I could have titled this so many things…how to take years of collected items and finally hang them on the wall, how to get what you’ve been wanting for 5 years in just 1 day…
But seriously since I shared the story behind the individual pieces yesterday, I wanted to share how they went from being individual pieces to being a gallery wall.
I literally took every frame and piece of artwork we own and played with arrangements on the floor until I got one I liked. I didn’t take pictures of each composition because I’m terrible at blogging I didn’t want to break my creative flow (yea that’s it). When I say composition, I mean looking at the spacing between frames, the grouping of different sizes, and the balance of old and new. I didn’t want all art/vintage on one side. Basically composing is all about finding a balance.
Once you find an arrangement you love, trace your frames. Make sure you label your too. After I traced this one, I labeled Rifle print. It will get all crazy if you forget to label.
Tape your traced frames on the wall to gauge how your arrangements looks in the actual space. Once I had this up, I felt like there was too much space between the frames in the last row.
I decided to add another frame up there. Notice the nice hot pink templates. Thank you west elm for providing these in your frames. It’s awesome and so are you. They even have the brackets marked making it all the more convenient. (As if you needed another reason to love west elm.)
Hammer some picture hanging hooks into the wall and voila you have your gallery wall. In case you were wondering here’s the breakdown of the frames from left to right, top to bottom: vintage (spray painted flat black), 8×10 west elm, vintage (spray painted flat black), antlers, 4×4 pottery barn, 4×6 west elm, target (I got on serious clearance and spray painted flat black, 8×10 pottery barn, 2 IKEA ribbas, and 5×7 pottery barn.
It’s a small gallery wall, but it completely warms up that space. It’s the same feeling of completion you get when you hang drapes. Not that the room is anywhere near done, but at least I can relish in another project down and a space inching towards completion.
I love the antlers and that little squirrel (is it?) on the top of the frame.
Yes our little brass squirrel. I’m sad to say we couldn’t keep him from jumping off the wall, so he now sits on my shelf until I can come up with a better solution!