Alphabet Wall

I did an alphabet wall in my home this past week, and I'm so excited to show you.

Here is my inspiration:


You can read all about how she did her wall here (as well as see her original inspiration.)

So I really liked this idea, but I didn't have a full, blank wall to use as a canvas. I did, however, have a little-used and oft-neglected corner in the living room that was perfect. This is the corner you see directly in front of you as you walk in our front door, and to its right is the large arched doorway that leads to the bathroom and our bedroom. It's an eye-catching corner that hosts a comfy armchair, but for too long it has functioned as a sort of blurry, vague spot on the horizon of our living room. A combination of no lighting, ill-defined decorating, and a lack of functionality served to make it cut-off from the rest of the room.

No more! I made an alphabet wall/corner. And it works.



My apologies for the blurry, lopsided picture. Hopefully you can get the general idea. I used both sides of the corner as if they made one large wall; therefore, each row of letters reads horizontally across both walls before jumping to the next row. My wall is, perhaps, a bit more eclectic and busy than my original inspiration. But that's okay, as my house tends to be busy, colorful, jumbled, and eclectic. That's just how it is.

Some things about it I really like:

• Visual interest! This corner now draws the eye and makes you want to get to know it better instead of rejecting the viewer. It helps to add lighting and a small side table (which you can't see, but at least now people have a place to put drinks.) (And white pumpkins.)
• This wall of letters is in keeping with our home. Our home is bursting at the seams with books of all shapes, sizes, and genres, and so we clearly value words. What better way to express that than with a tribute to the alphabet?
• Functionality! The "W" is glued to a collaged canvas, which sits on a shelf and covers up my thermostat dial. It's the old-fashioned, bulbous circle kind, so I'm really happy that bad boy is hidden.
• This project was cheap. It's a fantastic project if you want to take a long time to collect interesting letters/materials from lots of different places--I didn't do that because I wanted it done by this weekend specifically. But even though I was on a time-crunch (I only started collecting letters a few weeks ago), I managed to keep the price of most of these letters under $2 apiece, if not less. (Y'all, I used my Hobby Lobby, Michael's, and Jo-Ann coupons like a fiend.) The "C" was more expensive, but then again, some things (the record, the frame used for "F," the "J," and most of the decorative materials) were very much free. So it provides a lot of impact while not killing your wallet.
• Variety of materials, which further adds visual/tactile interest. I used scrapbooking paper, fabric, paint, mod podge, chalk, wood, glass, buttons, and lots of other materials to make and display these letters. My goal was that no two letters be too similar.

I used the Command Strip picture and poster hanging strips to hang nearly everything. These were probably the most expensive items for this project, but they are necessary if, like me, you don't want to put sixteen thousand nail holes in your stubborn plaster walls.

If you're interested in doing something with letters in your home, I'd encourage you to tackle this project! It was a lot of fun, and after all the work, very fulfilling.

Happy alphabetting!