Gallery Wall

This project has been a long time in the making and I am beyond thrilled to finally have it finished.  It started out as one of those "quick" projects but ended up taking way too long.  The wall started out as this:

Not bad, but a little bare.  Plus, I had a whole bunch of left over white frames that needed a home.  I started by taking all my frames and laying them on the floor.  I figured I needed to purchase three more to make it work for the size I was looking for.

All the white frames in the picture I already owned (bought from Goodwill and spray painted white).  The color frames were new (also from Goodwill), and I really liked the look of the various colors.  One of the reasons I love buying used stuff is because of the sentiment that is attached to some of the pieces.  I found this little note on the back of one of the picture frames and thought it was so sweet.  You don't find this kind of stuff at Target!  {Nothing against Target, it is one of my favorite stores}  

The frame on the bottom left was repainted in a black metallic, and the brown frame on the right was restained.  I also painted the round frame in a brown metallic just to even things out a bit.  After I figured out the perfect layout on the floor, I cut out pieces of paper in the shape of the frames and made marks where they needed to be hung.  

This is really helpful to make sure everything is even and level without having to make a million holes in your wall.  Unfortunately, not all of these frames had hangers so I had to put them on myself.  This was one reason the project was drug out a little more than expected.  And then, of course, there was also the issue that when I bought the frames a couple of months ago, I tossed most of the glass and backs that went along with the frames.  It was a challenge, but I managed to cut all new backs and even find some glass that worked. 

I think one of the hardest things about gallery walls (besides hanging all. those. frames) is figuring out just what to put in them all.  Of course, you can always fill them with pictures of family or friends, but I was looking for a little something different.  So here are some ideas I came up with, along with ideas that I will probably be using in the future.

1) Letters.  As you can see I chose the letter E {already had it on hand from the wedding}.  Letters make a great addition to a wall full of frames to break up the squares a little.

2) Framed objects.  I chose keys because I love the look of vintage keys, but there are many other objects that will look great in frames.

3) Scenery pictures.  I chose to include pictures of the buildings on our yard.  Normally this building wouldn't be frame worthy, but paired with a bunch of other pictures it looks really good.  The same goes with pictures of people-non traditional pictures work well in large groups.

4) Marriage certificate or other special document.  Don't worry, this is just a copy, but I love how it looks on the wall.

5) Maps.  These are quite popular right now and there are many different ideas people have come up with for them.  I chose to print off an old version of MN {which was free}.

6) Keys.  Along with the framed keys, I also included a giant key that I just liked and had no where else to put.

7)  Pictures of pets.  I chose not to include any people pictures, but I did want Boston pictures to be included.  

8)  Framed numbers.  There are a lot of significant numbers to choose from.  The 7 represents our wedding day, but you can also choose birthdays, the year you met, the year you got married, house numbers, number of people in the family, etc.  

9) Chalkboards.  I think a gallery wall is a perfect place to have a framed chalkboard with meaningful sayings.  

10) Framed art.  I don't really think these two pictures can be classified as "art", but I like them.  These are the pictures I originally had on the wall and are simply printed off from the computer on scrapbook paper.  Super cheap and easy and the silhouette can be of anything.

11) Framed words.  Along with numbers come words.  I had a hard time choosing this one because there are so many options (i.e. place we met, got married, first address).  In the end I chose a word in our current address because it was the shortest one!  The background for this frame is pages cut out from an old book and mod podged onto a piece of paper.

12) Framed Bible verse.  I chose not to do this one only because I have a chalkboard for this purpose.

13) Lyrics from a song sung at your wedding.

14) Poems/sayings

15) Hand prints.

Alright, I am stopping at 15.  There are so many options, it just takes a little creativity.  Almost all of the artwork in the frames was free, except for a couple pictures that I had printed off, which made this project very affordable.