Friday, August 10, 2012

Brainstorming: DIY Pull-Down Map


I saw this picture a few weeks ago, and it's been on my mind ever since.  I've always loved vintage maps, in fact I found one many years ago at Goodwill, of all places!  It was a prized possession, until movers lost it in my move from Phoenix.  (I knew I had blogged about that awesome map many years ago, and dug through the vaults to find this post.  Ha!  Good times!  Man, I miss that map.)

Anyhow, I love vintage maps, especially those of the pull-down school variety, and I love the clever use of the map above to conceal a TV, because if there is one thing I DON'T love in home decor, it's a glaringly huge TV.  The hubs would of course disagree.  We have a flat screen TV that we're hoping to wall mount in the next couple months, so I decided to start my search for a vintage pull-down map to conceal the TV once it's mounted.  Lemme tell you, the search was short-lived.  Unless I happen across a cheap one at Goodwill again, the cool ones are way out of my price-range!!  (I checked eBay, just do a search for vintage pull down maps and you'll see what I'm talking about.)

As I was browsing eBay for the pull-down maps, a few pull-down educational charts popped up.  I also adore their weird quirkiness, but unfortunately the cool ones are also out of my price-range.  But, it got my wheels turning...

A few months ago we installed cheapy roller shades in babygirl's nursery in an attempt to make it darker and cooler.  It didn't make a huge improvement, but it does create a really beautiful diffused light during the day.  But, I digress.  The point I was going to make is that those roller shades are DIRT CHEAP.  So I started thinking: what if I had a roller shade cut down to my exact measurement, found a cool pdf of a map or educational chart, had it blown up & printed at an office store, mounted it onto the roller shade, attached a dowel to the bottom and built a simple shelf to mount it to, and then hung it on the wall above the TV to make my own version of a vintage pull-down map/chart?!?

I'm soooo excited!  I'll keep you posted, and will be sure to post a tutorial!

2 comments:

  1. How did it turn out? We're planning to do the same thing but with some shelves to store the DVD player, Wii, and video phone.

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  2. The look of authentic and original antique pull down maps can't really be emulated but what an awesome project. GO FOR IT!

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