I’m slowly but surely making progress on my apartment—and since I am here pretty much all day, every day, I want to make sure everything I am adding to my space is something I truly love. There are a lot of projects around my 750 square feet I want to do— but (sadly!) I am not made of money and would rather take my time and invest in things that will last for a long while, so I am taking my time with decisions.

The next big thing I want to purchase for my apartment is patio furniture for my balcony! One of the main reasons I moved was to have access to my own outdoor space and I cannot wait for warmer weather to come back so I can enjoy my outdoor space with friends and family. I also would love to get a new bed frame and mattress this year—I currently have a full and would love to upgrade to a queen.

But today, I am here to report on something I’ve been working on since late October—finding the perfect piece of art to hang above my couch! I usually wait for art to find me versus seeking it out, but the space above my couch is something you can see pretty much from every vantage point in my main living area and it just felt so empty without anything there. So one Sunday afternoon, I sat down on my couch, put on cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies a bit out of season, and went down the rabbit hole of so many websites to try to find the perfect art for this space—Artfully Walls, One Kings Lane, Serena & Lily, Well & Wonder, Perigold, Pinterest, random interior design blogs.

I found the perfect piece of art—this painting from Kayce Hughes. The only problem? It was $6,000 and that definitely was not in my budget, hah! But it gave me good inspiration—I knew I wanted something really calming with soft lines, and I loved the idea of bringing in a light blue color as it plays nicely with the rest of my decor. Once I had a vision, it was a lot easier to poke around on Google and find pieces that fit what I was looking for. A challenge I kept running into was finding art that was large enough to fill the space.

When I stumbled upon this Set Sail Watercolor Print on Joss & Main about four hours after I initially set down to look for art, I was sold! I bought the largest size (by width) available, 30 x 40″, in a gold frame. Ideally, I would have loved this piece to be slightly larger, but I think it still fits the space nicely—and after searching the internet high and low, I knew it was the art I loved the most.

(If you’re looking for links for other products shown in these photos, you can find my desk + green desk chair here, counter stools here, and pretty much everything else here. If you can’t find something you’re looking for, feel free to email me: katie@atouchofteal.com)

I was especially excited to find this piece because there is nothing that brings me more joy than spending time on the water. My childhood vacations were all spent on a Carolina shore. I loved waking up each day on our beach trips and being able to look out at the horizon to see where the ocean meets the sky. Bringing a watercolor view of this horizon into my daily surroundings is meaningful to me, and so while I am not usually the type to buy my art at a mass retailer like Joss & Main—I love framing wallpaper, finding art on travels, or supporting a smaller artist/shop—in this case, I am glad I did.

However, one thing I do want to flag is that when I ordered this Set Sail Watercolor Print, I was really disappointed with the frame. I think Joss & Main is drop shipping this print from another vendor and when I received my art, it was so poorly packaged that the cheap frame had broke in transit. (I know it was a cheap frame because the hardware wasn’t even attached—you have to attach it yourself.) Joss & Main offered to send me a replacement no problem, and when that one arrived, it had the same issue—the frame was broken. As such, BUYER BEWARE!

Given how long I searched for art for this space, I really wanted to make these sailboats work, so I took the art out of the frame and re-framed it in the Framebridge Georgetown frame. Unlike Joss & Main, Framebridge packages art so well when shipping it to you that it arrived back to me in perfect condition. I love how it turned out! (You can read all about my experience with Framebridge and a roundup of my favorite Framebridge frames here.)

One thing I will flag is that because this frame is perpendicular to a window, certain times of day, there is a lot of glare on the art. While Framebridge does use UV protected acrylic, I think it’s just one of those things you can’t avoid. I wanted to show this angle in case you’re in a similar boat as it was something I was initially annoyed by, but now don’t even notice.

While my dad often helps me hang my art, my sister and I did this one after a morning spent drinking mimosas. Despite that, I am happy to report it’s still securely on the wall ;). You can read the best tip I’ve ever gotten about hanging art on the wall in this post—most people hang their art far too high!