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I have a small collection of what I used to call “amateur paintings,” all picked up for a couple dollars or less at area thrift stores. Later I learned another expression for them: “Sunday paintings,” meaning pictures created by people who took up painting as a hobby or weekend pursuit. My collection centers around landscapes and still-lifes – barns, houses and floral arrangements. Here are a few of my favorites:

I even tried my hand at painting one – yes, on a Sunday:

Since I recently re-painted the Mom-cave, I’ve been trying to be really particular about how I arrange them. Slowly but surely, I’m getting many of them up on the wall.

I recently acquired this charming little beauty – the colors and subject were lovely, but it was missing a frame.

No matter, a few weeks later I spotted this 11 x 14 frame at a different store for just 99 cents. It has the routed edges on the insides so the canvas will fit down inside.

Today I took on a different type of “Sunday painting” and just applied a few coats of my off-white acrylic craft paint to the 99-cent frame. I put it all together and really love the result:

The tabletop above is still a work in progress, but I do kind of like the painting in its frame next to the creamy white pitcher.

Are there any type of “other people’s artwork” that you like to collect?

Almost five years ago, we moved into our present home. It was a rather horrid mixture of busted walls, dog-pee carpets, and other peoples’ smells. So, painting the entire thing was in order. But I have to admit, after five years, I just never fell in love with the color I chose for the 3rd and smallest bedroom – the room I commandeered as my dressing and craft room, a.k.a. the “Mom Cave.” It was kind of a peachy color… not as orange as “tangerine” but not pink.

I tried for a long time to force it into becoming my little cottagey retreat room, but this year I finally gave up. It just wasn’t working.

These two “before” pictures are a few years old but they are pretty accurate as far as showing the wall color. It’s pretty, but I didn’t love it:

So I decided recently to do a make-over in the Mom-cave – mostly just changing the paint color, but also a few small projects that would help achieve the garden style I wanted for the room. The challenge was, I had built a large glass-top desk in the room and there is really no way remove it completely – it’s just too big. Plus, I didn’t want to have to empty the barrister bookcase of all its contents. So, over the course of a week, I spent my evenings shoving the furniture around into various corners of the room (like a heavy game of Tetris!) while I taped then painted the walls one at a time. Here’s a glimpse of what the mess of that method looked like:

And here, just for fun, are shots of my original gallery walls. You can see they’re kind of a hodge-podge:

My new color is a soft botanical green. You can see the difference here:

For each wall, I of course started by removing all the picture-hanging hardware and patching the holes. I taped off any wood trim, did the cutting in with a brush, then “filled in” with the roller. It took two coats. Here’s a good representation of the new color:

And here is my helper:

My secondary goal in the room, next to painting, was to simplify just a bit. To cull a few of my collected items, and make room for items that I really liked but had in storage. That meant the gallery walls were ultimately going to look a little different. They are still a work in progress, but here are some after shots of the finished space. (You might see my other helper lurking on chairs or other flat surfaces.)

I am truly in love with this color. It’s my intention to use an off-white/ivory as the accent color, although a few items in the room are already bright white so they’ll probably stay that way.

I’ll share the before-and-afters of a couple additional small project here in future posts, but here’s a hint: there were two objects in the room that really needed a little “shabbifying.” Here they are:

You’ll see more of those soon! This re-paint was a pretty big project for me and I really love the way it turned out! How about you – have you done any painting lately? Did your color choices turn out the way you wanted?

I’m linking my re-painted Mom Cave to Jill’s A Round Tuit party! Be sure to click through for SO much beautiful inspiration!