I've had a gallery wall in every apartment I've lived in, and I've converted my family and roommate into gallery wall-havers as well. I think it's safe to say I'm a little bit addicted. See, the problem is that I have too much art. I've been lucky to receive gorgeous original pieces from my sister, to inherit my mom's hand-me-downs (and she has excellent taste), and to stumble on purchases all over the world. Displaying them all jumbled together is my favorite...but I think a gallery wall is really an art, and doing one well is a science.
My first apartment's gallery wall was a mishmash of frames from my college dorm room, and I sadly don't think I ever actually took a photo of that bedroom...it predates the blog by years! When Jon and I lived together, though, I had a schmoopy black-and-white collection above our bed. This is before I started using my foolproof gallery wall perfection method, so things were a bit haphazard...and in hindsight, I would've spaced everything out a bit more and probably added more, too. Why the heck not?!
Then came the Chateau de Liz, and once I finally got around to actually putting everything up five months after I moved in, I fell in love. I spent so much time methodically hanging and arranging, using my genius, tried-and-true kraft paper cutout method, to get everything perfect. For more details and step-by-step photos, head here...it's one of my proudest accomplishments and I haven't done a gallery wall without it since.
I also had a gallery of wood-mounted pieces above my kitchen table at the Chateau, which have been split up and scattered around my bedroom and living space in the new place. I love how the wood-mounting colors played so nicely together...not going to lie, will probably recreate this if I live alone again anytime in the single-girl future.
Now, in the House of Hal and Lizzie, I have not one but TWO hardcore, huge gallery walls...life is an abundance of riches, friends! Hal has the most absurd collection of Notre Dame paraphernalia, so we have the Notre Dame-iest gallery wall ever in our front entryway. We were initially going to try to freehand it and just start hammering nails in...thank goodness we didn't. I'm so proud of how precise and geometric it looks after using the kraft paper method!
And this is my bedroom gallery! Look familiar? It's already got a few new pieces since the Chateau de Liz; like I said, it absorbed a few of the kitchen gallery wall pieces. I also have a BUNCH of art from my Paris and Scandinavia trips at our framer, which will be getting added in the next few weeks...stay tuned!
Why all the gallery wall chatter? I went down to Lakeville last night and hung one there with my parents! They're working their way through the house room by room and completely renovating, and it's been so much fun to watch. My mom and I were shooting the breeze a few weeks back while I was playing on Pinterest, and I threw out the idea of replacing this truly hideous, outdated 90s mother-and-child painting in our second-floor foyer with a gallery wall. Jodester and Papa Bear buy at least one piece of art on every trip they take, and as a result, our house is a treasure trove of gorgeous prints, lithographs, watercolors, and paintings. Combining a bunch of them in one place, though? Maximum impact, and such a great conversation starter. Here's the finished (for now) product:
I love it. Especially the fact that there's room to add more to it. It's at the top of our stairs, right between the doors to the master bedroom and my bedroom, and it's one of the first things a person would see when entering the house and looking up. In my mind, we'll eventually add art going over the master bedroom French doors and down the wall on the other side to create something like this, via Pinterest (duh, I'm basic!):
Cool, huh? Now to plan the next big European adventure!
Seriously, though, I'm a bit unhealthily obsessed. God save me the day gallery walls go out of style, because I'm doomed to become tragically uncool.