The Gallery Wall...

First of all, blogger has changed their look.  You may not be able to see the change since it seems like it's all 'behind the scenes'.  Let me just say it's annoying.  Ok, that's all.

So I recently discovered Pinterest.  I act like it's such a new thing but in reality, I think it's been around for a while.  I kept hearing people talk about it and it sounded like such a dumb idea.  You 'pin' stuff?  What the heck is that?  If I wanted to have a huge pinboard, I'd make it myself!  I totally didn't get it.  Then one of my co-workers 'invited' me to join Pinterest.  For a long time I kept that invitation in my e-mail inbox and just stared at it.  It was like a giant booger hanging from your nose in public.  You know it's there but you just can't don't know what to do about it.

So I finally decided to check it out one day.  I seriously thought I'd try it once and hate it.  Uh, I loved it.  It took me a little time to figure out how to really use it for my benefit but once I did, it was a.d.d.i.c.t.i.v.e!  So one day I was wasting time searching for a new living room layout and came across a gallery wall.  What's this?  A large amount of pictures put in somewhat matching frames and arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way?  I loved it!  Click here  and here to see my faves.

So then the fun began.  I had to break the news to Joel that I was going to be majorly slightly redecorating the living room.  He was annoyed thrilled!  I showed him the pics from Pinterest and he just grimaced.  I will admit that it did seem like a lot of work.  Still, I wanted to try it.

Because of the remainder of our living room style, I knew I wanted all black frames.  I read a LOT of blogs about how to start your gallery wall, how to design it, how to choose frames.  There's a lot of information out there but the basics are the same.  First get your frames.  After a trip to Ikea, I realized that this was going to be a pricier endeavor than I wanted.  So then I had a brilliant idea.  Goodwill!  I raided Goodwill and Salvation Army for crappy ugly nasty used frames.  I didn't matter the color or design.  There's a magical item called spray paint that can cover even the worst of frame sins.  And there were a lot of them!  Seriously, some of these frames could have been found in my grandmother's house back in the 1950's.  There were a lot of wedding frames too.  Didn't matter.  As long as they were the size I wanted and still in decent shape (meaning the glass was intact and there weren't huge gouaches out of the frame) I could paint over anything.  It took a few weeks of raiding Goodwill and Salvation Army but I finally got what I wanted.  I also shopped the clearance shelves at Target and Walmart.  There were a few really nice frames in the ugliest of colors but a quick coat of paint and voila, all is forgiven.  There were a few frames that didn't have hanging hooks on the back.  For that we used Command strips specifically for hanging pictures.  There's velcro on them to you can take off the frame without ripping half the wall off.

I had to order some prints in 5x7 to fit some of the frames but I made sure to get frames that were both 4x6 and 5x7 to mix it up a bit.  It seemed like all the gallery walls I had researched also had some sort of words or letters mixed in.  So to Etsy I went.  I found some awesome stuff!  Click here and here to see what I got.  Amazing deals and the sellers were great to work with!  Apparently when this is your own business, you're nicer to your buyers.

So then it was time to begin.  Another hint just about everyone gave was to cut out paper matching the size of the frame so you can figure out how you want the frames arranged.  (also you can draw where the nail is going to go...a HUGE time saver!).  Here's how it looked...

Joel aligning everything.

The finished rough draft.  

After a few hours of pounding nails, leveling and re-leveling, this is how it turned out...

I love this!

Another view

And yet another view

So that's our living room redo.  Next up is Hannah's room.  She wants a 'butterfly room'.  I found some amazing ideas on Pinterest.  I'm getting in touch with my creative side.  :)