getting it done: wall shelf

I've been antsy lately. It must be the Spring thaw getting to me.  

Kent's been feeling it too.  He talks about wanting a vacation pretty much every day. (Instead of his usual every-other-day or just-on-Sundays)  

Maybe it's because it's been a year since we went on our trip to Mexico with some of our favorite people ever.  And we really like vacations, especially with friends.

Or maybe it really is just because it's Spring. (Huzzah!)

Whatever the reason, we've been in Project Mode at our house.  After two years of living here and leaving everything pretty much the same as it was when we moved in, we're finally changing and creating.

The first project was the garage, which I'll show you later.

Today I'm going to show you what we finished yesterday:  the wall shelf.

 For the past two years, our walls have been pretty bare.  In most of the house, they still are.
But not in the living room anymore!  

I put this shelf together quickly and easily.  I bought a 6'x5" pre-primed board from Home Depot and four wall brackets to go with it.  A fast layer of paint, some anchors and screws, and, voila! Wall shelf.

I bought all the frames (silver and white) from IKEA.  The "Love is Spoken Here" print I got from The Painted Arrow.

 I went with pictures either black and white or just softly colored.  Assorted family images, a picture of our house in Texas, and my favorite group shot, from our visit to the little zoo near Kent's parents' house:

And I don't know what is going on with my pictures here, but no matter how much I lighten them up they keep uploading to blogger so...beige.  
My walls are not this dark in person.
My computer genius husband can't even figure this out, so just imagine them less dark, okay?

And finally, a whole-room look, from a few days ago 
Before I had the pictures printed, but also before my living room got Sunday-messy. (The Sunday Mess isn't just us, right??)