Sunday, July 24, 2011

Gallery wall: check!

I finally got something done I've been saying for weeks that I need to do: my gallery wall. I'm really happy with the balance and arrangement, and it's put together in a way that stuff can be added later. Check it out:





I didn't do it quite the way I'd intended. I read on Young House Love that they made a newspaper template for each frame, arranged the templates on the wall with painter's tape for the proper placement, then measured and nailed so that each frame would hang precisely over its template. Great idea in theory, but it wasn't visual enough of the actual finished product for me. I had a collection of mix'n'match frames, photos from 3 occasions, and black and whites to balance out. So I laid all the frames out on the floor behind the couch to see what they would look like, and moved frames around to get everything balanced: no alike frames next to each other, no pics from the same occasion next to each other. Then I called Dan over to see what he thought because he's got a great eye for balance. We only swapped two frames and then got to nailing.

The great part is that this project didn't cost me much. The four wedding photos were a gift from my mom. The three large 8x10's from our This is Life Photography shoot were framed with Michael's coupons for a total of about $45, most of which I used a gift card for. The remaining 6 frames were bought for $4.49 each at Target, and finished with $2.50 mats from Joann Fabrics. Not bad for a display that I'm pretty darn happy with.

7 comments:

TracyZLesh @ Then I Got To Thinking said...

It looks great! Want to come do mine in our bedroom? I have a blank wall that I need to do this with ;)

Dee Stephens said...

I'm with Tracy. Want to fly to Charlotte and do mine? Seriously..I've been talking about doing this up our hallway for a year now.
I'm just afraid!

donatelli98 said...

Looks good Buddy!

Amanda @ It's Blogworthy said...

Looks awesome! But my fav part? The saving $ stuff. I can't believe it basically cost you less than $100...actually might be less than $75 but its 3am and I don't do math this time of night ;)

JMJE said...

I was inspired by Young House Love also to do this. I did it in one of my bedrooms though like they did in their kid's nursery. Yours looks good.

Ally said...

OMG Brooke it turned out so good!!! You and Shana are really inspiring me to do this when I get back to GA! And when you walk down the hall, isn't it like your favorite place in the house now? The savings are not too shabby either! I love it when a plan comes together and for less than $100!!

Brooke said...

Thanks, all! Looks like I need to start booking trips around the country to do gallery walls. And yes, Ally, it's like one of my favorite spots in the house now, but then I feel weird because it's like "I love it here, because it's pictures of meeeeee!" And Amanda, it was $87, which was actually all paid for with birthday gift cards :)