Our Beautiful Life: my gallery wall

Okay. There are so many cute gallery wall ideas out there, that I decided to give everyone a look at mine. I did this wall collage about 2 1/5 years ago. It is way past time to update it, so that is one of my projects this weekend :).

I think I am going to slowly do a house tour because so many people have asked me to do one. I am really debating it though because I feel like my house has so much that needs to be done for me to feel satisfied with it, but is anyone ever satisfied with their house?

So, to ease me in, I will start with this.

Also, are you like me and LOVE seeing inside other people’s houses? I seriously would love to walk around the neighborhood ringing doorbells and ask if I could come in if that wasn’t weird. ;)

I started with the mossy T that I saw in a magazine about 3 years ago. I knew I wanted something like that in my house but had no idea where. When I decided to do the picture collage I knew that is what I wanted the focal point to be.

I made it by buying a gold T at Hobby Lobby and then hot gluing Spanish Moss to it. Easy Peasy.

I decided to go with different color frames and different shapes and sizes. Of course most are from IKEA. The rest are ones that I found on clearance from Hobby Lobby (like the large open one) or TJ Maxx. If you are thinking about doing this and need a lot of frames, it is worth the trip to the nearest IKEA. They have the best prices and look so much like the Pottery Barn version.

A few tips :

Try to pick pictures that aren’t so posed and ordinary. I know most people don’t consider it a good picture unless everyone is looking at the camera and smiling perfectly, but try to capture a moment or detail that will remind you of a certain time.
If you are going to do just pictures, then either do all color or all black and white. It makes it more uniform and doesn’t make your eyes go crazy. Especially if you are going to do different color frames. ***See below
Play with the size of the mats. Have some wide, some thin and some not at all.
Have a friend there to help. Sandahlyn, was there with me to say if something looked off or crooked and just for moral support :). It is very stressful when you first start, but gets easier once you know what you are doing.
Then return the favor. After we did mine we started working on hers and now we are professionals ready for hire ;).
Use paper to map out your collage. We cut paper in the shapes of the frames and worked with those. That way we don’t have more nail holes than you actually need.
Use the command picture hanging thingies. I didn’t do this but SO wish I did. I am sure my hubby feels the same way.

***Now don’t get me wrong, I love eclectic collage walls that have a mix of everything, color, black and white, prints, mirrors and everything in between. However, when you are working with just pictures I think it looks better to go the more simple route.

Here are some wall collages that I love.

via pottery barn