Wall Art

I was in one of my nesting phases in the Fall and would find myself looking at the big empty wall space surrounding the baker's rack. We've lived in this house for a few years now and I really have not done much with the walls. We have a lot of wall space...it's intimidating. So, I decided to do something. What's the big deal...I can always change it, right? How much trouble can I get into...perhaps some misplaced holes in the wall...those can be fixed, right? Of course. What followed was several days of shopping, painting, hammering, etc. I started with tackling the baker's rack wall.
I had seen a big metal wall hanging that I thought would fit nicely on one side of the rack. I considered it and came back to look at it a couple of times. I finally decided that I could make something similar. I purchased three metal tiles for 50% off at Hobby Lobby. I believe they were originally red and green. I wish I would have taken before pictures of my past projects. I used Rub n' Buff and some antiqued bronze spray paint. I applied some of both until I was satisfied. The wall hanging I was tempted to buy, was made up of three connected pieces. I did something similar with some old chain and cup hooks. I resized and painted curtain rods and hung the whole piece on iron hooks from Hobby Lobby. It took some time to put it all together and I remember at one point thinking that I should have just purchased the original piece - it probably would have cost the same if not less than what I had spent on the one I made. In the end, I didn't regret it because I really enjoyed the whole creative process and it makes me happy knowing that I made it myself. Here it is:

I needed to do do something with the other side of the rack for balance. Rather than one piece, I decided on an arrangement of things. Even though we have several clocks in our house and the stove and microwave both display the time, I wanted to include a clock. When I was growing up, we always had a clock in the kitchen so I feel that a kitchen should have a clock. I like the antique keys I've been seeing everywhere so the arrangement I had in mind included keys. Here's what I ended up doing on the other side:

More hooks and a knob were used for hanging everything. I used Rub n' Buff and antiqued bronze spray paint on the keys and hooks. The framed letter D was originally a mirror. I liked the the frame, so I left that alone. I had some black spray paint on hand that I used to paint the back of the mirror. I painted the D  which was originally black, gold. When everything was dry, I glued the D to the back of the mirror and put it back in the frame. I used leather cord to hang the keys and attached chain to the frame to hang the D.
I was a little hesitant when the time came to hang everything but once I got started, everything fell into place nicely.
That was so much fun...but wait I wasn't quite done. On one of my many trips to Hobby Lobby I saw a fork and spoon that I knew I wanted to incorporate somewhere. I spray painted them gold and hung them by the patio door.