[Charmie981]

I've been working on my <a href="http://edenwaybirth.blogspot.com/2007/04/after-pictures.html" target="_blank">birth center/office</a> and while I don't seem to have any problems finding the balance between bare and full walls at home, I'm having a really hard time with it at the office. It's only reflected in one picture of the reception area here, but upstairs there are vast expanses of blank walls in the soon-to-be birth rooms. And there's a whole stairwell that is just...blank. I don't have a lot of money for prints and frames, which is what I would do if I could. I'm just drawing a blank (pun intended).<br><br>
I need solutions to be inexpensive/free and require little to no artistic talent (because you see the extent of my artistic talent with the painting in the prental room). Any tips?

 

[mommaof3boz]

What if you were to ask some of your clients to let you do a belly cast of them to be donated to the center? That also might get some revenue towards jen's store. Those could be hung on the walls in the rooms. You also might check around with local WAHM's and see if any of them have a piece of art they would donate/loan and attach their little card in the corner of the piece. Free stuff for you, advertisment for them. Next thought would be vintage baby quilts hung on the walls. Melissa

 

[Charmie981]

I have two (three?) belly casts I could do something with, but then that leads to the artistic thing that I'm not so good at. And I feel like they'd look lonely and puny up there all alone...<br><br>
I might contact a couple of photographers who do good work with moms and babies to see if they would want to display a FRAMED print (cuz I have plenty of unframed ones!) ...that's a good idea.

 

[kerc]

what about even just a bulletin board for belly pictures? or babies? or both....<br><br>
I'm thinking like the dentist does with kids.

 

[Charmie981]

I have one of those in the prenatal room, but I guess I could get a bigger one for the reception area. It <i>would</i> be a cheap fix, and I'm sure I have a fabric somewhere that would cover it and make it match.<br><br>
The vintage baby quilt idea got me thinking: I have a collection of vintage linens that don't fit it my house (because it is ANYTHING but Shabby Chic!). I went looking for an idea to display or frame them for the birth center, but couldn't really find anything inexpensive that would work in the picture frames/shadow box section at Michaels and Big Lots. Any ideas for that? They're placemats, napkins, hankies...small stuff.

 

[thriftyqueen]

What if you got larger inexpensive frames and laid the linens in them as a background. Then you could put a couple of pictures (babies, pregant bellies, etc) in the foreground. That way the linens would be a nice little backdrop for some 4x6 or 5x7 pictures. You could even get larger frames and do bigger pictures.

 

[Charmie981]

hmmm...I like that idea. I have a collection of vintage baby clothes also! Never thought of that! And I have a vintage silver baby rattle and hairbrush. And I have my baby walkers and my two DS's baby walkers that I used to have hanging at the house but since we moved I don't have space.<br><br>
Keep the ideas coming, please! I'm adding all of this to my list of affordable wall ideas...

 

[thriftyqueen]

How about a shelf with a hanging bar (dowel) or hooks where you could display the rattle and brush and some other vintage baby stuff. Then you could get some cute hangers and hang some of the vintage clothes from it.

 

[CandyApple]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>hopeelise</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/7960180"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">How about a shelf with a hanging bar (dowel) or hooks where you could display the rattle and brush and some other vintage baby stuff. Then you could get some cute hangers and hang some of the vintage clothes from it.</div>
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Thats a neat idea! Or you could hang a thin cord across the wall and drape the linens over that. Maybe use vintage hangers for the clothes. Hankies and napkins look cool hung as triangles.<br><br>
It would also be easy to paint large squares or circles in a coordinating color to give the walls some pizzaz. All you'd need is a little paint and some masking tape. (I'm sorry if that really clashes with your office, I con't access blogs from work, so I can't see the pics).<br><br>
Good luck!

 

[tinytina]

I have a couple of ideas. First you could use shadowboxes to display some of your vintage items such as the rattle for ex.<br><br>
Another idea that came to mind was to get some calenders on sale (maybe some pretty relaxing landscape designs, or the cute babies dressed up for ex.) and buy some cheap frames at the dollar store. I love the idea of quilts being displayed tho.

 

[mothercat]

Mother's Own Birth Center uses quilts on the wall and several other places (the kitchen table, end table, and the 1/2 wall in the lobby) for decorations.<br>
Here's the link for the tour. <a href="http://www.mothersownbirth.com/tour.html" target="_blank">http://www.mothersownbirth.com/tour.html</a><br>
The quilt over the bed uses all fabrics that have gold thread or print in them. It's named "had I a golden thread" for the Pete Seeger song by the same name. One line in the song is "Had I a golden thread for the bravery of women giving birth."<br><br>
Yes, I know the Pete Seeger reference makes me seem really old.

 

[Charmie981]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>mothercat</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/7962434"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">Mother's Own Birth Center uses quilts on the wall and several other places ...Here's the link for the tour. <a href="http://www.mothersownbirth.com/tour.html" target="_blank">http://www.mothersownbirth.com/tour.html</a></div>
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How did I miss this one??! I love, love, love the robe on a hook beside the pool and the shelf full of towels. I've been wanting to get some hooks, a robe and 2-3 bath sheets to hang in each birth room.<br><br>
I have some wall hangings that my mother made and an unfinished king size quilt top. I can probably incorporate those somewhere. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit her patience and I'm not much of a quilter. Though the thought of beautiful quilts on the walls of my birth center sure does make me want to give it a try again!!

 

[Funny Face]

Just my opinion but sometimes I'm actually overwhelmed by the amount of 'stuff' in birth centers, like someone is living there when I'm not there for a visit<img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/lol.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="lol"> But I do love pictures of mamas and babies and bellies and all those beautiful things... all you need is a camera that takes b/w pictures or convert it to b&w on the computer and blow it up. Dh and I blew up a picture of us for our wedding and it was cute and inexpensive.<br><br>
Oh, and I LOVE your center, it's beautiful, I wish there was one near me that looked like that!

 

[Maggi315]

It's looking great! I love the antique/vintage baby stuff. I have been collecting stuff like that too to add into my office, my mom is an antiques dealer, so I have her out looking.<br><br>
I'm gonna take some pictures of my office, anyone else?<br><br>
Keep updating us, it's inspirational!

 

[mothercat]

Well I have had a few children ask if I live there. They just assume because there is a fridge, a bed, and a bathroom that it is my house, even though it's in a PBO.<br><br><div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>moodyred01</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/7967518"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">Just my opinion but sometimes I'm actually overwhelmed by the amount of 'stuff' in birth centers, like someone is living there when I'm not there for a visit<img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/lol.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="lol"> But I do love pictures of mamas and babies and bellies and all those beautiful things... all you need is a camera that takes b/w pictures or convert it to b&w on the computer and blow it up. Dh and I blew up a picture of us for our wedding and it was cute and inexpensive.<br><br>
Oh, and I LOVE your center, it's beautiful, I wish there was one near me that looked like that!</div>
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[Jane]

How about a quilt over a hanging rail? Or my favorite - a fabric covered bulletin board - where a beautiful toile or paisley is covered by crisscrossing ribbons with pretty buttons.

 

[Jess A]

I like the idea of asking photographers for framed prints to hang. It would be great advertising for them and at no cost to you. As a photographer on the side, I would relish the chance to do something like that.<br><br>
Set sizes depending on how much space you have and group them in threes. Or do small collages. Photos are always good (and can be changed easily).<br><br>
And not sure how possible this is, but the idea is cute to me. What about a large collection of baby footprints with the date. You can get frames at the dollar store and use plain cardstock in them. For each baby born, add a footprint and the date and hang them in a large grid that you can add too each time. If you didn't want to use actual footprints, you could find an image to print or stamp and then add the info.

 

[Charmie981]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>Jess A</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/7970321"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">And not sure how possible this is, but the idea is cute to me. What about a large collection of baby footprints with the date. You can get frames at the dollar store and use plain cardstock in them. For each baby born, add a footprint and the date and hang them in a large grid that you can add too each time. If you didn't want to use actual footprints, you could find an image to print or stamp and then add the info.</div>
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We are planning to have a "footprint tree" in the hallway where the footprints make up the leaves of a tree and they are labelled with first and middle names and date of birth.