Anatomy of a DIY Gallery Wall

Hi friends!

Spring has sprung!!!!
We might be a little too excited about it here. My 5 year old announced on the way to the car this morning that she was so happy "it's summer!" :-) 

Today I want to share a recent home update I took on.  I have been slowly revamping our living room. We have an older, bungalow style home, without a foyer. Our front door opens right into our living room. 

And the wall where our couch sits is the first thing people see when they come to our home.  I had been given a beautiful, large art print which we enjoyed for a while, but I thought it was time for a refresh, and I wanted the space to really speak to us and who we are.

Over several months, I've been collecting items for this gallery. And it just needed one final trip to the home decor/craft store to pick up the last few things to really pull it together and finish it.
It took me a whole day to hang everything. But now that it's complete, I wanted to share how I went about collecting the items, what I looked for, and what I ended up using.

I numbered the things on my wall, and I'll explain each item and why I chose to include it.

Here we go!

1. Portrait of my kids, from a couple of years ago. I love this picture. And it's a close up, which means it's a good option for something at the top of the wall. It shows up from far away. 

2. A print of a geological map of the part of Minnesota where my Father-In-Law was born and raised. I believe I searched eBay for this. It's a link to our family's past, something that's important for us to pass on to our kids.  And it's an easy way to get Papa Mike to start telling stories about when he was young. :-) 

3. Snapshot of the hotel where my husband and I stayed on our trip to Florence, Italy.  It was the most amazing trip of my life, and we went to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Super special.
I put it in a frame with a fancy kind of design on it. I bought two of the exact same frames, for continuity. The next one is used in item 7. I bought them at Hobby Lobby.

4. Plaster-type round empty frame.  I picked this up at Hobby Lobby also. I wasn't totally sure how I was going to incorporate it.  I like it because it's got great texture and is a nice round shape, to break up all the squares and rectangles on the wall.  I ended up using it as a backdrop to hang a small letter T in front of it.  

The letters all came from Hobby Lobby. The black T is a metal piece that hangs from a ribbon.  I hung the frame first, then put a nail right above it to hang the letter. I just played with the things I had bought until I came up with a combination I liked. 

5. Subway art I made myself, with special attractions and things that are unique to this area, where I grew up.  Anyone can do this.  I used a wall hanging that I bought at the thrift store, painted black, and then painted on the words I wanted with white craft paint, freehand. You could stencil words, or make a collage online on a site like PicMonkey.com.

6. Photo of me, my two sisters and my mom, all with our wedding rings on our hand, the day my youngest sister got married.  Very very special to me, and a pretty shot, too. The flowers and hands soften up a wall with a lot of black and white on it. It's a square shape, and kind of smaller, which I liked. My sister gave it to me framed.

7. Another snapshot from our trip to Italy, the day we went out into wine country. Best. Day. Ever. The frame matches the frame in number 3.

8. 3-D letters that are my first initial, an ampersand sign, and my husband's first initial. 

9. Picture of our first dance. We've had this for, well, over ten years now. I believe in keeping your wedding photos out - it's the basis for who we are as a family! It's in a slightly distressed black frame and basic white mat.

10. Original oil painting on canvas, in an old wood frame. This was a gift from a family member, and it also reminds us of Italy.  It brings some color and texture to the gallery. Important to break up the monotone colors.

11. Print of the State of Kentucky, that I got from one of the daily-deals-type sites. I bought it months ago and have just been holding onto it. It's in an old gold-tone frame with scroll designs on it, that came from the thrift store...again, months ago.  You might not think to put a frame like this in with all the black ones. I think it keeps it all fresh and adds to the eclectic vibe I wanted.

12. 3-D letter T, that is covered with burlap on the front. There are three letter T's in this grouping. I wasn't sure if I was going to use them all together, but I grabbed them, and played with it until I liked it.  If you shop somewhere you can return things, I say in this kind of case, buy them, and if you don't like them, return them.  You never know what you might like up on the wall.

13. Photograph of the Calatrava, the unique and beautiful waterfront building in Milwaukee that houses the Milwaukee Art Museum.  Matt's parents live in Milwaukee and this is one of their very favorite places to go.  Matt and I also met in Milwaukee :-) I bought it on Etsy and framed it in a clean, dark wood frame with a white mat.  To be honest, I can't really explain why I chose a brown frame over a black.  I like the tone of the wood, and we have a lot of brown in the house (hardwood floors, leather chair across from this gallery wall) and I think it helps the wall tie in with all that.
I'd highly suggest looking on places like Etsy for art photography from places that are special to you. There are some wonderful options out there, and you can support local artists. Our print came matted for $18.

14. Pair of horseshoe shaped wall hooks. Or at least that's what I think they are. :-) I found these at my favorite thrift store, maybe a year ago. I grabbed them as soon as I saw them.  We live in Kentucky and this is horse country! I have no idea where they came from, but they spoke to me. They're black metal, and they really make a statement, I think. No one has the same pair, that I know of yet!

15. Portrait of my kids from a couple of years ago. I love this picture, that a good friend took. 

16. DIY letter T art with a chevron background. I made this from an old wall hanging we had, that I was done with. Painted it and put our initial in the middle. Free!

17. Portrait of our family. It was taken the same session as the photo in number 15.

:-)

There you have it.

Here is what I learned in putting this wall together.

First - start collecting. The more variety of places you can look, the better, thrift shops, yard sales, online, department stores, craft and hobby stores... just keep your eyes open for something that speaks to you. If you like it, grab it.

Second - include some variety into the grouping.  Texture, color, size, shape, medium (i.e. photograph, painting, etc.) This is what keeps the eye interested and moving around the wall.

Third - eclectic doesn't have to mean scatter-brained or completely haphazard, and if you have a little Type A in you, "eclectic" might stress you out a little. Don't let it. You don't have to have one of every kind of frame there is. Repeating a choice is a way to keep the collection feeling cohesive.

Fourth - symmetry. This is just personal preference. There are plenty of ways to arrange your wall. But if you are anxious about how it might turn out, or you prefer a more calm aesthetic, instead of a really random, mismatched group of things, it is perfectly OK to arrange the gallery in a symmetrical fashion. 

If you look at how I laid things out, you can see there is a general balance from one side to another. To that end, a simple way to organize the pieces is to align the pieces in some way.

The three pieces I have in the center of this wall are all about the same width (this was just dumb luck but you could certainly plan it that way. They form a nice, neat column from top to bottom.

The middle row of frames is all aligned with the bottom of my subway art. Everything else sort of filled itself in from there.

After months of collecting, and hours of shopping, planning, and hanging, I finally have a focal feature in the room where people enter my home. It's unique. It's eye-catching. It's US.  And it was SO worth it!

Hope this inspires you.
Let me know if you do a gallery wall of your own!

XO,
Anne

What I'd Buy on Craigslist this Week

It's almost the end of the year.  Hard to believe.  And there seems to be a lot of people who have things they want to get rid of, because Craigslist has been smokin' hot this week!

I'll get right to it.

1. This settee.  $60

I know I've included settees before on the blog, and explained why, so I won't do that again, but I included this piece for a different reason (besides the fact that I just plain like it - excellent lines and very pretty wood carvings on the back.)
If you look carefully at the post, you might notice that the seller spelled settee wrong.  I'm not trying to harp on anyone's grammar or spelling, because that's not why I'm here, but I point it out to you to because it may hurt the seller's chances of finding a buyer. If someone is indeed searching for a settee, they very well may not find this listing. That may mean you have an advantage as a buyer.  And likewise, if you're selling, use spell check! (This goes for eBay, too.)

2. This vanity… is awesome. It is so so so pretty. And $50!!

You'd need to reconstruct the seat, but it would be equally as lovely in a grown woman's room as it would in a little girl's.  I love how petite looking it is and just classic with beautiful hardware and those vintage casters.
And here's a little secret -  I did actually buy it on Craigslist this week this for someone special! (I'll share more later on that)

My Dad and I are going to refinish it for my sister for her birthday in March! I'm already looking at finish options.
White with a dark stained top?

Or red? I'm getting ready to buy a quart of Annie Sloan Emperor's Silk which would be gorgeous…and my sister is the "red" girl so she would love this.

Lots of fun. My parents and I sort of raced over to the seller's house because he said he had someone else coming to look at it. No way was I letting this one get away. Can't wait to get started on it.

3. This is something I haven't seen before. It looks like an old table that would have been in a hospital, perhaps?

I'm assuming it also lays flat. That opens up possibilities for this piece. What about making it the bedside table in your guest room?  This woman found one and put it to work as an end table in the living room.

So cool! Or you could give your child who is studying an instrument a place to put his or her sheet music. It's just a great conversation piece. They're asking $100.

4. Here's a piece that has an issue.

It's an awesome old dresser but it's missing a drawer. What to do?
For $75 here's what you do. Buy it. And then you get creative.
Like this piece from Sweet Pickins

Or this piece

Or this piece from Shabby Story.

5. When I saw this piece, pinned to someone's board, I fell in love.

Of course, it's Pottery Barn Teen and a gazillion dollars. *eye roll*  Nonetheless, this is sort of a dream project for me. I would love to put this in my daughter's room, which is the smallest bedroom in our house, where floor space is at a premium.
So when I saw these on Craigslist, you can imagine…the wheels started turning.

For $100 you could do so much with these!! They would work equally as well for either a boy or a girl.
And they are solid wood. Amazing. You just don't run across stuff like this every day. I just don't know if I can take on a project of this size right now……hmm….

That's it for 2013!
Thank you for sharing part of your lives with me here, even if it is just a little bit.
I feel blessed and lucky to do what I love.

May health and happiness be yours in the New Year.

XO,
Anne
PS - As always, if you buy from Craigslist be careful and take a friend with you. I can't vouch for these sellers or their items.  If you end up buying any of these, please let me know!

What I'd buy on Craigslist this week

Hi friends!
You know I love Craigslist, probably more than the average bear.  It is a treasure trove of things just waiting to be reinvented, or used again.  As always remember that safety is the most important thing when shopping Craigslist!!  Be smart and safe and always take someone with you if you are picking an item up, and make sure someone knows where you are going and who you are expecting to meet.  That said, I don't know any of the people selling these items.  I haven't seen any of them in person.  So if you want to buy one of these things, just know I can't personally vouch for them.  But I would buy each of them myself if I could. :-)

1.  It's not furniture.  But it's adorable and vintage and would look fantastic sitting on a table in a hallway somewhere.  Add a vase of flowers.  Be tempted to start that novel you've been meaning to write (this thing still works!)  Hint: if you're not the novel-penning type, get a cool piece of card stock.  Type out a page full of "Happy Birthday from the Smiths," cut them up, tie them on to gifts and look COOL.

2.  Run.  Do not walk.  And someone please go buy this chair.  Why, you ask?

Because you paint it a gorgeous creamy white, and join the ranks of happy people everywhere who have cheated the Pottery Barn Gods by stealing a look of theirs FOR $300 LESS.

3.  Fuzzy picture.  Clear winner.  This coffee table has loads of character, storage, and leaves you can pull up for more space with guests or with the kids to play a board game.

Paint it and show off all the great detail (like this one that looks like it sold for $225 on Etsy although the link is broken.)

4.  Find a cozy corner of your home, fill it with books, a blanket, and this chair.

Or this one.

But first, give it a fresh blue and red color scheme. Gorgeous, right?

5. Ok this last one requires a little imagination. But it would be a conversation piece for sure!
Pick up this unique side table.

Paint the body of it white like this one.

Then paint the faux book spines a soft beige, or mod podge some burlap onto them. Grab a stencil and some white paint.  Stay with me.
You would hopefully end up with a look like this on the spines:

Would that not be cool?!
I hope you can see that in your head as I can.

Now get out there and make something awesome!!

XO,
Anne

Homerun! (baseball room reveal)

My oldest turned 7 over the summer and we moved shortly before that.  All in all, it was time for some new room decor.  His first "big boy" room was transportation themed and he loved it.  So did I.  But times change, and so we moved on to bigger and better things.

There are two major caveats that I should throw out there that made this room possible.  My awesome in-laws downsized, and we were the beneficiaries - very nice furniture.  We inherited:  a full size metal headboard and bed frame from Room and Board (similar to this), a dresser from Room and Board (similar to this), as well as a desk, nightstand, and two lamps.

He fell in love with baseball, so I set about giving him a slugger's space. (I took this pic in our backyard.)

Almost everything was found on the cheap. It took most of the summer, hitting yard sales, checking out eBay and Etsy, combing through Craiglist, and sifting through piles at my favorite thrift store.  I also worked online sales sites like Groupon.

We did grab in a new duvet cover, a simple navy and white stripe. (Found at Target, here)

The first thing I did was embroider a little design on one of his pillowcases.  He's a fan of both the Cincinnati Reds as well as the Milwaukee Brewers.  So with some embroidery floss, I stitched this on by hand.  Easy peasy.  It's washed up fine, too. (Like the wrinkled pillowcase?  Just keepin' it real, folks.)

I scored this shelf on Craigslist for $5.  Is it heirloom quality stuff? No.  It's plastic. But it fit our theme, and our colors so I added it.  It's a home for bobbleheads, little league trophies, and keepsakes from the pro games he's been to.

One of the lamps my in-laws gave us had this great, rectangular shaped shade.  It begged for a design.  I found a Babe Ruth quote, grabbed a paint pen, Googled a baseball-ish font, and 15 minutes later, had this:

This baseball mitt wall shelf was a thrift store find, and it holds a bat and a ball.

My Dad and I went to an estate sale, and in the barn/garage there was a big bucket of scrap wood.  I think we paid $5 for it all.  There were two different colors of painted wood, and as soon as I saw them I thought, "Those look like fence posts."  Instantly I remembered seeing a cute baseball sign about "swinging for the fences."  My Dad nailed them together for me and added a hanger.  I used my craft paints to add the slogan.  Done.

I found a vintage Cracker Jack tin at the Worlds Longest Yard Sale in August.

 I also grabbed some old baseballs and a bat there.  I sat the balls up on the ledge over his closet door.

I had a plain beige throw pillow from my in-laws so I painted on the word "baseball."

This wood caddy was another thrift store find.  I added the Brewers logo - using this technique. It's a place for him to store his baseball cards, game programs, etc.

I used stencils to add a sweet little detail onto the door to his room, to remind him that you should have something to aim for (Cooperstown is where the Baseball Hall of Fame is.  The mileage is the distance from our house to Cooperstown.)  It took 15 minutes but it makes me smile whenever I walk by...

This Reds poster was a find on Freecycle - which, if you haven't checked out, you should.  People post things they would like to get rid of, and if you want it, you email and ask and if you're first, you get it.  Free.  The letter B was from his old room, spray painted to match.  I think it originally came from HomeGoods.

We had a Groupon to a wall mural company, and Brady picked out this pic of Miller Park in Milwaukee.  From left to right, the Ryan Braun canvas was a birthday gift from a relative, the game towel was another gift, and the Brewers sign was an eBay win.

We added a mirror from our stash, at his height instead of above the dresser where you would normally put a mirror.   It's his room, and I want it to be something he can use when he needs to.  Then we added four double-pronged hooks to give all those baseball caps a place to live.  I didn't worry about screwing them into studs because they will only be holding hats.

I've saved the best for last.  At a charity auction, my husband did something he almost never does.  He bid on something!  And not something little.  No, he bid on a custom painted wall mural done by a local artist.  And he won!  We knew right away which room this would be going in. :-)  My son chose a scene from Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.  Keep in mind, we had done the rest of his room on a budget, so this was definitely our big splurge.  It took four whole days of painting (artist's website here).  But in the end, the result is a stunning, inspiring scene that makes this little boy's room an absolute home run!

If you are working on making over a room, my advice would be:

Take some time and search as many places as you can for second-hand items to add to it.
Add some inspiration, some positive thoughts.
If you are the creative type, include some personally done touches.
And don't be afraid to invest in a marquee piece!

I had so much fun putting this space together, for someone I love so much!

Thanks for reading!
XO,
Anne

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