There's nothing quite like having a piece of real history on your wall.  Antique pull down maps are one of those wall art pieces that are stand alone + amazing. 

Maybe it's the golden patina, perhaps its the crackling texture, maybe it's the subject matter - Europe, North America, or an antique pulldown World map...  At the end of the day, we think it's a combination of all these things + the story:

Often used as educational guides in schools, libraries and public institutions. These maps and charts were pulled on, rolled (at times slapped up too quickly) - sometimes several times a day.  What an amazing thrill it was to have a break from the squeaky chalk board and have one of these maps rolled out in front of a classroom.  Perhaps these are the very maps of yesterday that inspired the likes of future politicians, dignitaries, architects, teachers and more.  Perhaps geography wasn't everyone's strength in school, but I think we all had a secret thrill from seeing something different during the school day - especially the ever-so-welcome colorful outlines of these relics.  It's amazing to see these in the condition they are - some of the antique pull down maps we offer are 50, 75, 100 years old.  A few are even pre-Civil War! 

As a testament to this beautiful and mysterious world and the education process where today's learning aides and classroom tools seem to be ever so easily replaced with digital, we hope you too can find inspiration from these maps and charts.

M+D

Old New House

When I started to work on my "gallery wall" or putting art on the wall or whatever it shall be called, I became very obsessed with the right way to frame everything. I have used cheap flimsy frames all my life and I felt like that was the wrong route to go with art I care about. I knew that A.I. Friedman had some good ready-made gallery style frames but what about big pieces? We decided to hit up a couple of thrift stores looking for hand-me-down big-time frames and sure enough we found a couple of good ones. We also had this one piece that we had been holding onto a while that had broken glass -- the framer down the road from us quoted a pretty reasonable amount for glass replacement and when I asked him about custom framing for similar pieces, I was surprised to learn that the custom job from start to finish with the metal frames would be around $150. I am not sure if our budget is ready to soar that high just yet but I actually think that is pretty reasonable when all is said and done. Having the used frames is great but it takes work to fit them and I could not find a ready-made large format frame for the life of me. So first came our selection of the pieces which was the easy part! Next came framing them, then the visualizing process of them on the wall, and of course before we hung anything, Dave had to find the studs so that we could properly do the job (or at least know what portion of the wall we were dealing with). This process of his required a magnet and lots of post-its -- I even kind of liked how the walls looked with all of the post-its (+ we shared some laughs about how in it he was) and I highly recommend doing this so that the pieces can securely be hung.

For the "gallery wall" we created, we wanted to leave space to add to it because we are wall art fanatics and need the room to grow our collection. We used 4 vintage lithographs (a couple which we have extras of in the shop), one antique etching of Mozart, a mid century circus poster, and original artwork from Etsy artisans.

I started questioning if the eclectic mix of art would work but in the end Dave and I both couldn't be happier with how it turned out! Naturally we love the mix of old and new and it feels vibrant, unique, and totally us.

It is tough work planning for a gallery wall -- at least it is if you've never done it before and have a million other things to do in life (hello, having a baby to entertain all day long)! But where there is a challenge, there is something exciting.

The planning process is always my favorite and in looking at our ultra empty wall, for the last week I have begun to envision all of the different arrangements and possibilities just waiting to be toyed with. To me vintage art is pretty darn cool because it is often one-of-a-kind and unique. I like the idea of starting in the center with a really special old piece and then working around it with whatever else feels right. But really, where do I begin? I guess where it feels the most reliable in the most non-committal way -- Pinterest of course.

So step one of my gallery wall expedition is complete -- I have officially looked around for the colors, themes + images I am drawn to and now here comes sourcing the actual pieces I definitely want to go with. Then comes frames and then one day no blank wall! Stay tuned!