Military housing is pretty basic. Imagine white walls, standard floors, and pretty bland finishes. For someone like me who loves to decorate, this doesn’t really work. In a perfect world they’d let me take a bucket of paint and dump it all over the house!
I guess that’s why I love gallery walls so much. SO MUCH SO that I have 4 in my house right now! It’s a way to breathe life into an otherwise bland space. A gallery wall can give a room so much character!
We’ll call this “part one” in my gallery wall blog post series. Building a gallery wall almost always starts with a pile of stuff I love spread out across the floor.
Why the floor? That’s the biggest space I have besides the wall to make my vision come to life. The idea is that if I get it just right on the floor, I’ll save the wall from looking like Swiss cheese. This is the IDEA, not always the reality. Not everything that is on the floor will make the cut.
I knew I wanted to do a woodland creatures theme. Let me just say though, I’m really bad at THEMES. Almost always I’ll find 3 or 4 things that I love so much that have absolutely nothing to do with my “theme” and then all of the sudden my “theme” turns into a beautiful eclectic mess. My daughter’s room isn’t exempt from my inability to focus AT ALL!!
Here’s a little tour of a few of my favorite pieces.
I found these printables on Etsy and printed them on photo paper. After the ink dried, I decoupaged them to canvas. I saved a ton of money doing them that way, and I love how they turned out!
This floral R is probably the most memory filled decoration that is on her wall, so I’ll try and keep the story short. I was a BRAND NEW MOM, who became one over night. There wasn’t 9 months to plan a nursery or create a beautiful space for my daughter, but I still wanted her to have all of it. I was sleep deprived, experiencing complete and utter new mom shock, overwhelmed, and so overjoyed.
One of my first outings as a new mom was to Hobby Lobby looking for flowers for her R. I took a lot of time picking out each individual one, and spent a pretty penny on them too. I got it all home, and started putting it together, and guess what? My daughter did me an awesome favor and spit up all over the flowers (a glimpse right into what being a “creative” would look like with a kiddo, and it hasn’t changed much in 2 years)! I cried. (I blame sleep deprivation). None the less I ended up with this beautiful detail for her room, that I hope she hangs on to forever!
Back to the wall. I always start with what I know I want in the center. and build out from there. Eventually after a ton of shuffling around and picture taking I end up with something I’m happy with.
Even though I love what I have on the floor, not everything will make it to the wall. DO YOU KNOW WHY? Because, I don’t measure. I’ve seen how some people measure out their wall, then tape of the floor, and then carefully calculate the distance between each thing before they ever pick up the screw gun. That’s a big ol’ NOPE. Ain’t nobody got time for any of that. Not to knock you if that’s your style. It’s just NOT mine.
Now it’s time after all that planning and reminiscing to get things on the wall. I start in the middle and build outward.
Then I start adding things from the floor to my wall in relatively the same places. Remember how I said the floor arrangement is an IDEA? Well here’s the finished product and as you can see it doesn’t look exactly the same.
The baskets were a last minute thought, and I loved the texture they added to the wall, especially with her little friends sitting in them.
A couple of things to keep in mind. This isn’t the law, it’s just the way I think. Balance is pretty important to the eye. Does that mean everything has to be symmetrical? NOPE! Not at all. Balance isn’t symmetry. The right and left sides of her wall are not mirror images of each other, however to me it makes sense because you have similar shapes through out.
FAQ’s we get about building a gallery wall.
How much is too much? Only you can answer that. 23 items went into creating her gallery wall. Is that too much? NOT TO ME. I absolutely love it.
What kind of things do you use? Anything you love. Mix it up. Pictures, objects, just about anything can be hung on the wall with some creativity. Let your mind build something beautiful and have FUN with it.
How do you keep from making too many extra holes? I don’t. There are almost always extra holes. But guess what, we are all still breathin’, and those holes can be filled.
A gallery wall can look completely different from home to home. Heck, I have 4 in my house and they all LOOK DIFFERENT! It’s about creating something beautiful, that you love, with things that you love. Stay tuned for a tour of the other 3 gallery walls in my house. You’ll be able to see them right here on our blog very soon.
If you loved how my daughters gallery wall turned out, or if you found this even the slightest bit helpful, could you do me a favor and.
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xoxo~ Lizzy
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