Finally! My Very Own Gallery Wall.

I spend a lot of time in my living room.  Especially this winter, with the crazy weather we've had...the couch, a quilt, and Netflix have become dear, dear friends of mine.  When I spend a lot of time in one room, my DIY wheels start turning and churning on what I can do to make it better.  Couple that with a trip to Europe and some fantastic art finds, and you're looking at a girl who wanted to create a super amazing gallery wall above her couch.

Yes siree bob, I caught the gallery wall bug.  For months, I've been typing in "gallery walls" into the Pinterest search box just to sigh and yearn over the beautiful walls pictured, hoping for one of my own.  You know what those sites don't tell you about gallery walls, though?  Unless you've got some serious DIY to do, they are E.X.P.E.N.S.I.V.E.  You really need a lot of art to occupy even a smallish wall if you want to have any type of dramatic impact.

You, dear readers, all know by this point that I'm going to create a gallery wall if I decide that I want one.  And I wanted one.  I won't make you read through my step by step process before showing you the finished product.  I'm too excited to wait.  Here it is!!!

BEFORE

AFTER!!!!!

WOW, right?  I'm so in love.  I keep standing in the doorway to the living room, just sighing with love.  If I could hug this wall, I would.  Yay!!

Ok, now for the deets.  Here's how I got this party started:

First, I gathered all of the art I was going to put on the wall.  Several pieces were ones I had just bought at a small antique book/map shop while in Amsterdam.  I had them framed, knowing they would be hung together on my living room wall.  I decided not to frame them in the same frames, as I wanted a look that said, "I've been gathered lovingly over time".  So, I chose frames and mats that complimented each other without matching each other.  

Once I got these home, I began the hunt for other pieces to include on the wall.  I pilfered a piece from the dining room, and replaced it with a new piece of art that deserved its own spot not on the gallery wall.  I also printed off a few snapshots from our travels to Napa Valley and South Korea, and chose one that complimented the rest of the art once it was all grouped together.  I had a plain wooden frame in the basement that got a quick coat of gold paint, and it was ready to go.

Painted gold with charcoal grey underneath.
Pretty much the same process that I did for my travel boxes.

At this point, I only had 6 pieces- I still needed more art.  Off to JoAnn's I went.  Not to buy ready-art, but to buy some canvasses.  All canvasses were already 50% off, and coupled with my 20% off the total coupon, AND the $20 discount I asked for because one canvas was slightly frayed on the edge- I got three deep mount canvasses for less than $20.  The 2'X3' canvas alone was $60 full price!  I don't play when it comes to craft discounts- that's serious business.

Never hurts to ask for a discount!  The most they'll do is say no!

Now, OF COURSE I already had acrylic paints at home- what DIY'er doesn't?  Using a few online pieces as inspiration, I got to work.  At this point, I am willing to straight up admit that I did not just dream up these pieces of art.  I'm creative, but sometimes starting a whole art piece from scratch is too tedious, even for me. There's sketches that have to be done, mock-ups, etc.  I just don't have time for that.  I was on a gallery wall mission. So, I used my inspiration pieces, my paints, and got to work on those canvasses.

Layers...

And layers...

And layers.  Here's where I put down the camera and really got to work.
No more pictures til the finished product.

Sorry, no step by step DIY instructions for this.  If you want some, go to a Painting with a Twist or Paint Party event. They'll let you sip wine and paint a canvas in the adult version of paint by numbers.  This isn't that:)

While my canvasses were in the process of being painted, I began to lay out my frames to see where I wanted them to be hung.  Before doing this, I measured the wall space that they would fill.  Several sites told me that nothing should be hung less than 10" from the top of the couch, so that was my starting point.

In order to keep my frames out of harm's/feets way, I used what little floor space I had in the guest room to lay out my pattern.  I used a few stand-ins for my big canvas, and began moving things around.  It probably took me two hours of moving pieces, walking away, coming back into the room with fresh eyes, moving things around again, etc, before I got everything where I thought I wanted it. 

Now, I needed a way to transfer this jigsaw puzzle of frames onto the wall.  I took a shower curtain and put it under the frames (with some cutting and taping to adjust it to the right gallery wall size).

Frames with a few stand-ins for sizing.

Next, I took a black marker, and traced the outline of each piece onto the plastic, and then hung the plastic on the wall with painters tape.

Be CAREFUL...don't get that marker on the frames!!
If you're wondering, this piece is a child's textbook map insert from Holland.
 It shows, in small picture form, the natural resources of the country:)

Using the black outlines as a guide, I was then able to make nailholes in the appropriate spots in order to hang each piece with minimal fuss.  Even with this step, I still ended up making one or two small changes once everything was up on the wall.  The plastic and outline tarp definitely made things MUCH easier, though.

Can you (barely) see those outlines?

So, here's my wall again.  Isn't it lovely??  I just can't stop staring at it.

Margot is becoming quite the little camera diva.

Sending a special shoutout to my "took five minutes to paint this" canvas of the Detroit skyline!

All of this art were less than $100 total.  The framing I didn't DIY?
Shh...we won't talk about that, alright?  My love for oddly sized pieces apparently knows no bounds.

A little lamp light romantic glow for you...I'm going to go blind from reading in this room in low light!

This is becoming a bad habit to leave you with a picture of Margot, but I'm going to do it anyway...she's my fur baby and I love her!  While she may appear to be giving you, dear readers, a disapproving look, she's actually beaming inside with pride for having had her picture taken in front of such a pretty gallery wall.  Seriously.

Yep, that's a piece of rawhide stuck on her nose.  Not classy, Margot, not classy.

What's yours is mine. No really, it's mine now.

Garage sales and I have a love/hate relationship.  I love the idea of going to garage sales, scouring through the cast-offs of others, and finding new inspiration and use for a piece rejected by its owner.  Once at a garage sale, however, I hate being there.  Owners watch you like a hawk, afraid you're going to walk away with their $1 used hair curlers.  They're either out to haggle with you, or try to push their things on you.  Both situations make me extremely uncomfortable.  Can't there just be a self-checkout option?  

This time of year is ripe for garage sales, though- they're everywhere!!  While some people have had great luck finding things at garage sales, and are experts in the art of a deal, I have found something I like much better: estate sales.  All the same stuff, but without the emotional attachment.  They're usually run by an outside company and not family members, which makes it much easier to eye a piece you fancy without wondering if the owner is going to shed a silent tear that you just bought her memories for fifty cents.

I've picked up a few neat pieces at estate sales over the past few years, and thought I'd share.  While none of the pieces I've gotten have been something that needed any DIY love, they were all things that struck my fancy in one way or another, and I knew they needed to come home with me.

I usually bypass the jewelry at estate sales, as they've most likely been priced by a professional, and are not great deals.  Last summer, though, my eye caught a piece that I couldn't pass up.  It was gold plated, heavy, well made, and only five dollars.  Sometimes those great deals do exist!  

Thumbs up to well-made costume jewelry!

Several years ago, I went to an estate sale a few blocks from my house that looked promising.  I ended up with a vintage metal storage cabinet that found a new life as a bedside table in the guest room.  I actually don't even use it for storage, but I love the aesthetics of it.  It's definitely one of those pieces that will find a home in whatever house I own throughout life.  It's too cool not to love!!

I know, it's not next to the bed.  I couldn't get a good picture that way!

At this same estate sale, I also found a rolled up engineering map of my city from 1957.  The paper it was on was yellowed and slightly crinkled, but for less than a dollar, I couldn't pass it up.  It sat in a drawer for three years before I finally had it framed, but I'm so glad I did.  It'll be a nice reminder of our time here if we ever move out of the area!  As a side note, I did splurge on the framing, glass, and matting to get everything in archival/art quality.  For something that is already old, irreplaceable, and hung on a wall facing a window, I wanted to make sure it would hold up to the test of time.  

Should I add a "You are Here" sticker for guests?  Too much?

At another estate sale, the vultures had pretty much picked over the goods, but had left several pieces that I found interesting enough to buy.  I bought two small metal pieces.  The larger of the two was bronze, and had a piece of masking tape stuck to the back that said, "Turkey".  The year was too smudged to make out, but it appears to be a small serving tray that someone had soldered a hanger onto at some point.  The smaller of the pieces is a thinner metal that looks like a decorative piece from the start.  There was also masking tape on the back of this piece that said, "Cairo, 1978" in the same loopy cursive handwriting.  Both pieces now hang in my dining room, tape still stuck on the back as an homage to the woman who must have loved traveling and cataloguing her purchases enough to keep track of everything.  

Anybody want to come buff out the tarnishing on here for me?

Marge must have gone on some interesting trips!

Pieces like these keep me going back to check out what treasures I might find next.  Buying things from estate or garage sales usually mean that you'll have an interesting story to tell about your new belongings.  If you have wall space, shelf space, or just space in general to fill up in your home, estate sales definitely beat the prices and homogeneity of things you'll find at Homegoods, Target, or the like.  Plus, you'll have the added benefit of people walking in your front door, breathing a comforted sigh, and saying, "Oh, it feels so homy in here."  Who could ask for anything better?

Pinterest didn't exist, Part II

Happy Anniversary to me (and Dave) today!  Let's jump right back into wedding DIY's, shall we?

Oh don't worry, this one is definitely framed in my living room.

This next DIY was actually used at the ceremony, and wasn't really so much of a DIY as a, "go ahead and do this for me because I don't feel like doing it myself."  Could I have done it?  Yes.  Did I feel like it? Nope.  All of my bridesmaids' dresses came with large shawls that we knew wouldn't be necessary in the middle of July.  My mom and I brainstormed what we could do with all of the fabric, because we obviously weren't going to let them go to waste. As I wasn't interested in spending thousands on flowers that we would look at in church for an hour and then leave there to wilt, we decided to use the fabric as pew decorations.  We gave the shawls to the seamstress who altered my dress, and had her cut them into quarters, run a cream ribbon down the middle, and attach a string to the top to secure them to the church pews.  Simple, beautiful, and it cost a fraction of what we would have paid for flowers or bows.  I even kept a few after the wedding, and I hang one on my front door during the spring months instead of an Easter wreath.  Every time I open the door, I get a happy reminder of a wonderful day.

Bonus!  You get to see my beautiful MIL in her gorgeous dress!

We also made a pocket square for Dave!

A few more from the church:  You have to do something with the front doors, right?  People need to know that something special is going to be happening!  We had two wreaths left over from my sister's wedding five years earlier, and all it took was a spool of cream ribbon, five minutes of my time, and DONE.

Sorry to steal your thunder, Mom.  I think you might have wrapped these.

Next up, church programs.  Most people do these themselves, as they are a quick DIY that most anyone can do.  Shoutout to my Aunt MB here for taking the reins and doing this for me.  Cream paper, orange writing, rolled and tied with ribbons.  Stick them in a basket with fabric, and you're good to go.  It's all in the presentation, my friends.

When my sister and I were little girls, we would always play in my mom's old room at my Nana and Papa's.  There were plenty of treasures there to keep us busy for hours.  One thing that sat in her closet for years that we didn't play with was her Just Married sign.  A dear friend had made the sign for her, and it definitely held sentimental value.  When my sister got married 10 years ago, I made a similar sign for her and my brother in law with updated colors to match their wedding.  When it came time for my own wedding, it was sign making time again.  I love that we will all have the special memory of having similar Just Married signs!  If you're artistic at all, paint a sign for someone you know.  They'll love you for it.

This is the only picture I have of all three signs- ignore the messy backdrop, please:)

Nowadays (meaning 5 years ago was forever ago in technological terms), most people create wedding websites that include important information for out of town guests.  I didn't make one.  Instead, I had these handmade packets ready for everyone who checked into the hotels in town.  Places of interest, directions to the hotel and reception site, and good eats were all included on my "treasure map" welcome.  You can make a wedding website and still do this if you want something to physically hand to out of town guests.  They won't refuse a pretty packet!

Enough already with the cream and orange, right?

It wasn't just my family and I that jumped on the DIY bandwagon for my wedding.  I had several "guests" that did as well.  I'll just let their picture speak for itself.

Yep.  Even wedding crashers know to wear orange.

Sigh.  What a great day my wedding was.  Full of great memories, and thankfully, great pictures.  I have to give a shoutout to my photographer Crystal Herry, too.  If you're getting married in the Central New York area, look her up...she did a fantastic job!!  

White men CAN jump.  Well, most of them, anyway.

One last picture to send you off with...

I really lucked out with this one.  The man, not the picture.