Gallery

I have this one wall. It's hosted a bookshelf and a painting or two. But I never quite knew what to do with it. So after Pinteresting around, I realized immediately that I should do the gallery wall that I've often thought of.

I knew it didn't want it too matchy.

And I knew I did want some pops of color.

So I first started hunting for frames. I quickly built up my collection, and even bought a couple too many (those are going back tomorrow) None of the frames I used were more than $10. And most of them were closer to $5. Thank you Marshall's and TJ Maxx! So this was a cheap project with a big payoff.

The first thing I did was create a photo that would be eye-catching and right in the middle of the pack, to anchor the whole thing. So I spent about 3 minutes in PhotoShop making this and had it blown up to a 16x20:

100% my original

Cute, right? Then I got inspired by (read: copied) a few other wordy things I've seen around the internet to throw into the mix.

100% not my original

The hardest part was choosing the pictures I wanted to display.

So. Many. Pictures.

So I decided to keep them within this last year. As Stephen grows, I can change out the pictures for that year maybe? Or I can add to the wall, since there's a little room to expand on top and bottom. But for now 2011 was all I could deal with. Also choosing what pictures would go in which frame took a good amount of time. Once I decided, I uploaded all the photos that needed to be printed to Costco.com and they were ready the next morning (and only cost me about $25)

Then I googled "How to make a gallery wall". This tutorial was my favorite. There were a couple tips that were quite helpful. I will share them with you, lucky! Like using masking paper instead of butcher paper (so much cheaper!) Also, once you trace all your frames, label them with the photo/size so you get an idea what you're looking at when they're up on the wall. All that brown paper and blue tape start running together after awhile. The tutorial also recommends a laser pointer, but my frames didn't need to line up perfectly, so I did that part by eye.

Stephen napped as I nailed the frames in (unbelievable) and woke up when I crumpled a piece of masking paper (unbelievable) but about $100 later and within just a couple days... VOILA!

My gallery wall is a reality. Hooray! It really adds so much to the house. I can't stop looking at it. And I'm going to hug my wall before I go to bed.