Mapping the Future

I've been dying to hang some art around the apartment. I hate seeing such bare walls. I've also been dying to do a little project with maps. Yes, I officially jumped on the map bandwagon. And I don't care if I'm a little late to the party. Until I started reading blogs, I never would have thought of utilizing a map outside of the classroom.  Maybe its the history teacher in me, but I love looking at maps.

I've been reading blogs for maybe a year or two now. The first blog I read was YHL, which was recommended by a friend on Facebook. I was immediately hooked! I went back to the very beginning and began reading every blog post they had written. Why? Well, first of all it was during summer vacation and I had nothing better to do (like cleaning the house) and secondly, I loved the projects they were doing, but had no idea where they started from. So I worked my way slowly but surely through their posts. And one day I came across a post where they made some cheap, but meaningful wall art.

Fast forward to today and that idea has stayed in my head. I've been looking for cheap maps, but haven't found any that were cheap enough. I mentioned my idea to my mom, and she said she had two maps in her attic that she had no use for. Free is the best kind of cheap! So, a couple weeks after Christmas, she sent us home with a US map and a world map. They were already in frames and had a backing similar to that of a cork board.

Without even knowing our plans, my mom had gifted me some push pins for Christmas. I think she thought I could use them in my classroom.

I wanted to be able to honor all of the places the hubby and I have already travelled, even if it wasn't together. So, I decided that places I had travelled to would be identified in pink (for being a girl) and places the hubby had gone would be blue (you guessed it!). Want to guess what color I used to identify places we had travelled together? Well, pink and blue make.... purple!

I could have stopped there, but then our world map would have looked a little plain. So, I decided to use the last color in the pack (green) to identify the places we wish to travel sometime in the future.

After all the pins were in place, it was time to figure out where to hang up the maps. We chose to hang them up in our guest bedroom above the twin bed. My only problem was that everything was coming out off center. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the type of person who pulls out the tape measure and level every time I want to hang everything up. I just sort of eyeball it. But, I still want it to look like it's somewhat in the right place and like it was meant to be put there.

After having a small argument with the hubby about where to place them and how I was frustrated that certain items in our office/guest bedroom (like the desk and TV) having to be along certain walls, I finally cooled down enough to think it all through. My solution? Swap the nightstands on each side of the twin bed, moving the filing cabinet closer to the center of the wall and the game board cabinet closer to the corner of the room. By doing this, it moved the twin bed closer to the center of the wall between the window and corner.

Even though I think the maps are a little small for the wall, I can't complain. I still love that it gives you something to look at when you first come into the guest bedroom. Honestly, the guest bedroom is becoming one of my favorite rooms in the house. It's the only space that has anything hung up on the walls. I really need to get on a roll and add some photos and art to the other spaces in the apartment.

Quick. Easy. Free. What more could you ask for in a quick weekend project? Anyone else out there found cheap, quick, and easy solutions for bare walls? Or maybe you just have a love for maps?

UPDATE: I realized that although I showed you the maps, I never detailed where we've been or where we hope to someday travel. If you're interested in that list, check it out here.