Wall Flowers

I moved into my current apartment in October of 2010 and felt immediately at home.  My place is charming (read: old) but it is full of character and large windows and a creaky, hardwood floor.  It’s pretty large for a studio with separate living and dining areas (though the “dining area” is being used as headquarters for J. Winter Photography) and I had so much fun decorating it and making it my own.  Once I’d settled in, there was one wall that bothered me.  It’s the wall behind my bed and the design causes some problems when it comes to decorating.  Because there is a little wall sticking out of one side to block the radiator, I couldn’t center my bed on the wall thus causing a problem with what to hang behind it.  Do I center a photograph over the bed or on the wall?  I must have stared at this 10 foot expanse for hours in the first weeks I lived here until, suddenly, about a year ago, I had a brilliant idea.  Wall flowers.

That Christmas I had crocheted hats for my sisters and found a youtube video on how to crochet flowers.  Once Christmas was over and I’d returned from my January trip to Kenya I found myself with a lot of free time.  My slow season.  Once I got the idea for the Wall Flowers, I had a big project to work on which helped to pass last February and March.  First I covered a curtain rod in white yarn and hung it over the length of the wall.  I then crocheted various strings of flowers in four colors and different sizes and hung them from the rod, taking the height of my shelves and my bed into account.  It was a long process and was put entirely on pause from June to December when I was too busy with photography work.  The final strings weren’t hung until last month but I’m more than happy with the results!

The string for the light posed a problem because it was a black chain with a brown ball at the end.  I remedied this by covering the chain with the same yarn as the rod and crocheting a tiny pouch in which to put the ball.  I even added another flower to hang from the chain.

I think that this would be a really cute idea for behind a crib and am contemplating taking special orders for smaller walls.  10 feet was a lot of space to cover!