Mounted Menagerie in Gold

Last year I made something beautiful. Then I put it on my wall and meant to blog about it and totally forgot. Then part of it fell apart in the summer sun and I was glad I'd forgotten to blog about it. Then I found a better solution, fixed the issues and rehung the item and was reminded to blog about it. This is that story. 

I love gold. I love things that are random and look pretty but can also make you laugh (like my sister, she's beautiful but also is hilarious). I love to have a house with fun and random things. You can see the upstairs of our house here to get a feel for our style. Exciting; you can even see this project on the wall! When I first saw a similar project over at Harper's Happenings  I was smitten. It looked easy and fun. I bought all the items needed then didn't do anything for about 4 months. 

Finally around Christmas of last year I was reinspired. Especially when I thought of the possibility of doing one frame with the heads and one frame with the butts. That just tickled my fancy. I sat down with my friend Hanne and proceeded to cut in half a bunch of plastic animals. Do you know what's hard? Cutting plastic animals. Like seriously, it's really tough. Thankfully Hanne is a strong german and she was able to do it for me. Then it was quick and easy to spray paint them gold and let them dry. I followed the same process that was in the original projects, using a piece of cardstock as a base to adhere my animals to in the space. 

Animals from the Dollar Store

Now at this point I had used a glue gun to stick my animals on. First I tried putting the two frames in the upstairs bathroom, it seemed fun and whimsicals to have my "butt art" in the bathroom. Sadly the heat/steam from the bathroom caused the hot glue to come unstuck and we had butts and heads dropping like flies. 

I reglued the items and moved the art into the entryway, which I actually ended up loving more. This worked well for about 6 months until the summer heat hit. Then the butts and heads started falling again. So sad. 

Finally I grabbed some heavy duty (not heat activated) glue from the garage (Esomething) and glued the items on and it stuck! The pieces are back in their home and looking fabulous! 

You'll note I added gold chevron Washi Tape to the edges. This elevates the project from using just one of my favorite design ideas (spray painting figurines gold) to using another as well (Washi Tape FTW)

I love how they look with the turquoise frame nearby and above the MidCentury Chair - bringing different design elements together makes me smile. 

This project was inexpensive (the frames were from Ikea) and once the glue issue was solved it was very easy, as well as quick but it packs a high punch - people often comment on them and almost always assume I bought them for the space, which feels fantastic! Plus it gives me so much pleasure that I have "butt art" on my wall. Cause apparently I'm a child :)