First of all, if you’re a Mac user and have been thinking about buying a Photoshop license, I recommend you check out Pixelmator first. It’s very similar to Photoshop but especially developed for Mac and much, much cheaper. Plus I love supporting indie developers. It does lack some of the features Photoshop has, but if you’re a light user like I am it does a great job. I’ve been using it since it first came out and haven’t touched Photoshop since (and no, no one paid me to say this).
Anyway, as we prepare to work on the passthrough today (Friday afternoons are spent on that lately!) I thought I could have some fun playing around with Pixelmator and show you guys what I have planned for the near(ish) future. It’s what I want to work on after we wrap up the passthrough project and finally finish smoothing out my parents’ walls, which we’ll be doing next week while they’re out of town. Told you it’s like Extreme Makeover – we work on it while they’re gone and bam! they get back and everything is pretty and clean and in its place. And they don’t have to suffer the side effects of the reno – the usual ohmygosh-the-whole-house-is-a-complete-mess-when-will-this-be-over-please-let-this-be-over. This rambling may or may not be the side effect of our own reno.
On to the actual subject of this post. I’ve been dying to add a bus roll sign somewhere and I had just the perfect spot for it: our closet area.
And just for fun I did a mock up in Pixelmator:
Gah. I know I haven’t even started it yet, and I love it already. Doesn’t it look good in there?
But that’s not all I played around with!
You might recall a while ago, when I blogged about the master closet, that we added some prints from the wedding and moved a bookcase in there. But I decided that bookcase was too much and we were going to build a really short (bench height) bookcase and move the bigger one back to where it was. That’s still the plan, but with a slight variation.
See, when I decided to move back the bookcase to where it was it posed two problems: 1) I still didn’t like how the map looked above it (too top-heavy) and 2) I need a place to hang another Etsy print we have. After trying to hang the map behind the dresser and TV in our bedroom and in a couple of other places I realized the only place where it could fit/work was this:
And then we could hang the other print above the bookcase instead of the map.
BUT then the map would look weird next to the dresser with nothing below to ground it.
So then I thought… what if we wrap around the corner the bookcase/bench thingie we were planning on building? It would mean more space for books! The bench would sit below the map and would wrap around this corner:
Am I crazy for considering this? Would it look weird or do you think it could work?
Love the bus roll sign. It looks perfect in this wall.
I think you forgot about London
You’re right! I’ll have to add that.
I am not completely following you on the wrap around bench/book case? Would it be on the walls where you drew the arrows, on the right hand side going out of the master? How much clearance would you be left with at the narrowest space? I love the idea of something wrap-around and anchoring the pictures like you described sounds great too
Sorry for being dense 
I LOVE that bus roll sign. It’s perfect scale and I love the amount of white space you have around the words. Which font did you use? It’s awesome! I want to make one
Hey Katja! The font is called Roadway (it’s a free download).
As for the bench/bookcase, it would wrap around where I drew the arrows, yes. It would be visible on the left wall on the bus roll mockup. Sorry for not making that clear!
Re: the clearance, Andoni is a bit worried about that too. We’ll have to figure that out & see if it works but I’d say between 3-4 feet.
Aah, ok. I think if you have that much clearance you have plenty. I believe the minimum clearance should be 90cm (3ft). Although some of my doors are as narrow as 28″ (2ft 4in”). I think that if you can still get the bed in and out of the room, you are good clearance wise, don’t you?
Yeah you’re right! Though to be honest since we have double doors leading to the patio in both bedrooms and the living room, when we moved in we brought things into the living room, took them out to the patio, and brought them back into the corresponding bedroom. It was easier than maneuvering them through the hallway
Of course, that makes sense
Didn’t think about that. I had to think about the clearance issues when we re-built our stair-case because the landing upstairs leads to the bedroom and you have to make a U-turn to get there 
But of course with your patio right outside assessable, that is much easier 
Well, I will have my eyes peeled to see what you end up doing. I have been loving everything else so far
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Thanks for the font name. I went and downloaded it
I like the first location, but I’m sure it will work wherever you put it. It looks wicked awesome (as I think they say in Boston). Also, we’re not Mac users yet (I was in college), but we’re talking about picking one up next Fall. Once we do, I’ll be happy to ditch Photoshop for something cheaper.
Yeah, paying that much can’t be fun… one of the main reasons I’m so happy with Pixelmator, haha. It runs more smoothly than Photoshop ever did, too.
Love the bus roll sign! It will look great there : )
Thanks Christine!
I love that sign. I can’t wait to see how it turns out. I read all the posts between you and Katja..my main concern would be clearance. Maybe tape it out on the floor and see if you like it for a few days?
Yes, that’s the plan! I’ll let you guys know as soon as we figure it out.
I like it!
Maybe that’s because it has Dallas on it (I’m partial).
Hahah that’s a totally valid reason!