Buying a home is difficult and expensive, but we planned on that. We had a budget for our house and stuck to it. What we didn’t anticipate is everything you need once you own a home. We are young and have never bought our own furniture. Furnishing a house is expensive. And then there comes my favorite part…decorating. When we bought our home I thought I would be able to gradually decorate. I’ve never been more wrong in my life. I wanted everything to look cute and put together right away. My husband kept saying “one project a month. Can we spread out all of this spending?” He graciously gave me the freedom to find things to decorate our home with. The area that I had the most difficulty with was above our couch in the living room. Our couch is against a big wall, and neither of us had anything that could go above it. And everything that I found to buy was way too much money. So I decided to create something of my own. (With the help of Pinterest)

I bought two pieces of Poplar Board from Lowes (1 inch x 12inches x 6 feet), and I had them cut them half for me. (They will cut them for free). I sanded each board down and then stained them. I went with a walnut color.

Then came the most difficult part of the project. I had to find a doormat with a design that I liked. Apparently it’s popular to have pineapples and pears in the center of your doormat these days. Who knew? I went to Lowes, Home Depot, Target, Wal-Mart and didn’t find one that I liked. Finally Garden Ridge saved the day. They had so many options and I found the perfect pattern. I placed the doormat on two pieces of the wood and spray painted over it. I chose a yellow because it’s pretty neutral yet still gives your house some color. I let the paint dry and then took the mat off. I was really nervous about spray paint because I haven’t been the most talented with spray-painting things. It turned out great!

After giving the paint a little bit more time to dry I sprayed a topcoat on each piece. After those dried my husband helped get them on the wall.

We couldn’t be happier with our wall décor!