the family jules: Finding my niche (and decorating it with the things I love most)

When we had our home built in 2004 I LOVED all of the decorative niches. I thought it would be easy to come up with ideas and decorations for each of them. Well that wasn't necessarily the case. I struggled mostly with the one in my living room. It quite literally is the first thing you see when you walk in through the front door. Initially I placed my grandfather clock there, which of course covered up the entire thing. Later I ousted the clock and added a decorative iron art piece. It wasn't love, but it would have to do.

Recently I went through a re-doing faze and repainted all of the living areas in my home. I took things a bit more modern so this gave me the perfect excuse to figure out something else to do in this niche. I decided to make the space more personal.

I knew the first thing I wanted was a personalized "family established" vinyl decal. These can be made on machines like the Cricut or Silhouette, which I'm seriously considering getting but don't have. So I relied on the next best alternative.... Etsy!! I order mine from VinylMill and it was seriously love at first sight! They do awesome work! **As an exclusive offer to readers of my blog use the code JU1IE at checkout and receive 10% off your order at VinylMill**.

Too cute for words!

After hanging the decal I knew I wanted to focus on older family photos. So I chose one from our wedding and a younger photo of my loves, my boys. I printed them in black and white, which is always my favorite. I purchased cheap matted frames. The frames alone didn't seem like enough so I purchased a thick black ribbon, hot glued it to the back, added a bow and voila!