All Mapped Out

My attempt to turn a carpet remnant into a custom rug runner turned out to be surprisingly successful!

It took about 4 hours total and roughly $100 in supplies.

Of course, a couple of doors need to be trimmed down now to clear the rug. Can’t win ‘em all.

But I love how it looks with the entry.

I’ll be back with a tutorial later on. It was a very easy process, and I’ll definitely do it again.

But what I really want to share is what I put up on the walls. Steve and I have been collecting maps from all of the places we visit for years. It started when we found a copy of a map from the 1920′s of DC in a Manassas bookstore in 2005. Then that summer Steve brought me back a map of Paris from a trip to Europe with his brother. After that we made a point to find one on all of our trips. Not all are necessarily maps but instead have something to do with the city we visited.

We’ve had some framed but most have been rolled up in a closet for the past few years. I told myself a few weeks ago that as soon as Aaron Brother’s had their penny sale (buy one frame, get one for a penny) that I would finally get them all framed. And wouldn’t you know it, two weeks ago they had a sale.

So this weekend we got to work hanging them in the hallway. I traced them all out on craft paper and taped to the wall to figure out the arrangement.

Thanks to Steve’s help, the hanging was relatively painless.

I love getting little peeks of it from different places in the house.

At the back of the hallway is a map of Savannah and the surrounding area from 1757 that we picked up last November.

On the left wall is a map of what Chicago looked like in 1893. It’s from a trip we took in November 2010.

On the long wall:

The Angel Oak Tree outside Charleston, SC. It’s the oldest living thing east of the Mississippi. From a trip to Isle of Palms in May, 2011.

Charleston, SC in 1704. From the same trip to Isle of Palms in 2011.

The map of Paris from 1889 that Steve got for me in the summer of 2005.

Representing the hometown … an old map of Atlanta. Not sure of the year.

The Florida Keys from our honeymoon in May, 2008.

Blueprints of the Golden Gate Bridge from our trip to CA in summer 2012.

A guide to the monasteries in Meteora, Greece from our trip in December, 2006

A map of DC in the 20′s from a trip in March, 2005

A post card of NYC titled “The Future New York, The City of Skyscrapers” Not sure of the year. From a trip in December, 2011.

This was a gift from my brother-in-law this past Christmas. It’s the Waldseemuller Map, the first map on record to use the name America. From 1507.

I’m so happy these are finally framed and hung so we can enjoy them!

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