Free is Good

This week has been a blur, with appointments, road trips, and general house "stuff".  I've also been having a blast helping my daughter plan a bridal shower for one of her oldest and dearest friends.  I truly can't believe that one of my best friends has a daughter getting married and that her daughter and mine are the same age!  It seems like just yesterday that our girls were making mud pies in the backyard or playing dress up!

Amidst all of the running around, I did take a little bit of time to work on my guest bath this week.  Our guest bathroom was the first project we completed in our whole house remodel.  It's been finished for a while now, but I just never got around to doing those all important finishing touches, like putting up artwork.  I have been trying to find just the right thing to hang on the wall in there for a long time, and this week I just decided that the "perfect" artwork would have to wait...good enough would have to do for now.  And if I could find something good enough that was also cheap, all the better.

A week or so ago I was visiting another blogger's site, the tasteful and talented Rene of Cottage and Vine, when she showed us this picture of some beautiful vintage artwork she had hanging on the wall of her gorgeous kitchen.

Photo:  Cottage and Vine

Rene also mentioned that she had printed these lovely bird egg prints from Vintage Printable, a wonderful online source for vintage artwork you can print for free.  I had visited their site before and then promptly forgot about them until Rene's beautiful prints reminded me to go back and take another look.

Vintage Printable has a wonderful selection of botanicals, sealife, birds, and all sorts of things to choose from.  Being the water loving girl that I am, I knew I wanted something beach inspired so I went straight to their seashell prints.  And since we live in an area which is famous for its oysters, I fell in love with the vintage prints of bivalves, which  included illustrations of scallops, clams, oysters, and mussels.

The next step was to find some inexpensive frames that didn't look inexpensive.  If you've been reading my blog for any length of time then you know that I'm a bit of a cheapskate.  I love beautiful things, but if I can find something on the clearance aisle I'm one very happy camper!  I went to Target, Marshalls, Home Goods but came home empty handed every time.   I was getting a little frustrated, especially after seeing Rene's gorgeous bamboo frames, until I realized I had the perfect frame already, a little ladder made from old barn wood that has been tucked away in our garage for the last 3 years.

I removed the cobwebs from the ladder, gathered up the supplies I needed, and got busy on the project.

I also perused the vintage shells and printed the ones I liked the best.

I trimmed the prints and then simply put a bead of glue on the 4 corners of the ladder where the prints would be attached.  Because the bathroom gets moisture I used Krazy Glue for a stronger bond.  After letting the glue dry, and adding a small sawtooth hanger to the back of the ladder, it was time to hang my new artwork on the bathroom wall.

So my boring blank bathroom wall went from this...

To this...

There are no windows in this bathroom so trying to take good pictures with very low light is nearly impossible, at least for me!  But I love how my new artwork turned out.  It is the perfect compliment to the rest of the bathroom and the room finally feels finished!  

I love the mix of the rustic ladder with the vintage prints.  And yes, I know that some of them are a bit crooked, but hey I'm not even worried about that, I kind of like that it's not perfect, kind of like me!  And the best part of all, the whole thing was free!  And I really love that! 

It's time for another Saturday Nite Special over at Funky Junk Interiors!

I'm linking up for Shop The House Sunday at Finesse Your Nest!

It's Metamorphosis Monday again at Between Naps on the Porch!

Head over to Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays.