command strips | It's Two AM

A few command strips, an extra handful of wedding favor placeholder picture frames, a whole slew of snapshots not being utilized, and an idea…

This post was a long time in coming. Firstly, what I thought would take me two hours, took nearly three days to complete (give or take a day); secondly, there was the great computer disaster of 2012 which led to; thirdly, the great hardware/software update of 2012 and all the fallout thereof. I won’t mention the gastrointestinal virus that gripped our house for a week…

Between a few cups of coffee (and a few old hard drives), and the daily wrangling of children, I sat down at my desk to get this project of mine off the back burner and on the completed pile. I needed something scratched off that ever-growing to do list.

This project was a continuation and expansion of the original project back at the rental home. I spray painted a few frames that I picked up at Michael’s and ordered online from a wedding favor shop. The photos, which are some of my favorite snapshots “earmarked” on my computer but otherwise unused, were printed in black and white this time and trimmed with my trusty old rotary cutter. Although I have to admit that the trusty old rotary cutter is showing its age, so the better description might be “mostly reliable, sees things a bit more blurry now, old rotary cutter.” I do believe it’s time for a new blade.

Back in the day, I spent time as a tour guide for my university as I worked my way through my undergrad career. On the days where we weren’t giving tours, you could find us in the back offices filing paperwork, running errands, preparing mailings, and if you were lucky—though I was in the minority in this thought—stuffing envelopes. It was one of my favorite tasks. It required very little thought or effort beyond the initial set-up, but the beauty was in the rhythm once you began. There was little need for creativity, merely an adjustment here or there to the procedure. It was soothing.

Preparing those frames, well, I enjoyed that repetition, the flow from one procedure to the next, for the short time it lasted. It’s not something I’d like to do for hours on end, day after day, but every now and then there is something to be said for taking a moment to appreciate how laying out tape in a certain manner can economize movement…

…or how you’ve managed to line up the old photos without much notice…

…or how the colors you’ve chosen have arranged themselves quite nicely into a surprising little spectrum.

Setting up the grid took a few different attempts. The cardboard template didn’t work as well this time as it had for the original wall. The string was a disaster. But the sidewalk chalk worked pretty much perfectly.

Once I drew those lines with my trusty old level (the level is also showing its age, but has remained beyond reproach in its primary duties!), placing the frames was a cinch.

The trick is to sandwich the command strips (the strips that look like velcro work best here) together first, then apply to the backside of the frame before pushing it up against the wall. Repositioning is as easy as “releasing” the frame from the velcro, switching out pictures or frame, then sandwiching a new strip to the older one still attached to the wall, before pushing the frame back against the sticky side of the new strip.