Spring Gallery

Last week's visit from a swallowtail butterfly prompted me to add some signs of Spring to my decor, starting with a new gallery wall in my living room.

I've been tweaking my living room for months trying to get it just right. When my workspace was featured in Where We Blog From back in November, my desk occupied the corner by the windows. To make the room more comfortable for my Thanksgiving guests, I rearranged and hung new art (as seen below). 

It was an improvement, but the art looked stale and washed-out to me. Finally, last week I found the solution! The Ikea picture ledges allow me to layer frames for more impact, and their modern lines make my eclectic art collection look more graphic than granny. I also realized that I was using the wrong metallic- doesn't that antiqued gold look warm and rich against my mauvey-gray walls? I'm still waffling on adding more color to my decor, but for now, a little glimpse of blue sky goes a long way!

The cloud painting is a promo postcard from an art gallery, and my set of vintage butterfly prints ($5 on eBay years ago) acknowledge the season. The framed W (for WarLock, of course) is perhaps my cheapest and easiest DIY to date. I picked up the golden letter ornament for $1 at Restoration Hardware, mounted it directly onto the cardboard backer of the Ikea frame, and added a guinea feather for good measure. Under $20, under 20 minutes, and I love it. It ties the colors and textures of other pieces together, and the curved line of the feather balances the arrangement. It also happens to be a preview of the themes I'm using for the wedding... so I get a little "I-can't-wait" thrill every time I look at it!

The last and best addition to the living room is the industrial swing-arm wall lamp, a lucky $30 find at Jeremy's in Berkeley. I'd purchased it for my bedroom, but it did something amazing for this formerly  unlit and unloved corner: it turned it into the coziest nook in the house.

I think I'm finally on to something. Anyone else redecorating this Spring?

300th Post!

Indeed, this is the 300th post on Shock the Bourgeois! I have to type this rather sheepishly, as a blogger who has neglected her readers for two weeks...

From flitting between wedding appointments in rainy Seattle to flickering power in stormy Berkeley, March has blown the blog off course. It's been a productive month for the wedding and my design projects, but today's clear skies and clear schedule were a welcome relief! Finally, time to edit photos and wade through my inbox. To those of you who emailed such sentiments as, "I am having blog withdrawl!  FIX!!!" please allow this to serve as my response: I'm back, I promise!

Yes, the butterfly is real. I found him outside my apartment, unable to fly and looking bedraggled on a particularly wet and fiercely windy morning. I haven't seen any other swallowtail butterflies yet, so perhaps he too was blown off course by this wild Spring weather. I had a Stephen Maturin moment (nerd alert!) and brought him in, where he seemed content to sit on my hand and be photographed. The last picture, however, was all the bug's idea. As unnerving as it was to have a giant insect suddenly decide to climb up my hair and perch, I suppose I can't complain about how it turned out.

Tomorrow I'll be truly back to blogging with an honest-to-goodness decor post: my new naturalist themed art arrangement, as inspired by this butterfly!