The Four Quadrants of DC

There's a wall in my home, just to the right of the doorway into the kitchen from the hallway, that's given me grief since I moved in over a year ago.  It's the first wall you face when you walk into my apartment proper from the entry, so whatever I hang there makes a big statement about my decor and style sensibilities.  The problem is that the fusebox lives on this wall and it's off-center.  It's been almost impossible to find a piece of art that's the right dimensions for the width of the wall, hides the fusebox, and hangs evenly given the protrusion of the fusebox handle.  (You can see the fusebox in these photos from one of my experiments.)

Finally, I gave up on the idea of finding one frame that would tick all three of these boxes.  I caved a little on my refusal to have a gallery wall in my own home and arranged four vintage gold frames that I'd bought at Miss Pixie's months ago in a way that covered the fusebox but was centered against the width of the wall.  And then, of course, I took to Instagram, where Bethie and Kate and Beka inspired me to contact Cherry Blossom Creative, my favorite local collective of illustrators, about a commission to fill the frames.

Tori, the founder and principle designer at CBCreative, went above and beyond in working on this project for me.  I said I really liked their DC neighborhoods print but asked if it would be possible to get it in black and white, cut up into four pieces to fit the placement of the frames.  Here's an excerpt from the first email she sent me:

"We can make this work!  I'm a little worried that it'll be tough to make everything line up perfectly, so I did a quick mockup to experiment. What do you think?"

I was stunned - I hadn't even placed an order, and attached to the email was my original Instagram with her prints superimposed into the frames!  We went through a few tweaks (which, much to my chagrin, involved actually measuring things so the frames were spaced evenly on the wall, which they hadn't been before), and I'm so happy with how it turned out.  As you can tell from the photos below, the fusebox isn't totally invisible under the top right frame, so I might check with my building management to see if we can take the handle off the little door so that the frame hangs straight.  Regardless, I love it!  And I can't recommend Cherry Blossom Creative enough if you're looking for DC-related illustrations!