A set of 4 architectural printable art of Southern Antebellum mansions perfect to mat and frame for an antique feel anywhere in your home.
I’ve probably walked down our upstairs hallway 1.5 million times (or at least, it usually feels like that many while I’m rushing around in the mornings getting the kiddos ready for school), and I never really gave this spot in our house much of a thought until now.
But last week, all of the blank walls suddenly started begging for art.
I’ve noticed antique style architectural prints floating around in a lot of designer decor stores and always told myself that I’d find the perfect spot for a set somewhere in our house… except, as usual, I’d try to find a cheaper alternative. And then, bam!
Blank wall = opportunity!
(Some affiliate links are provided below. Full disclosure here.)
The great thing about a lot of antique prints is you can usually find plenty of them online for free under public domain copyright (basically meaning printed before 1923 in the U.S.). Online library archives are typically the best places to start. (Apparently, my nerdy English degree pays off in the printable department. The library is my happy place.)
So in my search, I found this set of old mansions as architectural prints. Love!
You can snag the set yourself by clicking here to subscribe or click this button:
If you’re already a blog subscriber, you should have already received the free downloadable printable set in your email (or just click the printable library link with the password that’s at the bottom of all of my emails).
I printed mine as engineer prints as Staples for about $3 each, but some of y’all have told me some locations won’t always print non-blueprints for you (no idea why that varies so much among locations).
If you run into that issue, you can try ordering posters from OvernightPrints.com or custom blueprints from Office Depot for around the same price.
I found these big matted frames at Michael’s during a BOGO sale to hang mine. Mats somehow make everything in a frame look more important and expensive.
So now that we’ve hung up these architectural prints, it’s spurred on a quick facelift for our upstairs hallway that we started way back last spring and never really finished.
This is what it looked like last winter:
And what it looks like currently:
And this is the other end of the hallway:
We left off on our refresh job with that sconce and thermostat cover. Painting the walls Benjamin Moore Classic Grey and the doors our usual Benjamin Moore Wrought Iron worked a TON of magic first though.
Now that the prints are up, I’m thinking all it needs is a runner and a couple of little accents (and an attic door fix on our ceiling).
But this wall alone already makes it feel not-so-forgotten.
More on this little space coming soon though. And hopefully, I won’t get distracted this time… though this scatterbrained mama isn’t making any promises. 😉
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Love these so much, Lauren; thank you for sharing them. If I ever get my dining room back (waiting for repairs to damage from Hurricane Michael), these are going over my antique buffet.
What a great idea. Your hallway looks so much better with the prints. You are very talented. Bless you
I subbed a bit ago! I totally LOVE the pics and what you did to the hallway. Also-how do you monitor the thermostat? We have a Nest thermostat which can be maintained via their app-pretty neat!
We have a Nest downstairs and need to update the one upstairs too, but for now, the frame (which has the glass taken out so it can still monitor temperature readings) comes right off of 2 pegs so we can adjust it, and we set the frame right back on the pegs.
Hi, Lauren-
I love your work and follow you so avidly! This project saddened me, though, because it glorifies a time and place where slaves were so brutally oppressed. I’m sure that isn’t your intention at all, but little things like this add up to creating a nostalgic haze over an era in our history that we still have a lot to apologize for.
All my best,
Sara
I dont know which I like more, the new paint color or the pictures! Combined this looks like a completely different house. Great job, Lauren!
Your home is beautiful! Do you find that painting your interior doors a darker color make your house darker or is it still the same? I have a dark hallway and would love to do this but am afraid that it will just make everything darker.
Hey I love these prints and I actually went to my staples and they can print them the way you did, could you please tell me the steps you did to print these and the size they are? Probably a dumb question? I’m assuming you download them to a card.
Hi, Ashley. I have copy and pasted the instructions from my botanical gallery prints. The steps will be the same. 🙂
Print Directions:
Download the botanical prints from the Bless’er House Printable Library (password in your email).
Go to Staples.com
Click “shop services” -> “print services” -> “engineering prints” -> “18”x24″ -> “design now” -> “engineering prints in color”
Click “add files” and upload the botanical print images
Click “orientation” -> portrait
Click “add to cart” -> “proceed to checkout”
In the notes section on your order, write “do not scale to fit” to keep the image at 16″x20″ because sometimes Staples will do it even when you don’t specify.
We are thinking of painting our doors the same color! What finish did you use? Eggshell? Satin?
We used semi-gloss.