A touch of black

Hello there! Hope you had a GREAT weekend! The weather has been so lovely here – this week it’s supposed to get really hot for the first time. I’ve loved it so far.

So I wrote a to do list on the blog two (ahem) years ago and I just finished up one of the things on that list this weekend. Are you surprised? I am not.

Of course that little DIY turned into changing up a few more things. Are you surprised? I am not. :)

I’ve shown you the gallery wall on our stairs numerous times over the years. It’s an oddly shaped wall that I made work by hanging photos of the kids. It’s always been one of my very favorite parts of my house. Here’s an old (and dark) photo of the stairs:

I loved that saying on the wall (the best things in life aren’t things), but when we had half the house repainted years ago that vinyl had to come down. I’ve had an empty spot where that was and finally got around to filling it.

Those frames are from Michael’s and are called floating frames. The photo goes between two pieces of glass so there’s no mat – the color of your wall shows through:

Last week they were 40 percent off so I picked up one more 8x10 and a square 14x14. 

I used the square one in the middle and just printed out a quote I found online:

All of these photos are in black and white and I print them right off our home printer onto regular paper. Our printer was low on ink when I printed the quote so it didn’t come out perfectly, but I actually kind of liked the effect so I’m leaving it. I may print it again on nicer paper eventually. Or not. :)

This wall has always had photos of my son and stepdaughter, but now that the grandson is here it is time to add him to the wall of love as well:

I’m running out of space so the kids just need to stop being so cute. 

The one other small change was painting the railing black. It’s been a brown color for years but I have been craving a classic black for awhile now. And the railing on the upper part of the stairs was never painted (that to do item that I finally got to), so now they match, three years later!:

I have big and little plans for the stairs in the future – the big stuff may not happen this year but there are a few details I want to fix on the molding and I’ve been planning to restain the stair treads for years now. You can see here how red they look compared to the hardwoods:

I can’t wait to get that done! But it’s obviously not a huge deal to me or it would have been done two years ago. :)

I totally dig the black railing with the black frames – I think every room needs some black in it. It’s classic:

Here’s another look at the darker version years ago:

And how it looks now. Buh bye pink walls!:

Do you have a gallery wall in your home? I love them down a long hallway, but as I mentioned last week we have none – so this is my “hallway.” :)

To see how I made the DIY starburst mirrors go here. To see how I added the trim along the stair wall go here. And for more on how I tore the carpet off my stairs and finished them, go here. This transformation is one of my favorites and cheapest!