  I did run into one problem - there seems to be studs ALL over the walls.  So I'm going to have to go back and get some shorter nails for a bunch of the pictures.  Not the worst issue, but a mishap for sure.

Then, I went through and hung things to see how I felt.  Here's what it looks like so far.

 Hallway 1

 Hallway 2

Hallway 3

About half of them don't have any artwork in them and the canvases all need to be painted, but at least I can see what they would look like.  I planned to paint all the black frames white so that everything coordinated together.  I'm glad I have to wait on that a bit... I may change my mind.  Also not sure if I should paint the mirror white.  That bright green works with my colors so maybe with the paint on the canvases it won't stand out so much.

So it's progress at least.  Fewer things taking up space on my table and floor for sure.

While I was at it, I decided to also hang that artwork from California.  There weren't many places I could hang it, so that was a pretty easy decision.  I'm hoping some light from the little window next to the space will play up the colors a bit.