Jesse and I love living near Richmond. When we go on trips to other cities, we feel such a joy and relief when we come back to our little city. It’s the perfect size, and with the ever growing campus of VCU and the “hipster” culture, it’s a really neat city. Jesse and I have a lot of special memories in and around the city too. There are so many things to see and do that we could always find a way to have a free, or super cheap, date (we were in college and BROKE when we were dating). I figured that with all of this RVA love, we needed to represent our city on our gallery wall in the bedroom in a fun way. Enter the R. (Ignore the black paint, I got started before I snapped a picture.)
When I picked up the letters for Erin and Gabbi’s Pass It On Projects I also grabbed an R for me, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Then one night when we were hanging out downtown, inspiration struck! I could cover the R with pictures of our favorite spots in and around our beloved city, after all R stands for Rowlands and Richmond! 
I started by painting my R all black so the spaces between pictures would look a little more seamless. Then I searched online for pictures in and around the city that I liked, or that had meaning to Jesse and I. These pictures are not my own, I just did a Google search.
A view of the city at night, since that’s when we are there the most. (via)
A picture of a bridge on the James River. (via)
Main Street Station – We’ve walked around and taken pictures here before (more on that here). (via)
The James River by Belle Isle, Richmonders love to come out here and climb/sit on the rocks. Young House Love recently posted about Belle Isle actually! (via)
The Bellwood Club is on the Southside of the city and is where Jesse and I got married. (More on our wedding here). (via)
This is a view of the James from Henricus Historical Park, also located south of the city (where we were supposed to get married). (via)
Last is the 17th Street Farmers Market. We’ve been here a number of times and love the atmosphere. (via)
Back to the craft part of this post, I printed all of these pictures in black and white and cut them to size so they would fit on my R. Then I slathered everything in Modge Podge and waited for it to dry. Once dry I hot glued some silver ribbon to the back and hung it on our gallery wall! Easy as pie! (The frozen kind at the grocery store, not from scratch because that’s not so easy)
Now the wall needs some darker prints for the other side to balance things out, but overall I love the way it looks! And because I love it so much, here are some more pictures!
Do you have any art that reflects your love for where you live? Or do you hate your town? (I used to before I moved away for college and came back).
This is adorable! It’s sweet that you covered it in pics that are special to you.
Is the R Black & White, or is is Purple? (My monitor at work is horrible with colors)
It’s supposed to be black and white, but the Modge Podge gave it a bit of a purple tint. The computer definitely makes it worse though!
Super cute. This might be one of my favorite projects you’ve done!
So creative! I love that you covered it in places that mean a lot to you…great job!
Super creative idea! I love that it’s of places that mean something to the two of you. I love the town we grew up in and I like our town now (we moved about 40 minutes away from our home town when we bought our first house) so I understand loving where you live. I think it’s important.
I absolutely love this! Totally pinning it.
This is so fun (and I sort of like the purple tint!). I’m currently designing a Staten Island print (glamorous, I know) and just need to finish doing some tweaking. I can’t wait to hang it!
So cute! What a great idea. I wish I could do this but alas my last name doesn’t start with a W…(and neither does Kevin’s).
I love this idea! My husband and I met in college and I would love to do this, maybe with all three letters (OSU)? So creative and cute!
What a great idea! I like how you used photos of the places that you like the best.
So cute! I love personal artwork and showing some love for your city/town
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What a cool idea! I love that the letter represents your city and your name. Perfect addition to your gallery wall!
i hear great things about your city
! i think it’s great to represent it in your decor! we don’t really live in a city per se, but we love doing gallery walls with photos we have taken in cities that we love!
Your R came out great! Love your idea to cover it in pictures of places in Richmond that are special to you. That’s the best thing about DIY projects, you can make them totally personal
Love this concept! I’ve been wanting to try the whole monogram with pictures idea since I saw it on Pinterest… but I keep not doing it because I know whatever family pictures I use would be old soon, & I wouldn’t want to keep redoing it lol. But this is a whole new take on it… might just have to try it out after all!
What a fabulous idea! I love this! Thanks so much for sharing.
We made a frame with tickets from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival shows we have been to for our gallery wall. http://madeinmorningside.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/making-personalised-art.html it sits next to a quote about Edinburgh, a random picture of our tenement block which we found in a tourist shop, a postcard with a picture of our old flat and a print of Edinburgh. So yeah our picture wall has got a lot of Edinburgh lovin going on.
Hi Ashley, I love coming across bloggers who live in Va. I’m actually not that far from you. I live near Fredericksburg. I have yet to actually visit Richmond but I plan to this summer.
I just found your blog from YHL and I live in Richmond too! My husband and I just moved here! Well… just as is last summer but it still feels new to me. I’m glad to say I’ve been to most of the places you mentioned – we live near the river. We’ll be here for another 2 years at least.
I love the collage look and that it had your wedding spots on it! Too cute. I wish I didn’t hate driving in Richmond so much, or I’d probably enjoy it more.
Love this idea! It turned out so cool.
That’s a fantastic idea. Richmond is a lovely city; my sister lived there for a while. The paddleboat tour down the James and the Edgar Allen Poe museum were two of our favorite things to do when visiting.
What a cute idea! I may have to copy that. It’s a craft that I can do. lol
That’s really cool! I’ll have to remember this!