How to make a backdrop from hay loft scraps...

Hey ya'll:

When I launched www.ettegirl.com an entire...um...two weeks ago, I scouted around for some feedback.  The honest kind.  And I got it.  In the form of, "your pictures are a little flat".  And this was true: I had thrown them together with my iPhone, and half of them had a wall outlet in the corner of the picture (eek).

It was time to get busy.

I searched around on-line for backdrops, but everything seemed a bit ... staged.  Not to mention, I was looking for a more immediate solution.  

Then I had a moment of recollection.  

We live in an old house.  So old, our current garage was formerly a barn.
(There remains a hay chute in one corner of the garage, and doors that at one point admitted a horse drawn carriage).  Years of various renovations have resulted in the accumulation of random wood boards in what was the hay loft.   

Eureka!

With the help of a friend, we sorted through the old boards.  I had a vision of perfectly matched, smooth wood, but what we found was a bit more ... rough and random.   Plus, there wasn't enough of any one version to make a cohesive set.  

We decided to put together a slapdash assortment, and it came out like this:

It was quite painterly.  I was momentarily temped to hang it on the wall as an art piece. No kidding.  

And as amazing as it was in this form, in the end I opted to give it a proper whitewashing.

                                After which I made my trusty assistant pose for the test shot.

And then:

Check out the new pictures on the Ette Girl site.

Up next, some of the better outtakes from Ette Girl's first official shoot using the new (old) backdrop.

For more DIY inspiration, check these out.

Until soon!

Nina