Sharing a quick DIY large-scale art print project with you all today in honor of our anniversary yesterday. We finally have some art above our bed in the master bedroom!

I have to stop you right here and say that our bedroom NEVER looks this clean. I 100% stashed things like phone chargers under the bed and laundry baskets in the bathroom to take this photo. And I spent like 10 whole minutes making the bed. Usually, I just pull the covers up and semi straighten the bottom as I get ready in the morning. This time I tucked, fluffed, folded, and tweaked.

The quote is actually a paraphrase from a Walt Whitman poem in Leaves of Grass. It is from the passage, Once I Pass’d Through a Populous City, and actually says:  “Day by day and night by night we were together,—All else has long been forgotten by me.”⠀In this case, I like the casual interpretation because it sounds more like something Wyatt has said to me many times.

Here’s the full poem:

ONCE I PASS’D THROUGH A POPULOUS CITY.

ONCE I pass’d through a populous city imprinting my brain for 
future use with its shows, architecture, customs, traditions,

Yet now of all that city I remember only a woman I casually met 
there who detain’d me for love of me,

Day by day and night by night we were together—all else has 
long been forgotten by me,

I remember I say only that woman who passionately clung to me,

Again we wander, we love, we separate again,

Again she holds me by the hand, I must not go,

I see her close beside me with silent lips sad and tremulous.

Whether or not it’s technically misquoted, it’s still one of my favorite “love quotes” because it fits us so well. Wyatt often claims to have a bad memory and says he forgets things that were more than 5 years ago, like a rolling bank of memories. This year marks our 7th wedding anniversary and 14th year of being together overall, so we have a lot of memories he’s forgotten. I sometimes try to start a conversion about the “old days” which goes something like this:

M: “Remember when we were dating?”

W: “No.”

And really, there are a lot of things that we’ve gone through/fought about, and a lot of those things are probably better off forgotten. But, we were together. And are together. And that’s what matters.

Anyway, I designed these large scale prints and had them printed as engineer prints from Staples. I used to use Office Depot for this, but the one by us no longer offers these large prints. But, Staples came to the rescue and these look great. Here’s a link to where you can find them.

The frames are from Ikea because they are my favorite place to get large frames for a good price.  I love that this lets us have large-scale art for a small-scale budget.

Also, totally off topic, but can we just say how lovely that orchid is? It’s the first one I’ve ever had and was a gift from my Aunt who obviously thinks I have more plant skills than I give myself credit for. If anyone has any orchid tips, I’m all ears.

I do wish there was less reflective glare on the plastic in the frame, and if you made a frame like we did for the kitchen, that would work really well! HERE’S THAT TUTORIAL.

But, the glare actually isn’t that noticeable in person, It’s just hard to photographic with the window glare getting in the way.

Sidenote: Nightstands are from Target and they are AMAZING. I looked for nightstands for SO LONG before deciding on these and I am so happy with them. HERE is an affiliate link to make it easy for you to find them.

Sidenote 2: There are some peeks at our new carpet in these photos. Isn’t it dreamy?

Basically, the master bedroom is finally, finally, finally looking a lot more like a room that reflects our style and feels right. Three cheers for SLOOOOOOOW progress, right?

I have been so slow to put things on the walls recently because when we first moved in, I HUNG ALL THE THINGS and it has been a little ridiculous how many nail holes we’ve had to fill. I went on a bit of a wall art embargo for awhile and with the exception of the nurseries, I don’t know if I really added any wall art. I want art to be intentional and sophisticated but still fun. And that means letting myself change things up occasionally, but not letting myself hang random, mis-matched gallery walls on every wall in every room. Remember the madness that was my first office? CLICK HERE IF YOU NEED AN EMBARRASSING REFRESHER and scroll down to the “before” in that post for the really, really crazy one.

I’d love to do a painting for one of the other walls in this room. Fingers crossed I get bold enough to actually try that soon! In the meantime, thanks for reading, friends! I’ve missed sharing updates with you all, and I have a few other exciting things to share soon! Wahoo! Anyone doing any projects right now? I’d love to see them!

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Want these prints for yourself?

I’ll send you the files for $10 and you can get them printed at your local Staples or Office Depot. Email melissa (at) lovinghere.com! 

And, you don’t even have to frame them like we did here. Tack them to a cork board, tape them to the wall, or use wooden dowels like we did for our winter wall art for an even cheaper, faster, and easier finished product. Tutorial here.)