I’m in the middle of removing wallpaper in the family room and it is literally coming off in tiny little pieces and driving me insane. (On the flip side, grasscloth came today!!!! It’s the circle of life.) Anyways, I needed a break so I worked on this weird little project instead. The problem was that our 1961 house had futuristic intercoms installed throughout it at one point in time. The only remaining one is at the front door, right here: 
When we got the house there was also a non-functioning unit in the guest bedroom, plus an empty cavity from another in the primary bedroom. We patched up the bedroom holes before we moved in but didn’t discover another hole out on the patio until a few months after, hidden behind a flowery-so-not-my-style thermometer the previous owners had left.
Obviously we need to patch the stucco at some point, but today is not that day. The goal was to cover this up with something interesting. I had trouble time finding anything that worked. Do you know that vintage starburst thermometers are pricey and hard to come by? So, that was out. I bought a mirror, it was way too big. I bought a mosaic, it was way too small. I tried a few pieces I had floating around the house, but all were too airy and showed the thing I was trying to hide. Round 5 brought me to this random $20 driftwood starburst at Homegoods. I think it’s actually supposed to be a wreath type decoration, the center is open, and it’s way more beachy/shabby-chic than I’d normally go. But the proportion seemed right and I liked the natural wood element, so I bought it. And it was just right.
Except the wreath hole wouldn’t cover the hole I was trying to cover.
While thinking about what to put in the middle, I was loving the semi-circle thing that was serendipitously going on up there, so I painted a scrap piece of masonite with orange and cream. 
I made a teardrop shaped stencil from cardboard and experimented with their placement (should have busted out the protractor), and came up with something that works!
Old patio intercom hole is covered.
SUBURBAN * POP 