Anatomy of a Gallery Wall

I have been eyeing all the amazing gallery walls out there for months and knew someday I would create my own. The main wall in our living room has been empty for almose 8 years! I know how sad is that.

We spend most of our time in our family room but still the blank space drove me nuts. I was very determined to hang something other than a big picture with something flanking either side. I really wanted it to capture people's attention and make them linger a bit over it....

Then a light bulb went off....after seeing all of these fabulous gallery walls around I thought...uh duh...you have a huge blank wall!  So off I went to plan the wall. I went through all of my stuff...places that I haven't looked in a while including the garage and I had all but a couple items.

I taped out the size (It's about 6.5 feet high and 8 feet wide)

Then taped out the same size on the floor so I could play with the arrangement. I had one of my friends cone over to keep me motivated and keep me from going insane.

I took a picture because I knew I would be working on this over severl days (in truth it was months)
Some things reamined and some changes as I started hanging on the wall...

I started with the top row and worked my way down the sides and then the center and the bottom last.
(you can see the picture layout taped to the wall)

             

Ta-Da!

The shelves and objects give it depth and texture and eye has an opportunity to travel around a bit.
In truth the bottome left corner is temporary. I have something in mind but am having a bit of a challenge fulfilling it.

A view looking down - hard to believe I lived with a blank wall for so long!

Here are a few close-ups

My daughter's art work from pre-school (point for mom for framing and putting on the wall!)

Silohuette I made from craft paper (I'll post about it soon)



Old film reel from a flea market. and one of my antique cameras. I used to collect them but in a frenzy of purging I sold a bunch in a garage sale and just kept my two favorite. The shelf is from Ikea from about 10 years ago. I bought a bunch to display the camera but never used them and they have been in the garage ever since.

I typed the lyrics to our wedding song and uploaded the image to Costco to have it printed on canvas.

Yay - out living room is finally complete (well until I decide to change something else). I would love to paint but so not going to happen - we had to have scaffolding because the ceilings are 20 feet high...so it will stay red for a looooong time.

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