DIY Project: Framed Sheet Music

One of my favorite (and extremely affordable) projects from earlier this summer was FINALLY framing the sheet music that I had bought of our first dance at our wedding. I had purchased the sheet music online (for only about $5) and was able to print it from my own printer.

There are obvious ways to download and print sheet music for free, but I wanted to pay for the sheet music for numerous reasons. First, obvious copyright reasons. We loved the song - as it meant so much to us, why not give the writer the credit for their amazing work? Additionally, the sheet music and website that I found, had the sheet music sized properly to fit regular computer paper, and looked exactly the way I wanted, with the proper symbols and music notations. The website also had the option to condense the sheet music to fit 4 pages instead of 7, which I knew I wanted because I needed to keep in mind the amount of space that I wanted to use on the wall in my living room. Once I paid for the sheet music, downloaded and printed it instantly - I was very happy with how clean it looked and couldn't wait to frame it.

I had purchased the sheet music the summer we got married (2013), so I have literally had this sheet music for over a year by the time I was able to carry my project out - so what was the hold up? I didn't yet have my "forever shelf" that I had been wanting for this area, and I wanted to wait until I found the shelf I had been envisioning before making any holes in our freshly painted walls to hang the sheet music. Why take the time to hang them, then have to move them, patch the holes, repaint and remeasure, in order for it to fit and look correctly spaced with the new furniture once I finally found what I was looking for? I was bummed to have the vision and the plan for my project while not being able to actually do it, but I'm so happy that I waited because it's one of my favorite things in our house.

I'm extremely picky with furniture - so over a year after I had printed the music (and about 2.5 years after we bought our house), I found the perfect shelf for the space that I had been envisioning. Keep in mind, we had planned to purchase a shelf eventually when we moved in, but I just hadn't found one that I really wanted - so the shelf purchase wasn't because of the sheet music - I just wanted to wait until I had the shelf before hanging the music :)

While we're on the topic of my shelf - HUGE shout out to my sweet friend Olga for her help with this! We had spent one Friday night HomeGoods hopping (I think we visited 3-4 HomeGoods in the area that night while our men were at work) looking for furniture for her new house, when we came across the shelf at one of the stores. She was the one that first spotted it and helped me carry it all the way to the front of the store to check out (and even asked the cashier for a discount because it had a few knicks in it - even though we both knew that they were supposed to be there because the shelf was made to be rustic looking). When I brought it home and once Eric finally got home from work and carried it up the stairs, I was so excited - it looked perfect in that area!

Okay - back to the sheet music! Now that my shelf was in place, I was ready to buy frames. For frames on my walls, I love solid dark colors because I'm all about simplicity. I found frames that I really liked at Michaels that were on sale and even better - I had a coupon to use! Overall, I think this entire project probably cost around $30.00.

Another shout out is in order! To our friend Eddie - he was hanging out with us one night for dinner and a game (right after I had bought my frames), and lucky him - I asked him to help with the measurements so that the frames would be evenly and perfectly spaced on the wall. (I'd trust myself with one or two frames that need to be centered/leveled - but with 4, I didn't trust myself and put him to work!) He did the perfect job measuring and mapping it out on paper (even showed us that the iPhone has an awesome level app as part of the compass that's already on the iPhone) - and that night after Eric took Eddie's measurements and marked the nail holes on the wall - my sheet music was FINALLY hung perfectly, the way I had been envisioning it for the past 1.5 years! :)

Below is the final project. The picture absolutely does not do it justice - it looks so great in person. As said above, it's one of my favorite things in the house - every time I look at it, it puts a huge smile on my face, as it brings back amazing memories from our wedding :)