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Have you ever heard of bloggers doing “OPAM: One Project a Month?” I’ve run across it a few times, and as I was setting goals for 2012, I thought it would be a great idea to try. Just one project, every month, nothing major but something fun. (Last year’s 52-week photo project stalled out a little over halfway through, so I’m hoping for something I can actually keep up with this time!)

Working from home, I have the privilege of staring at the walls around me with a mixture of “what the heck should I put there” and “when are we ever going to be able to afford to redo our living room?” and “what was I thinking when I did that?!” Of course, I’m a busy mom and photographer, so I don’t have too much time, but one project a month, whether big or small, well…I think I can handle that.

So lately I’ve been grousing about the coats/jackets/papers/backpacks/lunchboxes/bags/shoes and everything else that comes into our home and gets dumped in the foyer. I’ve been drooling over the super cute mudroom setups I’ve found recently on Pinterest (aka my second home), and was considering some sort of mash-up between this one and this one and this one. Sigh…be still my little organizing heart!

The problem though – we only have one usable wall in our foyer, and it faces the door to our coat closet. So my little mudroom couldn’t be deeper than about 12 inches to allow for foot traffic – yikes. Plus it just had to look pretty, being in the foyer right there when you open the door and all! And with a 5 and almost 3-year old responsible for hanging up their stuff? I just knew it wouldn’t turn out like a magazine. (Of course, none of my organizing projects look like the magazines. Can I get an Amen?) Also, I love all the neutral colors in the inspiration photos, but my kids’ coats are bright pink and purple. They don’t exactly scream beautiful interior design.

So I scrapped that idea.

Then I ran across this little gem, and I was inspired.

Our coat closet is super deep, which is on one hand a blessing (yay! storage space!), but on the other hand, a curse. Our coats hang waaaaay in the back (when they actually get hung at all!) and the space in between was steadily getting packed in with my photography props…meaning you couldn’t hang up your coat if you tried. So we pulled everything out, purged a ton of items, and came up with this!

We (meaning Mike) bought the wood and the hooks, and we used paint that we already had on hand, so it ended up being super cheap! But oh, those chevron stripes…a little (lot) taxing for someone like me who has zero patience for crafts and DIY stuff.

But in the end, I actually love it, and even enjoyed the experience! (Not enough to do chevron on the bottom row though! Ha ha!) But even if no one ever sees my little striped hangers, I still smile every time I see them. Even when all the stuff comes back in and ruins the pretty view.

Soooooo…I couldn’t just leave that foyer wall bare with nothing going on after all of my scheming and dreaming. So guess what I did?

Yep. A photo gallery wall! I love it! (And not just because it makes this post photo-related!)

I used different frames that I had been collecting over the past year, and I really love how they all work together. I think my favorites are the round frames at the top…they just add some drama and movement to an otherwise boring wall!

Yay! One project down, eleven to go. (And now I’m wondering if I should have cheated and saved the photo wall for February….dang it!)

Anyone else been doing any organizing or hanging photos? Show what you’ve got! Leave your link in the comments and inspire us!