Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

| By | | 348 Comments

Buying A Teil Duncan Painting For Our Anniversary

As of Monday, John and I have been married for seven years. Or a hand and two fingers, as Clara likes to joke (“what’s seven?… A HAND AND TWO FINGERS!” *maniacal laughter*).

As you can imagine, when you get married on 7/7/07, your seventh anniversary feels like a special one. The golden birthday of anniversaries, if you will. We went to Hawaii for our fifth anniversary, and have always thought we’d end up going somewhere awesome for our seventh (Australia is the ultimate dream – maybe for our tenth – but for lucky seven we were thinking about somewhere in the Caribbean). But as this summer approached we realized the last thing we wanted to do was load everyone up on an airplane. We’re definitely still adjusting to life with two kids, so we decided to save some of our trip money for next year when we’ll hopefully feel more settled/brave/wanderlusty, and we bought a painting with the rest of it.

Teil With Clara Looking

At $850 it was a HUGE splurge for us, but we figured getting a painting that we both loved (of the beach no less) as an anniversary gift to ourselves was sort of a nod to taking a vacation without loading up the pack & play and pacing the aisle of the plane waiting for someone to fall asleep. And we hope to have it forever. Heck, maybe it’ll hang on the walls of Clara’s house someday.

It’s a 30 x 30″ painting by Teil Duncan, whom we’ve been giant geeky fans of for a while. We resisted our initial instinct to get a smaller (less expensive) print, and decided that our first large original painting would be the best seventh anniversary present we could think of. And when it arrived, it was even more glorious in person than it was online. We had it up on the wall in about five minutes. Really, these photos can’t capture half the magic of an in-person stare-session.

Teil Straight On1

It looks great next to our blue front door, and it’s one of those scenes that you can look at for hours.

Teil From Dining Room

As for what wall color you see on the wall behind it, it’s our favorite neutral paint color: Edgecomb Gray by Benjamin Moore.

Every time I walk by our new painting I notice something else. We even caught Clara admiring it (“I like that pink chair! We need a pink beach chair!”) and Teddy’s eyes catch it over my shoulder when I carry him up the stairs sometimes. Burger hasn’t shown any interest yet, but there’s still time…

Teil Close Up

The funny thing about hanging it in our foyer is that we realized we have two other paintings in there too.

Teil From Bathroom

Remember these smaller ones by our friend Lesli? They all have those soft blues and bright whites that make them feel related, but not too matchy. And they’re all of things we love: the beach, John’s Granny’s house, and Burgdorf Goodman himself.

Teil Lesli Paintings

You might remember that we originally hung our Samantha French print in the hall next to the door, so we carried that into the office and held it up over the desk. We actually tried our anniversary painting there first, but ended up liking it better in the hall, so that switch was pretty simple to make. It’s nice to have some art on that wall of the office too.

Teil Samantha French

While hanging that over the desk, we realized we have a few more small paintings on the shelves in there (one of our last house, one of a pear that I found for $4 at an estate sale, one of two bees from Etsy). We always hoped to slowly amass some “real” art, so it’s nice to realize that over time you can inch up the ol’ collection, both with inexpensive finds and a splurge or two, and suddenly you have a hand and two fingers worth of it.

And of course we have all of Clara’s creations on the cork board over her desk. Priceless.

Cork 11 After Side

I think no matter how easy you know nail holes are to spackle (so easy! we’ve done it a thousand times!) there’s this instinct in a new house or a freshly painted room to hold off on hanging art for a while. I don’t know what that phenomenon is (Nail Hole Neurosis?) but we definitely aren’t immune. This is a very real issue people. Just kidding, but really, it took us TEN MONTHS to add some nail holes after painting our bedroom!

Master After Angled Pillows

It’s weird that we hold back on the whole art-hanging thing when we know how much it can take a room from house to home (our bedroom feels 100% more us than it did with blank walls). I’m certainly inspired to get some stuff hung in our upstairs hallway and a few other walls of our bedroom now. What the heck are we waiting for?

And to all of you other 7/7 anniversary peeps, hope it was a happy one!

Comments

  1. Anele @ Success Along the Weigh says

    What a beautiful piece! The colors are perfect! I think I heard through the Chihuahua grapevine that Burger dreamily looks at it when you’re not around but pretends not to be interested when you are. It’s a Napoleon complex, our Toy Fox Terrier had it too. ;-)

    Now I’m off to check out the link to the artist. We’re redoing our living room and I’m all over new decor right now!

    Reply

  4. Joy says

    Happiest of golden anniversaries to you both!

    And thanks for affirming that it’s okay to put holes in the wall. I do it all of the time I sometimes wonder if I’m too wall-art-happy.

    Reply

  7. Amanda says

    If it makes you feel any better, despite how much as I love art, it has taken me TWO YEARS to finally really start hanging some stuff up and decorating my house. Needless to say, the bare walls have been driving me crazy, but when you’re a new homeowner, the process of decorating can be daunting. I’m having fun now though becuase I have a better idea of what I want.

    This is a beautiful piece – enjoy! :)

    Reply

  8. Laura @ Rather Square says

    Interesting that all the art you’re choosing seems to have a cool aqua-blue color motif going on. It really brightens the rooms and I can see how these paintings and prints would put you in a good mood instantly. I think art is a great anniversary present – my husband and I are artists and have been making pieces for each other since we met. :) Happy anniversary!

    Reply

  9. Lisa says

    Love the painting, I sawit on her website – love that it’s called “Stay Awhile” – it looks perfect in your foyer.

    Happy Anniversary!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, we loved the name too! Her paintings sell out so fast I wondered if we’d ever get one, and it was just there waiting for us one day when we checked. Everything about it was screaming our name.

      xo
      s

  10. Amy says

    That’s a beautiful painting! I hope you had a great anniversary! 7/7 has always been a special day for me – it’s not my anniversary, it’s my birthday! And would you believe it, I was born at 7:07pm! So you could say that 7 has always been my lucky number! :)

    Reply

    • Alissa says

      My grandmother was a big fan of 7. Even though it wasn’t her birthday, she celebrated July 7 every year and had a big party when her 77th birthday arrived. Her license plate was CS7077 – randomly assigned! When she passed away on December 17, 2007 I reminded my mom that she had to go out with some 7s; we all laughed and agreed that’s definitely what she would have wanted. :)

    • mribaro says

      Me too! I was born on 7/7/1970 – I like to point out that on the 7/7/1977 I celebrated my 7th birthday :)

    • Pam the Goatherd says

      My Mom’s birthday is 7/7/37. She turned 70 on 7/7/07 and I told her she had reached perfection!

      I love the new painting! It definitely looks like a vacation. If I were you I’d probably sit on the stairs and stare at it whenever I was stressed.

    • Kati says

      I’m thrilled to add that that my son was born on 7/7/14 at 7:37 a.m., weighing 7 lbs and 12 oz. 7s are so special to us now, too!

  11. Olivia says

    Happy anniversary! Hope you had a lovely day! (Quick typo alert: “I think no matter how easy you know nail holes are So spackle…”)

    Reply

  14. Allyn says

    My sister and her husband went to Italy for their 10th anniversary… the summer of their 12th anniversary. Sometimes the timing just isn’t ideal! But they still had a blast and knew their kids were having fun at home with grandmothers.
    Congratulations, you guys! We’re rolling up to anniversary 3 in less than a month. So fun!

    Reply

  16. Laura says

    Happy anniversary, and love that painting! And I totally get the nail phobia…a year after painting our bedroom I STILL haven’t hung anything! I should probably get on that…or maybe start a support group for us nail-in-freshly-painted-wall-phobes. ;)

    Reply

  17. Lydia K says

    What a beautiful painting! A worthy splurge, for sure.

    I too have nail hole neurosis – we were in our house for a year and a half before we painted a HUGE chunk of it (two hallways, foyer, stairway and formal living/dining – all connected) and I wouldn’t put ANYTHING on the wall, because, of course, I didn’t want to patch and fix it later. But then we ended up hiring painters and they patched holes I didn’t even notice, and I felt pretty stupid about it. Oh well. But yes – hang things! It makes you feel so much better about life.

    Reply

  18. Julia says

    I looked up Teil and realized she’s based out of Charleston – where I live now! I might have to go find her work in a local studio. Happy Anniversary!

    Reply

  20. Carolyn says

    I love the painting! My hubby and I just purchased our first house and love your blog. We are renovating it ourselves and have found a lot of your posts very helpful. We just celebrated our two year anniversary on 7/7 so it was fun to hear what you guys did. Thanks for all the posts they have helped us a ton!

    Reply

  21. caroline says

    Wow, you HAVE got a lot of art all of a sudden! Some very personal and lovely art, too!
    Congrats on the 7 year anniversary, it will be me and my sweethear’s 7 year anniversary (of being together, not being married, although we’re recently engaged so it will happen one day!!) next month! Yay for 7!!

    Hang on… I just realised it will be our 8th anniversary, not our 7th!! Duuuuuuuh…

    Reply

  22. Mary says

    I am a little too “nail-hole” happy. I pretty much will just never move because it will just take way too long to fill all those holes…

    Reply

  24. Lois Fundis says

    Lovely painting! I love the beach and I know you guys do, too. And thanks for the tour of the rest of the Petersik Art Gallery while you were at it.

    Reply

  25. Kristin F says

    That is a gorgeous painting. I’ve been using a cheap, mass produced place holder over my living room mantle while on the hunt for a “real, grown-up piece of art”. But it’s hard to find original paintings in my price range! I’ll keep hunting though and hopefully will find something as pretty as yours.

    Reply

  26. Heather says

    HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! And I LOVE that painting. So pretty.

    And I think my husband wishes I had ‘nail head neurosis/phobia’. We’re in an apartment while we’re in Virginia (can someone tell me why a house here is twice what it would be in Charlotte (where we’re from)???) and the day we had all of the boxes unpacked I had my husband hanging about 30 picture frames.

    Eventually that wasn’t enough for me, and I started painting accent walls navy blue & bright purple (it’s not as horrible as I’m sure it sounds). I just couldn’t stand the naked walls, even knowing I’ll have to paint them back when I finally get over the sticker shock of real estate out here and buy a house.

    Reply

  27. Karen T. says

    That’s a beautiful painting, and it looks awesome in your house! I have a hard time putting holes in our walls too. I’ve started using the command picture hanging strips for most all my frames and canvases, and they work great!

    Reply

  28. Isabel says

    Happy Anniversary! That’s such a nice painting, LOVE the colors. I agree that art is a total game changer in a home but I’m too a victim of NHN (that should totally be an official ailment) My sister was born 7/7 so it’s a special date in my family too :) Husband and I were married 4/4/04 and I was born 4/14 so we’re very partial to the number 4 :) So far 2014 has been a very good year too!

    Reply

  29. Amber says

    Nail Hole Neurosis — Thank you for putting into words my exact condition. We had our house professionaly painted before moving in last month, and I haven’t been able to hang a single thing yet. Here’s hoping I can get over the condition soon… :)

    Reply

  30. Haley says

    “what’s seven?… A HAND AND TWO FINGERS!” *maniacal laughter*

    I think I find this as hilarious as Clara does. So cute!

    I took me seven years of living on my own to figure out that pictures and art hanging on the wall really makes it a home.

    Reply

  31. dylcia says

    What a great painting. I love it! Art for an anniversary is such a great idea. You will always look at it and remember why you got it and you’ll think of the amazing stage in your lives that you were on at that point. My husband and I both love art. So when we travel, instead of buying souvenirs that we will never use, we buy at least one piece of art from a local artist. I love looking at our walls and remembering all of the great memories that we created in that special place.

    Reply

  33. Liz says

    That’s so pretty! I noticed that a lot of your style is very “beachy”. Do you often wish you bought a more beachy style house as opposed to a colonial – or even lived on the beach?! We moved a couple years ago and I seem to have decorated our house as if it was deep in the country – and often wish we lived in a more rural area!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh man, we would love to live on the beach someday! Until then, we’re inspired by other light and airy colonials that we come across (there was an awesome one in House Beautiful a while back, and one of our neighbors has an awesome one too). I think as long as there’s a little bit of balance (like the trim and sidelights that feel very colonial), other things like art and accessories can skew a little more beachy/light if that’s the look you like most. For example in Teddy’s room his light is like a sea urchin, but there are built-ins and crown and paned windows that fit the colonial style :)

      xo
      s

  34. Jen says

    I just moved into my first house and I am definitely having nail hole neurosis. When I rented this never happened but it feel so much more permanent now. Glad to know it’s not just me!

    Reply

  36. heather says

    I spent a few hundred bucks to have two gorgeous 20+ year old watercolor paintings from my aunt professionally framed in beautiful solid oak framed with a bright white matte. Where are they now?

    Still wrapped in craft paper, under our staircase. Of our entire new addition not a single piece of art has been hung. There’s only one piece of art I know where I want to hang, and that’s an old railroad family riding form I have framed which I’ll hang above the toilet in our small master bathroom. At least that’s the idea. Once the bathroom’s done I’ll probably be like “oh…no….maybe not…”

    NAIL HOLE PARALYSIS.

    Reply

  37. Alyssa says

    Happy (belated) anniversary guys!! We are celebrating five this year (on 8-8!) and will be taking a trip to hawaii next spring! I love that painting it looks great in your foyer.

    Reply

  39. Iryna says

    Nail Hole Neurosis – haha, totally us too! We spent several months plastering and sanding the walls to get them as flat as possible so making 4 holes for our recently hung 2 pieces of art was scary! :) But so true, makes a huge difference!

    Reply

  40. Melissa says

    Happy Anniversary! Hubby and I just celebrated our tenth and while we always planned on taking a big trip…our new bundle kept us grounded this time around. Instead, we splurged on a funky aqua cabinet we adore and also plan to keep forever :)

    Reply

  41. Kelli says

    Love the painting! The color palette is so beautiful and summery! I have a suggestion for you. If you want to indulge both your love of art and all things beachy, you should visit southern California next summer! The Festival of Arts/ Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach is amazing! There are several exhibitions: the Sawdust Festival and Art A Fair, with the main attraction being the Festival of the Arts. You can soak up some rays and add to your art collection at the same time!
    Here is the link: http://www.foapom.com
    Happy Number 7! We will be celebrating number 34 on 7/12!

    Reply

  42. Shira says

    Hello,
    Happy Anniversary!! Loved this post. I have a question: you mentioned that you’d been admiring Teil’s work for a long time. How do you find out about the work of these artists you admire? (I mean, how do you find them in the first place?) Gallery shopping? Somehow with your busy lives I have a hard time imagining that, but maybe on vacations? Is there an art newsletter you subscribe to, or certain schools’ graduates you tend to watch out for? While I could comb etsy, somehow that doesn’t appeal to me, and I’d like to expand my own “palette” of artists that I know about/enjoy admiring from afar until the someday that I can buy them… :) Would love any advice.
    p.s. I think it’s awesome that your wedding anniversary present is something you can share in your home with your family and friends for decades to come. Cheers to you.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We have found both Samantha French and Teil Duncan in the most random ways! I think I saw something by Samantha French pinned a few years ago and repinned it to remind myself I love her work, and later we went back and looked at all of it. As for Teil, someone I follow on Instagram actually mentioned her a while back and I practically sprinted to her website. I’ve had the tab open to see what new paintings she adds each week for so long! It’s fun to refresh it each Monday :)

      xo
      s

  43. Asha says

    Happy Anniversary! Feels like yesterday I was just reading about your wedding and all that you DIY-Ed for the day (yep, long time follower!). Thanks for the ocean/ beach art inspiration. It’s good to look beyond the “waves & palm tree” scenes I equate with this type of art.

    Reply

  44. Melody says

    First, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY and kudos for splurging and not settling for this awesome painting.

    Thank you for this post because I, too, am a “I can’t nail into this new wall!” person. We recently moved into a rental house due to a move to a new state, and though we got bold with painting–I’m so scared to put up the first piece of art. I’m glad to know it’s not just me. I have some vaulted ceilings and I just don’t know *how* really, to fill it, or even where to start. But, I’m committed to at least doing the paper mock-up on the wall and get started. If it is awful, I DO know how to spackle. I have to remember this.

    Reply

  45. Carly says

    I love buying are for anniversaries. we’ve done it a time or 2. And it’s crazy what a huge difference hanging a few things can make.

    Reply

  46. BamaCarol says

    Love her stuff. I just bought Memorial Day as a print. When I travel I try to find a small piece of original art to take home as a reminder but loved the print of Memorial Day so much I just had to get it. It looks so serene in your hallway.

    Reply

  47. Cheryl says

    My parents are 7/7 anniversary peeps. They just celebrated 52 years. I’m sure you’ll get there some day as well. Happy anniversary. I really love the art!

    Reply

  49. Rachel says

    We celebrated our TWENTIETH anniversary yesterday with an earlybird dinner and a movie. (The grand Budapest hotel). I’d love an art collection but I’m afraid to commit to anything like that. And that fear of hanging things up is really real. I’ve got it. Took me 6 months to jump in and do our gallery wall. And we still have plenty of bare walls that need something…maybe some real art! Happy anniversary petersiks!

    Reply

  50. Carrie says

    As a military wife, I have to have NO FEAR when it comes to hanging stuff on the walls! We have made 8 moves (different cities!) in 11 1/3 years of marriage. If I wait too long to hang art, pictures, etc. it might never get done! It looks beautiful and you’ve inspired me to start shopping for my first “real” piece of art!

    Reply

Stuff We Love

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *