Today (or Inspiration 2.0) | by a Salt Lake City Designer

Well, folks, I've been in SLC for just about two weeks. Well, two weeks and two days...but who's keeping track? I have to say that starting this blog has been the highlight of coming here. I feel good about it and am certainly enjoying learning what it's all about! I am very thankful to my friends who have helped with technical,  as well as, emotional advice and support.

The past couple of days have been tough for me. I'm feeling the closeness of the walls in this space and frustrated at the lack of "creative" space. I have ideas and a desire to be creative, but I don't have space to do crafty things and believe me I've rearranged the furniture in here so many times we finally just left the sliders under it so we didn't have to pick it up again!

In my tiny (rented) living room I have one long wall that is painted eggplant! I don't own anything eggplant and I'm not that big a Donny Osmond fan! When I was in high school, this would have been my dream room, but now, not so much! What have I done with this eggplant wall, you ask? I ignored it. Decorated my space with the colors and things I love and acted as if the wall was not even there. I don't know if it "works", but it's worked for me, until  a couple of days ago when I realized I've been sitting here for days, blogging and reading emails and other blogs and all day long I stare at the eggplant wall!

So, yesterday I decided I was going to do something creative that doesn't require a great deal of space but gave me a great deal of space in which to work. I had to see something other than the four walls in here, especially the purple one! I went on an inspiration trip! It doesn't hurt that I'm in one of the most amazingly beautiful places I've ever seen. But, you can find the same kind of inspiration wherever you live! We rented a jeep, took off the top and hit the road to explore the beauty that is around us! (I'll post lost of photos to my Facebook page)

Not only were the varying landscapes awe inspiring, I got inspiration from a somewhat unexpected place. We stopped at Robert Redford's Sundance Resort for lunch and I got a great idea from the halls on the way to the restroom!

Sundance Resort

There are simple black-and-white photos in wood frames in collages down both sides of the hallway. They are framed in various sized frames, some with mattes, and from various time periods.  What is hard to tell in this shot is that between the sets of photos are quotes painted on the wall.

I had taken so many beautiful photos of waterfalls, lakes, trees and flowers on this little journey and nothing inspires me like written word, so I couldn't wait to get home and put this inspirational idea to work!

I always have lots of black frames. I buy them en masse! When I see framed artwork on sale (cheap) and I don't like the art, but the frames are in good shape and especially if there are mattes included, I buy all I can afford. These are great for putting together collages and can be used over and over. So, I had all the tools to make my idea come to life!

One detail that I really liked about the photos in the hall was that they had noted on the matte, the date and subject of the photo. This is such a great idea. I love that you can see the photos and know when and where they were taken.

Now, I like to change the art on my walls with the season, and being able to just print new photos and change them out regularly is something I do, a lot! But, the notes on the mattes are written in pencil, the graphite has a lends a nice look and it's changeable, so I didn't have to give up my ability to reuse!

I have an all-in-one photo printer, but you could also print your photos inexpensively at some grocery and discount stores where they have digital printing stations. If you like black and white you can print them with a regular printer.

I use plain printer paper for most of my pictures, but I have used textured photo paper, glossy photo paper and even canvas that is cut to go through your printer. I don't invest in expensive paper, because I know I'm going to change them out again in a few months. My wonderful husband had to hear about how this was going to translate into the art at home, and he not only listened, but he helped me create the look when we got home!

I, typically, only use black-and-white photos in my black frames, but I just loved the way the aspen trees looked against the green ferny floor of the forest here. The water and the sky, the green leaves and the blue berries were just a great compliment to the black frames and white mattes. Perry, who has great handwriting, printed the date and locations on the mattes.

I interpreted the inspiration of the quotes on the walls with a printed and framed quote that I found online when I did the research for this blog. The quote is by Ernest Hemingway. I had already decided on the name of my blog and "googled" it to see what came up, and this quote is what I got! I love it!

"Prose is architecture, not interior decoration..." ~ Ernest Hemingway

So, here's how I translated the entire inspiration! Now, it's not going to stay on this purple wall, it will go back on my entertainment center, but I wanted to you to see the inspiration next to my "Deep Purple" nightmare!