Living Room Gallery Wall

I have been wanting to create a gallery wall for a long time. Pretty much ever since we moved into this house 5 years ago and still, I haven’t done it. For the past couple of months I have become more serious in my goal and I have started collecting frames from thrift stores for this purpose. I didn’t have the cash to just go out and buy a ton of frames so I am doing it the slower method but still with great results. And now finally, it is starting to take shape and I love seeing how it is turning out.

If you follow Young House Love I’m sure you have seen their gallery wall (if you don’t follow their blog you should, it’s awesome!). They used a great method to hang their frames and I have seen it before but I was glad to have them do it first to make sure it actually worked :) Now that I have actually done it myself, I can tell you first hand that it is the best way to hang frames! It’s super easy and it makes for a lot less wrong holes in the wall :)

First, trace around your frames onto paper, then cut them out. Next, using painters tape, stick the paper to the wall in the order you want your frames to go in. It nice and easy to move them around if it’s not turning out how you envision. Here are my paper stuck to the wall:

Next, measure how to hang your frames and put the nails directly through the paper. It’s so cool because you can write notes and measurements onto the paper while you are working. Seriously, this was the easiest time I have ever had hanging frames! After all of your nails are in place, hang your frames and see how you like it. When they are all where you want them, tear off the paper. Here is how they look when they are all hung in their spots:

I still have a bunch of stuff to do but I have come a long way. Since I got most of them by thrifting (some I stole from a different room in the house), so far I have only spent about $5! Not so bad! They came in all sorts of colors so they all got sprainted white so they would match. On some I also had to fill in dings with wood filler before I sprainted them. I still need to buy mats for some of them and of course, order pictures. I eventually want enough frames to fill the entire wall but I will just add them as I go. Since I love it so much, I am on a mission to find more cheap frames. My only criteria is that they need to be plain.

Now a question for you all… Should I fill them with just black and white photos, or should I put some artwork in them as well? I’m sort of on the fence about this so I would love your input!

Have a great weekend everyone!