Wall Décor Curtain Rod with Hanging Frames

I have to admit that I am the most proud of this refresh that I've done to my living room wall! I used to have floating shelves with my knick knacks on them and wasn't in love with that look anymore. I had a curtain rod left over from our move a few years ago and I didn't toss it thinking I could do something with it. I'd seen an idea of several frames hanging from a rod and wanted to figure out how to do this. I went back and forth considering ideas and shooting them down because of the sheer weight frames would have on the rod. Like I said years passed and this idea had been gnawing at me, so I started googling different strings of words to try to get more inspiration on how to accomplish my idea. I came across Rodworks.com and they literally have step-by-step directions for "fake hanging," check out the link to see! What is this you ask? Let me show you!!

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Supplies:

• Curtain Rod
• Picture Frames (I got them from Michaels)
• Black Grosgrain Ribbon
• Nails
• Hammer
• Black Spray Paint
• Art
• Painter's Tape
• Fintorp wall mounts from Ikea (I used the actual mounting brackets, but did not use the rod)

The first thing I did was measure the length of the space I wanted to fill up with the curtain rod. From there I chose my frame size. Michaels was offering a buy one get one free deal at the time so I bought all of my frames from there. I purchased the inspirational quote plaque a couple of months ago from a local shop because I loved it so much. I did break the cardinal rule in my house however, 'Don't buy any decor unless you know where it's going to go'. Once I got home I started laying out the frames on the floor, but realized the medium was just too big to get inspiration and felt overwhelmed instead. So I got on my laptop and created the layouts above in powerpoint. I googled a picture of a rod and the inspiration plaque to add into powerpoint and then chose the pictures I wanted hung and loaded those as well. All of the photos I chose are from trips we have taken and they are all from our iPhones! I moved the pictures around until I figured out what I liked the most. I ended up with two options and sent them to a vote. We went with the second option because it sort of looks like an M, which is the first letter of our last name.

OK! If you haven't visited Rodworks yet the exciting thing about 'fake hanging' is you hang everything on your wall first and then add the ribbon later to make it look like the frames are hanging perfectly from the curtain rod. This was the solution to every idea I had been shooting down!

To make absolutely sure I hung everything straight and level on the wall I put painter's tape all the way across and then marked the wall up with a pencil where I wanted the curtain rod and where I wanted the frames. The tape is actually the height where I hung the curtain rod, making it easier to install after the frames were hung. Measure, measure, measure I cannot stress this enough. This way you won't end up with extra holes in your wall.

I started hanging from the dead center with the inspirational plaque first. Doing this gave me a smaller space to work with when I hung the rest of the frames. Now, finish hanging all of your frames, keep in mind this is the best time to adjust any frames that aren't center or spaced to your liking. Next, measure the space in between each vertical frame for the ribbon, add a couple of inches so that the ends are covered by the frame. Then, remove one frame at a time and nail your cut ribbon pieces onto the wall. I did them right below and right above the nails that the frames were hung from to ensure the ribbon would be perfectly straight. Make sure the nail you use for the ribbon is high enough so that it cannot be seen when you re-hang the frame.

Here are the frames hung without the curtain rod. This is probably the best picture that shows just how 'fake hanging' works. You can see that it's really starting to come together.

To hang the curtain rod I bought several different curtain rod hangers that can be found in any store, but they all extended too far from the wall. I ended up finding the 'Fintorp' rod from Ikea and used the wall mounts that came with it. Now I have another spare rod for something else ;) I then cut pieces of ribbon and wrapped them around the rod and nailed them into the wall right around the nail the top row of frames hangs from.

And Voila!! My finished project!! I am so proud to finally see my idea complete! The shelf behind the couch is the largest Lack floating shelf from Ikea.