Gallery Wall

Again - I just finished a project that wasn't even on my 2011 Home Goals List OR my Summer to-do list!

Can somebody please pass me an Adderall?

I went to Ikea twice this summer and just randomly grabbed a handful of Ikea Ribba frames in different sizes.  I also started cleaning up our office and storing all of our random frames in the closet.  After assessing the situation, I realized that I had a butt-ton of frames! 

See, my dad owned a family business.  It just happened to be a frame shop.  Let me tell you, we had everything framed in our house.  If I got a new softball trophy, a picture was framed.  I went on my senior trip, he framed a group shot.  We went to a museum, the picture of the exhibit went behind glass.  I loved this!!!  Well, some things I kept in the frames and others came out.  Needless to say, it was obvious a gallery wall needed to happen.

Here was my blank slate.  This is our hallway.  You are standing in the living room.  As you walk past the laundry room (on the right) and the guest bedroom (on the left), you will come to this dead end with the garage door and basement door to the left and our master bedroom, office and bathroom to the right.  Notice how lovely it is with the attic light switch, electrical outlet and some other random cover that looks to serve no purpose.

One night, I sat in front of the T.V. and cut out newspaper/sales flyer templates for each of the frames I had.  I also wrote on the template what size frame it was or some other detail about the frame to help me match it up later.  The next day, I taped my inspiration photos to the basement door and started placing the templates on the wall.

My tips would be....

1) Place your larger templates first.  Those will be the hardest to move later.  Just think about filling in with the smaller frames.

2) Cover any uglies.  I would do this first.  If you notice in the picture, I placed the large templates first.  I immediately went back and covered the attic switch and adjusted the larger frame farther to the left.  Switch these steps when you do them!

Here was my final placement:

And my homework:

That night, I primed about 11 frames that weren't white and got up the next morning and high gloss whited them (yep, that's a verb).

The next step was to start hanging everything.  Again, go in the same order.  Hang over the uglies first.  Start hanging your larger frames next.

Next, hang your medium frames and work on filling in all gaps.

Here is where I would just eyeball it.  Since I already had my large frames up (and wasn't moving those!), I just tweaked the placement of the medium frames in between them to even out the random spacing some.

(hhmmm...clearly, I can't remember the linear process.  I guess I placed everything on the wall and then sprayed them).

Here you can see how easy it is to make changes.  Thanks to the digital camera, I could just put both up, snap a picture and compare.  I didn't have to pull Rusty away from Angry Birds to get his opinion!

And I am a husband's nightmare.  I am good enough with eyeballing!  Seriously, Rusty stayed away during this project.  I seriously nailed right through the templates, hung the frame and ripped the paper out from behind it on the larger frames.  For the medium and other fill in frames, I used the trick above.  Just dab on a little toothpaste where the middle is and press it against the wall where you want it!  The wall went up in no time, and I have no regrets. 

Here are all of my final pictures!

Notice how I tied the outlet in?  I just took the glass out of a frame!

And just a few close ups of some frames that have something in them....

My "Owl Love You Forever" Etsy art, a fight night card that Rusty was on, the Kipling poem "If" that my dad framed for me when I was a teen and a $5 piece of Ikea art.

A newspaper clipping and article, my keys in a shaddow box and a wedding photo of us running to his truck (this covers the light switch...which, btw, Ribba frames are great for since they have hollow backs!).

A gallery within a gallery wall and a Robert E. Lee print that my grandfather framed when they first opened the business.  It's a family thing, you wouldn't understand, lol!  The tradition continues.

Well, the wall has been finished for a few days now.  I believe this was the most impulsive project I have done yet!  This has also been the project that I have not had one little piece of regret on.  I haven't even switched up any of the frame placements!  I love it.

I also formed an opinion.  If you want a cleaner look, go for larger spaces between larger frames.  In areas where I put too many frames that were 4x6 or smaller, the wall started to take a cluttered look.

Now to go and fill the rest of the empty frames....

P.S. - Dad, don't worry.  Lee is facing South.  I downloaded an app to double check!

I'm linking up to Home Stories A to Z, Coastal Charm, Ladybug Blessings, Sugar Bee Crafts, Giggles, Glitz and Glam, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Blue Cricket Design, Sew Much Ado, Night Owl Crafting, Someday Crafts, Gingersnap Crafts, My Repurposed Life, The Shabby Nest, Funky Junk, Spunky Junky, KoJo Designs, Vintage Revivals, Remodelaholic