It’s that time of year again…Weather is perfect…Campsites are being reserved…And the last thing we want to do is be stuck at home…California is calling us…  

 Which is why it was kismet to find an enormous map of California at the Sacramento antique fair. I’ve been wanting one for our guest room/office for the past year. There are so many places to camp, enjoy, and discover in our home state that I wanted to mark off the travel bucket list. This map will be a visual tracker of our progress and very cool art piece. 

Plus maps seem to look fabulous against (already painted) baby blue walls… 

 (An example from the amazingly talented Emily Henderson’s guest room) Well, I’ve got blue walls too why doesn’t it look the same? Ours just looks sad?!

 I quickly realized the map needed a smooth backing and frame to finish it off. Yet to custom frame a map like this would cost me hundreds of dollars…So in the budget conscious style of LHBD we faked it. 

Here’s how we did it… (This is also super temporary should you be renting or just like to change your art around constantly)

  We bought some very thin cabinet backer board cut by Home Depot to the dimensions of the map. Then duct taped the two pieces together.   Command strips were our friend, lots and lots of them, all over the back of the boards. 

 Then stuck the boards to the wall. 

We hung the map using poster (light weight) command strips flattening it against the boards. 

 We then found pvc/faux wood baseboard at Home Depot.  

  Much cheaper than wood, lightweight, and very easy to cut the angles for the frame.    Next we used the scotch indoor mounting tape for the back of the frame pieces.  (Now if you’re renting we can’t guarantee this tape won’t take a bit of paint away. However a couple finishing nails at the corners and command strips may have the same results) 

Voila! Giant framed art for $30! 

 We can’t wait to start marking off the locations we’ve been, dog friendly places we’ve stayed and campsites to swoon over. Hopefully you have fun vacations planned for the summer and memories to make! Happy Sunday everyone!