Tackling the Wall, Phase I

I've been thinking more about the empty dining room wall. This past weekend I was down in our basement reorganizing things to both make better use of our space and protect things against future flooding issues and I found a bunch of things that have been sitting down there untouched since we moved.

A stack of frames inlcuding six of these (some of which I had used to frame some vintage napkins in our old apartment and some still in the plastic wrappers), two unfinished wood, and one random black double mat frame from the going out of business sale of our local Linens n Things... the old maps I scored on ebay... a book of really amazing botanical photos that I'd cut up and used in a few old decorating projects... an antique pennant of my husband's and my alma mater that we picked up at an antique shop a few years ago... many, many miscellaneous photos...

I brought all of this stuff upstairs and stared at it. In the interest of frugality and sustainability, I've decided that there certainly must be something I can create using some of this stuff (and other things I have on hand) that will be a stylish fix for our empty wall. So the wheels are turning.

My main quandary now is how to center my installation on the wall.

As you can see in this photo, there is a door to the room that always stays open, so in effect that shifts the "center" of the wall from its true center, halfway between the two corners of the room, to halfway between the edge of the open door and the opposite corner. The dining table is centered in the room, under that chandelier (which I am looking forward to someday replacing). So if I center the art on the wall in its true center, it will be in line with the dining table but it will also look uncentered on the wall because of the open door... this is borderline keeping me up at night, folks. I think some trial and error will be in order. Sigh, the curse of being a perfectionist.