Living well together and creating art

We finally finished the art project we've been working on for a couple of weeks! A while ago I randomly had this small glimpse in my mind of what our little dining area might look like one day... granted we have absolutely no idea where we'll be living, how much space we'll have, if we'll even HAVE a dining area, etc. etc. But the point is that it's hard for me to visualize what our little home will look like without actually having a home yet, so when I get these little "glimpses" or "visions" I have to immediately take action to remember them. And in this case the only thing I saw in this glimpse was some sort of old wood paneling hanging near our dining table with something black painted on it. So I knew three things: 1. Wood 2. Panels 3. Black to go with the table. I looooooved this glimpse, loved it. I think mainly because I've been obsessed with our table from day one, but always wondered what's going to compliment a black table since it's so harsh. It's like a lightbulb suddenly flashed, "Duh! Black paint on wood totally works!" It hit me right away that a more natural wood color paired with the black would be the perfect option to compliment the table but also soften it's features and add a little random mix of rustic & modern... which by the way is SO random because neither one of those words ever describes my decorating style. ever.

But I went with it and drew up this plan of what I had in mind. Then later that night at dinner Joel & I sat at a table that was exactly what I had drawn! Meant.to.be. I even took a picture in case we ever got lost in our vision. Needless to say we needed no more motivation to start building this bad boy.

And build is what we Joel did! I'm seriously marrying the best man ever... he let me annoyingly walk him through exactly what I wanted on my unnecessarily detailed plan and ask him one billion questions about how he was going to proceed with creating this. And then he just... did it! No questions asked he just made it happen. If this is any indication as to what our future will be like with various household jobs & tasks then SIGN ME UP because this man knows what he's doing! He started with this huge piece of oak wood that he had the gents at Home Depot cut into our desired panel sizes. (We wanted a large 3' x 3' square piece so each of the four panels was cut to a 3' x 9" size)

Next he built the frame (don't ask me how) using 4 scrap pieces of wood for .51 cents a piece! Here's a look at some left over scrap pieces plus a back view of the corner of the frame:

Other than Runaway Bride or You've Got Mail, Joel working has got to be my favorite thing to watch... he doesn't really like it when I watch him because all I do is ask annoying questions. But he's just so adorable when he's focusing SO hard on one thing and totally in the zone I can't heeelllllp it. He does this thing where he sticks out his tongue when he's concentrating or focused (see below) and I swear it never fails to make me fall in love with him all over again. I think what I love most about watching him work hard or focus on something is that I know he's always giving 110%, and he'll alway find some way to make it work no matter what it is. I am always so proud of him it's sickening... sorry you always have to hear about it : )

(Here's the front & back of the piece before paint)

Then it was time for me to step in... yikes. Joel did his part and he did it SO well that I was terrified I'd make the wrong stain/paint decisions and ruin the whole thing. But fortunately we continued to make the decisions together and are so happy with how it turned out! We chose to stain the piece with Minwax Dark Walnut stain. At first we thought we wanted a stain that was lighter and more natural looking but Joel brought up the good point that the black against the wood would stand out way more if the wood was lighter, and our goal was to make the piece more subtle and not have too high of contrast between the wood and the letters. So we made the call to go with darker and it was definitely the right call! We are SO happy with the stain color and how it works with the black.

(Mid-Stain process plus a shot of the homemade stencils for the lettering)

It didn't take long after my initial "glimpse" to decided that a phrase was the best option for what to paint on the panels. We ended up choosing "Live Well Together" a phrase I also blogged about here. We wanted a simple phrase, simple reminder, that didn't take up the entire space (because we're infatuated with the wood stain- duh). This seemed to be the perfect option.

(Stenciling was difficult and time consuming just because I, ah-hem, made my own stencils. I'd definitely recommend investing in some nice sturdier stencils because these flimsy cardstock ones left a lot of room for error)

So there it is in all it's glory! How does it compare to that sketch up there? I could not for the life of me get an accurate depiction of color with my crappy little camera, I tried door shut with flash and door open no flash and neither one seems to be exactly true to what it looks like in person. Oh well, guess that means you're all invited over for dinner, eh?! (But seriously, you are) How good is this guy gonna look hanging across our black table? Almost as good as MY guy is gonna look sitting across the black table. I might neeeeed some type of industrial hanging light fixture to go over the table, like this or this.

We are so happy with how this project turned out and cannot wait to hang it in our home. It was so fun to brainstorm and dream this up and then turn it into a reality together. It's exactly what we pictured and wanted and I just know it's going to give the space such a warm feeling. Words cannot express how lucky I feel to be marrying a man who not only knows how to build and fix things but also one who enjoys doing it. SOMEone definitely knew what they were doing putting us together : ) Here's to the Henderson home and many more projects to come!