Conquering The Great Wall

OK this post isn't about conquering the actual Great Wall.  But the wall in our Study felt nearly as daunting!  With high ceilings and no windows, it has A LOT of wall space!  All we had to fill the room were two scrawny desks that look even scrawnier in this room.

Study (east & south walls) - Before

So, I started where I always start when feeling a little overwhelmed... looking for inspiration!  While combing through magazines and online, I kept my goals in mind: I don't want to spend much (or any!) dough on this solution.  So, I need to use what we have (mostly small scale stuff) to fill a large space (usually requiring large-scale items).  Remember I'm staging this room so it needs to look well-proportioned, unified, and not too cluttered or scattered.  Here's what I found:

Inspiration Picture (From Pottery Barn Catalog Fall 2010, page 58)

Here's what I love about it:  The colors - a mix of black & white with the warm accents of gold, burlap & wood. The ingredients - the mix of frames on the wall, boxes on the floor, and tall & short elements on the table. All these ingredients work together to trick the eye.  Instead of seeing a bunch of small things, it registers as one large cohesive focal point.  Yep, I'm copying this one!  And here's what I came up with:

Study (south wall) - After

Using what we had, I followed a loose theme to keep the look unified: black & white prints (mostly of architectural structures) with warm tones in the wood accents & the gold "M".  I have a few things to tweak... including finding tall galvanized bucket or wire basket to hold my blueprints (like the one in the right corner of the inspiration picture).  But the wall is pretty much conquered!  On to the next space... stay tuned!