Monday, April 2, 2012

Gallery Wall

Posting has been slow lately.
Mostly because I am working on very few smaller projects.
Everything is a big project that takes time.

But I will show you the progress I have made on one project.

My Gallery Wall



I have no pictures in the frames yet.

But getting the frames hung them is great progress.

All of these frames are random old frames that I got at thrift shops.
I painted them all the same color - to give it a unified look.

I traced each frame onto newspaper, cut it out and then arranged the newspaper on the wall.

And it stayed that way for about 3 months.

You are reading this correctly, I had newspaper on my wall for 3 months.

Part of my procrastination was it has been cold and
I was trying to spray paint all of my frames.

The spray paint wasn't drying well and I had to re-do a few frames. 
I got discouraged.

Finally I decided to just paint them by hand.
I'm glad I did it. They turned out great, and painting them by hand
didn't take as long as I thought it would.

I have spray painted a few of the picture matts white.
Much cheaper then buying matts.

When I began hanging my frames I started out with a hammer and nail.
I tried that method where you hammer a nail into a paint stirring stick or clothespin
and then you can mark exactly where you what your hole....

It was no fun.

I had a few hung, but it was much more difficult then I thought it would be.

When my son knocked a frame off the wall while running down the stairs
I threw my hands up in frustration.

This was ridiculous! It wasn't working right and it was taking
F.O.R.E.V.E.R

I told my husband,
"I'm just going to have to do this the expensive way!"
And I grabbed my purse and headed out the door to wal-mart.

Where I picked up four boxed of these.

It cost a little over $30, but since I didn't spend a lot of money on frames,
I decided that it was ok to splurge on getting them hung right.

These are located in the hardware section by all of the hooks.
They are also at Lowe's or Target, or almost anywhere.


These are just little velcro type stickers that will come off your wall cleanly
when you want to remove them.

You put the two pieces of velcro on, remove the paper from the back,
place it, press it and done!

This was so much easier.
It took about 30 minutes to hang everything.  
The hammer and nail method would have taken hours.

Not to mention I would have a million holes in my wall.

I used 3 sets (6) velcro for all of the regular frames.
2 sets (4) for the light ones and 4 sets (8) for the heavier ones.

The best thing about it is my frames are spaced perfectly, and they don't move.

This is how I hung and spaced them.

I used our TV remote as a spacer so they were all equally spaced.

I put my level on top of the frame, adjusted it so it was level
and them I pressed the frame onto the wall.

As you can see I deviated a little from where the newspapers were placed, but not much.
Those were mostly only used so I knew I liked the basic design.


How did I get my remote to stay put?

Putty.

I'm going to fill a few frames with distressed mirrors like that one you can see below.
And the rest will be filled with family pictures.

I am really liking it so far.
The frames are staying put nicely and I like the layout I chose.

Now I need to get on the ball and order pictures to fill all of these frames.
How to decide!

Should my photos be black and white? Sepia? Antique? Regular?
What?

Tell me what you think.

Thanks,



15 comments:

Laura Railing said...

Oh goodness I love the layout!! We have a big wall in our place that could totally use some photos. You could also put kids' artwork in some of them (or do a smaller setup with artwork somewhere else. More work I know ;-) ) Those velcro strips are AWESOME aren't they?! I just got some for our place! They are so handy to put things up with.

-Laura

Clo said...

All of the above. Mix it up and hang a lot of family shots. The wall looks great! You are wonderful Rach!!!! G'ma

Ernstfamilyfun said...

I vote color! All your other colors are so neutral it would add some pop!

Teresa said...

Looks beautiful! I have to say even without any photos in the frames yet it looks stunning, a perfect layout, well done!

LYNDA QUINTERO-DAVIDS said...

VERY VERY clever using the remote as a spacer!!! LOVE it! Stairway galleries (IMO) are one of the most challenging to do - and you really did a GREAT job for your layout! I also like the softness of the look of the empty white frames. It's good to live with them empty for a while before deciding what to feature: travel, dreams, coastal details, trees, music, pets, quotes, fonts, family, flowers, fabrics or a combo of them all... The possibilities are endless! enJOY!

Happy Spring decorating!

xo Lynda

Unknown said...

I stopped by from the Friday blog hop and found your post. What a nice lay-out, and I love that you recycled old frames! I have to get to work hanging some pictures myself. Thanks for the inspiration!

Anonymous said...

It looks great already... even without anything in the frames! I love that you used a remote as a spacer!

Shabby chic Sandy said...

I love this! you did such a good job. I lover command products! I hope you will post again with pictures. I have a smaller portrait wall and everyone adores it who visits. Makes a house a home. I also love the name of your blog---though I have 2 boys and 2 girls and find that girls are much noisier!

I am just starting to work on a pet portrait wall too--

Happy Easter!

Jillian McKenzie said...

I absolutely love this!!! And will be referencing this post for later use. Thanks so much.

Jillian McKenzie said...

And I think you should use sepia, colored and black and white. I like the mixture of them all. But really, do what you want to do and it'll look great.

Marilyn Holeman said...

I'm visiting from Shabby Creek Cottage and was so excited to see this post. I started at the opposite side from you. I started with a bunch of photos (I am blessed to have a lot of black and white vintage family pictures) and started gathering frames from thrift stores, yard sales, etc. I have FINALLY just about finished getting them all put together, and am about ready to start on the "newspaper stage." I, too am putting my gallery on a staircase, so I'm a little nervous about placement, but yours looks great. Thanks for the tip about the command strips. I think it was Melissa from The Inspired Room who talked about putting poster putty or even rolls of tape on the bottom corners so they will stay secure as people go by. I hope you don't mind this long comment. Thanks for sharing!

Peggy said...

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

Mandy said...

Hi Rachael, I will be featuring your gallery wall tomorrow night at Project Queen's Highlight Party. Thank you so much for linking it up! I love it!!!!

Nicole said...

Hi, I love this project, but I am a bit confused...you hung the frames before putting photos in them? Will you have to take them down again to add the photos, or is there something I'm missing? I do love the command strips! They have worked well for me with other things in my house. Definitely want to spruce up our photo wall going ip the stairs, just wasn't sure if you did this in a way that you could easily take out and replace photos or not. Thanks for the help!

pamelajo said...

Absolutely beautiful. I am going frame shopping at the next yard sales.

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