After living in our home for a little over a month, and walking around all of the boxes of art in the living room, we finally decided that enough is enough. It was time to hang the art on the walls.

It’s one of those things that really makes a house feel like a home but I wanted to make sure that we’d lived in this space for a while before we made any hole-in-the-wall decisions about where things would go. When we finally opened these boxes, it was like being greeted by long lost friends. The beauty of collecting art over time is that the longer they hang on your walls, the more memories they absorb.

I posted a photo on my Instagram and a few people asked me where we get all of our art. I’m really proud and excited to know so many cool artists and friends that I thought I’d just do a sweet, sweet roundup of all of our art and where it came from!

When I lived in my very first apartment after college, I thought I would be living all over the United States and I wanted to collect local art from every place I ever lived! Well… I have held that promise. But I haven’t lived that many places. Which is fine. When you fall in love with a place you just know it.

Top: Our friends, Ed and Ange gave us this little print of two robots falling in love. Okay, so I call it two robots but anyone who’s ever seen a refrigerator or a phone booth know that’s not what they are at all. But what can you do? Anyway–I love it so much and I thought it was a perfect combination with my little monster in our teeny tiny hallway.
Bottom: The little monster (he’s maybe 6″ wide) was given to me by my best friend, Jamie, when we were living together in Brookings, South Dakota. There’s a big art fair there every summer and while we were there, I fell in love with this monster series by artist Sarah Kargol. Jamie had this little piece commissioned to combine my love of the monsters with my love of American Literature. I hold him so dear.

Top right: This is a photo that Ryan took years and years ago. I actually had never seen it until I unpacked the boxes from our most recent move. I love it and I feel like it fits in really well in this space with our house illustration.
Bottom left: Our dear friends, Doug and Staci had this piece commissioned for us one year at Christmas time. It’s a picture of the house where Ryan and I fell in love–where we lived together for the first time and where we were when we got married. Opening that gift brought real tears to our eyes. Michelle Volansky is a great illustrator out of St. Louis that we’ve used to commission pieces for friends in the past, ourselves. (I also have a print of hers hanging in our bedroom, which will not be featured on this tour because of reasons.)

I grabbed this print from Brim Papery a few years ago shortly after she’d opened her Etsy shop. I love hanging this piece in my kitchen–it’s actually the first piece of art that people see when they walk into the house. I like to think it sets the tone for what kind of a household we’re running, here.

This poster of “plumes” easily gets the most comments of all of our art. Regrettably, I snagged it from the clearance section of Urban Outfitters several years ago. I wish there was more of a story to it but it is what it is.
The “eye heart ewe” card was a valentine that I gave to Ryan one year. He really liked it so I decided to pop it in this sweet frame that I got from Birchbox and I think they look awesome together.
My sister in law gave me that sweet little pitcher and we grabbed that big hunk of salt from a date to Strataca, the Underground Salt Museum in Hutchinson, KS. They told us that we were allowed to take a small piece of salt with us as a souvenir but they definitely didn’t want us to take a piece this huge. So while the tour guide wasn’t looking, I smuggled it in my sweatshirt.

Ryan promised that I could use this photo if I wanted to–this is a reminder to him in case he sees this and does not remember. 😉
We never intended to have a red-theme in our living room. I’m not even sure that either of us even like red that much but it all just works so well together. I didn’t curate this collection on purpose. It’s just stuff that I love and they all happen to go together so well!
1, 5. These are pages torn out of an old calendar about magicians that Ryan had. We loved them, so we decided to frame them and keep them.
2. My brother in law, Joshua Monaghan, is an incredible artist. He gave this girl to me for my birthday one year. He did most of the art in this collection. I’m really lucky that his art matches my taste perfectly.
3. This is an illustration of the guys in Ryan’s band, I Heard A Lion. I had this made up for them by an illustrator after the release of their last album. Unfortunately I can’t link you to the artist because her Etsy shop is closed and I don’t remember her name and I think she stopped posting on Instagram? I feel like a monster not being able to link you to the artist but I really tried.
4, 6. Other prints by Joshua Monaghan.
7. A darling little sign that I almost never obey. I picked it up at Hobby Lobby or some place like that.
8. I ordered this print for Ryan’s birthday one year from an Etsy shop called Ajbmtk. Ryan loves The Goonies and so I thought this was a really fun reference to hang on the wall. Also I just love the detail of this lady’s hair.
9. This is my favorite piece of art in our whole house. It’s a mash up of two of my favorite things, Joshua’s art and Ryan’s band. One day, Ryan was at Joshua’s apartment, screen printing IHAL t-shirts. They needed to test the screen on something and so they just grabbed this print that Joshua had lying around. Ryan brought it home for me and I framed it to hang prominently in my home. It makes me feel so happy and I love that it’s a one of a kind piece.

Where are your favorite places to find art? Do you have any good stories behind the art in your home?

There are a few other places where I really want to get art from like my friend Lynnette’s textile shop on Etsy. I’m also super duper in love with this subtle (and not so subtle) vagina art. I’m also saving up for an original piece by Frances Cannon because celebrating and supporting female artists.

And finally, since we’ve moved, I haven’t been able to do any painting but I’m excited to get started again next week! There will be art for sale in no time for you to hang in your own home! Make sure to follow on Instagram and Facebook to see when things go on sale!

XOXO, Lib ❤