The Lazy Genius Podcast - #16: The Lazy Genius Puts Stuff On the Wall

Episode Date: April 3, 2017

1. Check out the Pinterest board! A good start on ideas for your walls as well as examples of The Rule of One. 2. Here are the posts and items mentioned in the episode. When It Doesn't Matter That Your Walls Are Ugly Slant Design Handcraft - I have the Blossom of Snow sign, a custom sign of Annie's name, and the Kill with Kindness shirt. Great shop, great guy. Letterfolk - Get the The Wordsmith. I love my Poet, but I'm going to save up for the big one. Such beautiful, easy impact. Lindsay Letters - I have a couple of her calligraphy prints, and I'm saving up for her Oceans canvas. Huge and gorgeous. The Magical Way to Transform a Photo The Nester's Cozy Minimalist Course - The course is currently closed, but join the waitlist! You won't regret it for a second. Photo clips like these are an easy, cute way to hang prints. Don't forget about Command Hooks. Or eye hooks for wooden signs. 3. Join The Lazy Genius Collective! Get encouragement in your inbox. The best stuff goes to the mailing list, so I hope you join us! This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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But Laura shopped on Amazon and saved on cleaning spray, countertop wipes, and fly traps. Hey, fruit flies, your baby boom ends here. Save the everyday with Amazon. Hey, lazy geniuses. I'm Kendra Adachi and you're listening to the lazy genius podcast. Here I am going to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about things that don't. Today's episode, The Lazy Genius, put stuff on. on the wall. Here's the pitch for today. Don't be afraid to put stuff on your walls. Here's what we're

going to hit in the playbook. We're going to talk about the fear of doing it wrong, the rule of one and the ten commandments of wall art, of lazy genius wall art. Okay, so let's talk about this. Let's talk about the fear of doing it wrong. When we're confronted with a blank wall in our house, first, it feels really exciting because we think. about all of fun things that we can hang there and the perfect gallery wall and then we just keep staring at it and look at Pinterest and look at what we have and go to Hobby Lobby again and we have a house full of things that could go on the wall but maybe there's nothing on the wall because we're afraid of doing it wrong. We're afraid of putting things in the wrong place of not being happy

with where they are of putting holes in the walls because of the nails and stuff. What nails to use? Like we just get so bogged down by all of these details that really are rooted in a fear of doing it wrong. That somehow someone's going to walk into our house and be like, why is that on your wall? That's done. Or worse, that something falls on the head of one of our kids. And then we, you know, they're faced with this grave injury and we feel responsible because we didn't do enough research or something. Like we just can get so overwhelmed. And really it comes down to the fear of doing it wrong.

So as we talk about ideas today, let's pay attention to our souls first. As we often do on the Lazy Genius podcast, we need to pay attention to our soul first. Because if we don't, then it's just going to get in the way of any ideas we have, any progress we feel because we're trapped by this fear. And that's not a fun place to be. So if you are afraid of doing it wrong on your walls, if you're afraid of messing up and making a mistake, it's okay if you make a mistake. That's what spackles for or just leave the hole in the wall. If you are afraid of doing it wrong in a sense that you're decorating style, you don't understand what it is.

And so putting something on the wall and committing to it is like, oh, this is my style, but I don't want that to be my style. Like it feels almost like a prison. You know what? It's okay if you put things on the wall and it's not what you want. You learn something from that. You learn, oh, wait, that's not my style. I don't really like that.

So you can see that as a victory. Not as a failure. It's just learning, right? If you're afraid of doing it wrong in the sense that you should already know how to do this, you know, like this is one of those genes that you're supposed to have, like being able to meal plan, being able to cook, being able to do crafts with your kids, being able to have a conversation with a stranger. Like, this is one of those things that we think we're supposed to know how to decorate our houses and how hard is it to just hang something on the wall. But we feel like we don't. don't know how to do it. And so if we do it wrong, then it kind of validates our fear that we don't know what we're doing. So there are lots of different shades that this fear can take, but ultimately it keeps us from having a home that we want to be in, that we're comfortable in, that is a reflection of us, right? So as we talk about these ideas today, just keep in mind the purpose of decorating your home. Your purpose might be different than mine. It might be different than your moms or your sisters or your best friends. But find your purpose and then make decisions

based on that purpose. That is being a genius about what matters because you are choosing what matters to you in your home and then you can make decisions from that. Don't spend your time doing things that don't make sense for your own purpose. Okay. So now that you have gotten rid of the fear and hopefully you know deep down what the purpose of your home is, let's talk about the rule of one. Let's get into some details. Okay. I know you've heard of the rule of three like you group through things together. But for me, when it comes to walls, I really like the rule of one. And I'm still, if you've been in my home before, you might be like, Kendra, you don't really do this that much. I know because I'm learning this stuff too. And I'm beginning to notice this and the patterns of my own house

and how I'm decorating things. The rule of one is that one thing, one big thing, is so much easier, often cheaper, and has much more impact than a lot of little things. That's true for lots of different things, especially in decorating. But we're just talking about walls today. when you put just one thing, one big thing on your wall, you only have to hang one thing. You don't have to hang 12. How magical is that? That's so lazy genius because you're spending such a fraction of the time, but you're getting so much bang for your buck in terms of the impact and probably your actual buck. Now you might be thinking, but like, what about gallery walls?

We all love gallery walls. Okay. Maybe you don't really like gallery walls. And that's okay. Maybe you think that the reason that everyone has them and that you should too is because that's what everybody's doing. If you search gallery wall on Pinterest, good luck two years later. Like it takes so long to scroll through all that stuff. And it's great because there are tools there if you really love to have a gallery wall. Now here's the reason I think that you would actually want one is if you have a lot of things that you love that are dear to you that you want to display.

if you have photos, if you have works of art, if you just really like details, like quirky details, things that you've collected and you want to put them all on the wall. You have too many to display. And so putting them together in a cohesive way in a gallery wall makes sense for you. I think that's beautiful. Send me a picture. I want to see it. But for me, I thought that's just what I was supposed to do on walls was make a gallery wall.

So I went to the store and bought stuff. to put on the gallery wall. Stuff that I don't have any emotional connection to. It's like, oh, that's cute. That's fine. We'll put that up on the wall. And spent an entire day hanging stuff up. Now, I didn't try to make it perfect.

I didn't do the template where you cut out the paper and tape it to the wall to make sure everything's in the right place. I didn't do that. I was still lazy about it, but it still took forever. I'm not a gallery wall person. I learned this about myself. I just, I don't have the time. it clutters my eye, I would rather have one big thing. There have been a couple of places in my home where we just have one big thing and I adore them. And now I'm like, get rid of all the little things.

I just want a bunch of big things. Now, if that's you, if you're like, I guess I'm just doing a gallery wall because I'm supposed to, maybe you need the rule of one. One big thing makes such a bigger impact and takes way less time to hang than a bunch of little things. Okay, but if you have a lot of little things, if you like a lot of little things, but you don't like for the gallery wall to feel cluttered and messy and you don't quite know how to bring it together, you can do that with some sort of unifier. The same frame, the same color palette, a similar texture. Maybe if you have photos, they're all black and white, or you have, you color the mat. You can actually paint those photo mats. I have a post on, on the blog about that. I'll put that in the show notes.

for you to see. It's such an easy way to add a pop of color and it takes no time and no artistic ability, but you could paint all the mats, all the photo mats. And just if you can bring all of the things on the wall together in one uniform way, size, shape, color, texture, whatever it is, that might help your gallery wall feel more like one big thing rather than a lot of little things, even though it's made up of a lot of little things. So with a rule of one, choose one big thing or somehow bring together all of your little things to look like one big thing. Okay, let's move on to the Ten Commandments of Wall Art. Again, these are my Ten Commandments. These are the lazy genius ten commandments. If you want to break these commandments, no one will

smite you. Commandment, number one, you shall not cover every wall. Leave some white space, guys. Embrace empty walls. I think we just look at the wall. I'm like, how should have? hang something near. No, you don't have to. You don't have to put something on every single wall. Especially if you're working with the rule of one, you'll see that one thing strategically placed makes such an impact that you don't have to hang other things. That's happened to me in a couple of different rooms. I hung up the one thing and was done. And there were still blank walls, but it just worked. Commandment number two. You shall not start your art until your drapes are hung correctly. Now, if you just said that in your brain, like, don't start your art until your drapes

are hung correctly. That means you have taken the Nestor's cozy minimalist class and you are rocking your home and you have so many wonderful tools at your disposal. She has this course. It's only available once or twice a year. It is fantastic. It's not live right now or I would link to it. But when it is, I'm going to put the link there because this course is fantastic. But one of the things that she taught us in that course is to not start your art, don't hang anything on your walls, until your drapes are hung correctly. Because your drapes fill the space. They add texture, they add height. Sometimes they cover so much of the wall, especially if you're hanging them on the outside of your window frame so you can get more light and make sure windows look bigger. When you do

that, you actually cover up some of the wall and you might not need to hang things. So don't start your art until your drapes are hung correctly. Thank you, Nestor, for that. Excellent commandment. Commandment number three. You shall not use too many words at once. I am so guilty of this. Raise your hand if you have a print with words on it, beautiful calligraphy. Raise your hand if you have some sort of wooden sign with words on it that you bought a hobby lobby. Raise your hand if you have words on things in your house. Now, raise your hand if several of them are on the wall at one time next to each other. My hand is up. I'm actually looking at one of those walls right now. And I haven't been able to figure out until just recently why that wall wasn't making me as happy as I wanted it to. And it's because

my brain's like, what do I read? I don't know what to read. What am I supposed to read right now? It's too many words. It's too overwhelming. Right now I have a wooden sign from my friend Michael Van Patter. I will link to his shop. It's the most beautiful wooden signs with thoughtful and kind of unusual quotes. I have one that says, Blossom of Snow, may you bloom and grow from Sound of Music, because I love the sound of music.

I have that next to a Lindsay letters print of praise God from whom all blessings flow, and it's beautiful. And then I have my letterfolk board underneath that cheering for the tar heels, because the final four is this weekend. And they're all together. And it's so distracting, y'all. It's so distracting. Now, I know that what I want is one big thing on this little bookshelf, rather than all these words above it, all these little words above it, I want one big thing. And I can put those words in other places that make more sense. But you shall not use too many words at once. You may not know that that's a problem with part of your gallery wall or some things that you have on your walls. You're like, why? Why am I just not into this? It might be because there are too many words. Make your words have impact by just having one piece that has words on it.

commandant number four remember the surface below and keep it connected this is another thing I learned from the nestor we need to make our surfaces the console table the bookshelf friends with the wall so if you have some sort of table against a wall and you start to put things on it and then you hang something on the wall over top of it you need to connect those things somehow, whether it's with greenery, something tall that kind of touches or visually touches what is on the wall to what is on the table. Connecting what's on the wall and what's on the table creates beautiful vignettes that will make you feel like you're such a rock star decorator. And it's not hard. It's just like, oh, I need something taller. I need to connect these two things. That's why this

isn't working. So for example, I'll take a picture of this. I do, okay, I do not call myself a fantastic I'm definitely learning some things. And there is a post on the blog right now, actually, about what my walls look like, the first place I lived after I got married. And there's a picture of the wall over my couch. And you guys, it's so bad. And I'm showing you because I just want you to know, like, there's a lot of progress that has happened.

But I will also have a picture of, in the show notes, at the lazy genius collective.com. slash lazy slash wall. That's where the show notes are for this episode slash wall. I'll have a picture of kind of a vignette where I have a mirror and I have a picture leaning up against the mirror and I also have some fake plants up against the mirror that are on the table below the mirror on the wall. So they're connected. Now again, I do not call myself an amazing decorator, but looking at that vignette compared to what was over my couch 15 years ago, oh my word, I've come such a long way. The before and after makes me very happy.

But connect what's on the wall to what's underneath the wall, and you will find that magic happens. Aw isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, A special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life.

You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Commandment number five, honor the nails, but consider other stuff. We think that we need nails to hang things on the wall. Nails are great, but there are other ways that you can do this too that are a little bit less constraining, perhaps, if you're worried about nail holes, which you don't need to be. but if you are, if that's just something that makes you weirded out, or maybe you live in a dorm room or you rent or whatever, and there are just reasons. There are really legitimate reasons why you don't want to put a bunch of nail holes in the wall. There are other things that you can use. You can use those command clips, those adhesive command clips. Those carry a lot of weight. Those work

great, especially if the hook for whatever is on your wall is like on a mirror or a picture. if the hook or the wire hanger is further down to cover up that command hook, then you don't even see it and it's great. There are, I'm going to put links to these in the show notes as well. There are metal clips that clip photos together vertically and you just have to put in one little nail or even like a tack depending on how heavy your clips are. But like if you print out, for example, like Instagram photos and you've got these little four by four Instagram photos, You could do a string of those and kind of make a chain of them with these little metal clips with the use of one tiny nail or one little tack, which is so fun. There are also, this is a great reason to use washi tape, guys.

You can make a frame with your washi tape. A couple things you can do is just tape the corners of a print or a photo onto the wall. You can also tape the back of the print to the wall with. painter's tape or something that's not going to take your paint off and then actually create a frame, a visual frame with your washi tape around that photo or that picture or print or whatever it is. That is a really fun way to add some interest and personality without any commitment really because if you don't like it, just take it off. You've used a foot of washing tape. Big deal, right? And then you used your washing tape because we all have a bucket of it. I'm like, what are I supposed to do with this stuff?

So that's great. Another thing that I used recently actually that made me so happy and I've done it multiple times now, if you have a wooden sign, whether it's something that you bought off Etsy or at Hobby Lobby or whatever, but it doesn't have a hook on the back or even if it does, you just want it to kind of have a little bit more interest in how you hang it. You can buy at the hardware store eye hooks or eye screws. So what it looks like, it looks like a lollipop. So the stick is a screw. and then there's a little circle with a tiny little space in there that you can slide in a string or a ribbon or whatever you can screw an eye hook onto either side of your wooden sign this is probably better for smaller things smaller signs but you screw an eye hook into both sides and then you tie a ribbon between the two eye hooks and then you hang that on a hook on your wall or a nail or pretty nail or whatever and it's so cute and you feel kind of like a rock star because because you used hardware, but you didn't have to pull out a drill. You didn't have to use a hammer. Like, it's a great way to hang wooden things. Commandment number six, you shall consider shape.

Not everything has to be a square or a rectangle. Not everything has to have corners. So if you're looking for a big piece, if you're looking for a big mirror, a big piece of art, or if you're combining a lot of things on a gallery wall or creating a little vignette. Consider circles and ovals and stars and sunbursts and different shapes that don't necessarily have angles to add some interest without any extra work. If you're going to buy the thing anyway, you might as well get something that is a shape that's interesting. Come here at number seven. You shall consider texture. It's the same as shape. Don't go with what standard. You can choose different textures. You can to choose natural elements and fabric and shell and rope and lots of things that will have a visual

impact, especially if you're using the rule of one if you've got something big on your wall and it has texture. Oh my word. Your decorating work on that like whole part of the room is way done. So that gives you more time to catch up on new girl. I mean this is an excellent, excellent decision. Hammamint number eight, you shall consider your wall color. Okay, if you have a white wall and you hang a white framed something, that can have an amazing impact. It can be really light and airy, but maybe you don't want light and airy. Maybe you want something that has a lot of contrast. Don't forget that you're not just considering the actual piece that goes on the wall.

Think about the color that's on your wall as well. So if you have a really warm color on your wall and you choose an equally warm. piece to go on top of it, it might actually feel a little bit muddy. So don't forget to consider the contrast or kind of monochromatic feel, depending on what your purpose is, depending on what you're going for. Don't forget to consider the color on your wall. Commandment number nine, you shall not pay full price ever. Okay, this is especially true for things like canvases. Don't ever buy a full price canvas. Don't ever do it. Don't ever do it. Don't ever do it. Okay. You can buy canvases at goodwill. and paint them over.

You can get canvases when your craft store has those crazy sales that they always do, right? There's always a coupon for like 40% off, regularly priced item. Please don't buy canvas full price. Same goes for like paint and stuff. Like you can always buy craft supplies at a deep discount because craft stores love the coupons. If you are fortunate enough to live in a place where there's a hobby lobby, you know that they have sales based on the type of things every week. I mean, that's true, like lots of places. But Hobby Lobo will be like, everything that's wood is 40% off this week.

Okay, cool. So, and those things rotate pretty frequently. So if you're looking for a wooden sign, like a really big wooden sign and you want to wait for the sale, you're not going to have to wait that long. Okay. And as they say, the best things come to those who wait. It will be worth it to you. to wait for what you really, really want. I know sometimes I'll look at a space and I'm like, just fix it. I just need everything to be done. That was true of me. Oh, my word, when I got married and moved into my husband's townhouse, I just wanted

everything to be full and finished because I kind of thought that it would always stay that way. You know, like once decorating's done, then you're done forever. Well, that was a big fat lie that I wish someone had told me the truth about. And so I ended up buying a ton of things that we didn't even really love. like because I was just trying to finish. So figure out what you like. If you're not really sure or if you're very sure and you don't want to settle for something, waiting is okay. Having a blank wall is okay. Having looking at my wall right now with the three signs that all have words on

them, it's okay if they stay there for a little while. It's not going to hurt anybody. But I know what I want there and I'm going to keep an eye out for what it is that I want and get out on sale because too many people pay full price for things that you don't have to. So, you know, if you're buying something at a craft store, do not pay full price. And our final commandment, commandment number 10, you shall not covet your neighbor's wall. This feels like a tough one, I think, because we get inspiration from places. You know, if you have, if you have a friend who has a really lovely decorating style and when you go to her house and you see her walls and you're like, oh, this is so pretty, I wish I had this wall. And then you get sad about your own and start to

become resentful. It can be, it can spiral so fast, right? It's okay to get inspired. That's good. But instead of being like, oh, I want her wall, ask yourself, why do I love her wall? Why do I love this? What about this makes me happy? Is it the size? Is it the scale? Is it the combination of shapes and textures?

Is it the color? Is it that they're all family photos that are styled and really look beautiful and you don't have those and you wish you did or think you're supposed to? Like really get down to why you love something, why you're excited to look at your neighbor's wall or in the West Elm catalog or you're looking on Pinterest or you're watching picture upper if you see a wall that makes you really happy figure out why don't just despair because you don't have that wall figure out why you like it and then make that work for your home with what you like and what your purpose is so let's do a super quick recap the fear of doing it wrong

we all have it but we can also let it go don't let it stop you from having a home that makes happy. The rule of one, one big thing is way easier, often cheaper, and has way more impact than a lot of little things. And the Ten Commandments of Wall Art, you shall not cover every wall, you shall not start your art until your drapes are hung correctly, you shall not use too many words at once. Remember the surface below and keep it connected. Honor the nails, but consider other stuff. You shall consider shape. You shall consider texture, you shall consider your wall color, you shall not pay full price ever, and you shall not covet your neighbor's wall. So what's our payoff when the lazy genius put stuff on the wall?

We have a magically transformed room with kind of minimal effort, especially if you follow that rule of one, you are done in no time, which I am super on board with. Okay, so that is the lazy genius put stuff on the wall. I have a Pinterest board with some ideas and some examples of one big thing on the wall. That is in our show notes. There are links to a few other posts that I mentioned. The clips that I mentioned. All of the wall things are at the lazy genius collective.com slash lazy slash wall. Now I want to tell you something that you want to put on your wall. Hopefully you are already on the lazy genius collective. mailing list. And if you are, you have heard about the kinship collection. It is a collection of prints

of our favorite characters from literature. Joe March, Anne Shirley, Jane Eyre, Nancy Drew, Elizabeth Bennett, and several others. And my mom designed these amazing prints. They are watercolor, they're digital watercolor, and they're fabulous. They look like they're all together, like they're part of a collection, and they're perfect. Perfect. to hang in your daughter's room in your office. Oh my gosh. I want an office so badly because I want to hang these in my office in my face too, but I sadly don't have one. But if you do and you are bookish, these would be so great. So if you would like to have these prints, go to the lazy genius collective.com slash kinship, K-I-N-S-H-I-P. And you can put your name on the list to be notified

when they go on sale or depending on when you're listening to this, they actually might be sell right now. I am obsessed with them and I'm pretty sure you will be too. Okay, so before we go, let's do the lazy genius tip of the week. This one comes from Kitty. Kitty Hurdle on Instagram. A couple of other lazy genius followers and listeners alerted me to this. Did you see Kitty's story? She talked about you in the story. And I went and watched the story and it is the best tip because it combines practical things with the heart and the soul and it made me so happy. So the lazy genius tip from Kitty is to make extra food and then just invite people over, which seems kind of, and she even said this, like it seems kind of like an obvious thing. But if you make extra food

and you spontaneously let some people, whether it's your neighbors or just a couple of family friends and say, hey, I made a bunch of pasta, like something really cheap. I made a lot of soup. You guys want to come over for dinner or come grab some? If they come, awesome. If they don't, they know that you care enough about them to want to spend time. with them. And if they don't come, freeze the food, man. Save it for another dinner later for yourself when you don't want to cook. It's, I just love the simplicity of that where you just decide, especially for something that is easy to make, is easy to double or triple, make it and invite people to come eat with you. And if they come, you get to welcome people into your home with very little

effort. And if they don't, then you have extra dinners. I mean, boom, y'all. So lazy genius. So thank you, Kitty, for sharing that on Instagram, and I hope that a lot of you use that as well. Okay, that's it for today. Thank you for listening. As always, you can find me on Instagram at The Lazy Genius. You can check out the show notes for this episode at the lazygeonoclective.com slash lazy slash wall. And I look forward to seeing you next week. You guys are the best. Be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Bye. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life, it's so dangerous to live that, more dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life, because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's

good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.