Let me back up a bit. You see, our guest book was a huge tree that our loved ones added thumbprint leaves to. It's beautiful. It is roughly 2' by 3'. It cost me $300 to frame. In addition to the tree-that-cost-almost-as-much-as-my-dress, we had a shadowbox from his parents containing dried flowers, part of a tree plate, and our invitation. We also had our ring "pillow," which is a mostly-complete cross-stitch I did. I wanted a wall of memories to celebrate our wedding and what better than a gallery wall? We would have pictures of different sizes, differing frames, and different textures courtesy of the cross-stitch and a button "S" I plan on making. Brad and I sorted through all of our wedding and engagement photos until we had a respectable amount and we dubbed the project the "wall of narcissism."
I spent a small fortune on frames, lined them up wrapping paper on the floor, and traced them. I had post-its detailing picture description, orientation, color, and size. I even numbered the post-its and the traced outlines so I could be sure to line everything up again. I hung the wrapping paper on the wall, hung photos, and ripped down the wrapping paper. Everything looked good (and was good!) until I learned that photographers don't really shoot for 8x10 inch photos anymore--they shoot for 8x12 inch. Really? So, I figured out which photos could take a crop and which couldn't, and then I set about returning and buying new frames. Thank goodness that Michael's has started to carry digital-photo-sized frames now and I found the 8x12s without a lot of trouble. I also had the benefit of a 40% off of certain frames sale, plus a 25% of total frame purchase coupon. I'm still on the hunt for a 10x15, though...
Anyway, here are some pictures. We're still waiting on the photos that will go in the frames and I didn't exactly "style" the couch for the last photo. I'm keeping it real, I guess.
What trouble did you have with a gallery wall? Do you have any tips?
Laid out on the floor.
(I know I still owe you a post on the curtains.)
This is a bad picture, but here is the wrapping paper up on the wall.
Aww, look. With my iPhone, I have no idea how to not
let the lamp wash out the left side of the wall.
Taking down frames after learning that 8x10 won't cut it.
This is what the wall looked like last night.
New frames are up, though I still need a 10x15 to replace
the frame above the tree and four from the right.
Note: no styling, but new pillows. :)
3 comments:
Woo gallery walls! I'm obsessed with them haha. I actually had a lot of trouble creating mine too, though. The first time I did it, the frames were too small and too scrunched together (not a good idea when you have a GIANT blank wall to cover).
The second time, I upgraded to nicer frames with (fake) matting and spread things out more. (You've probably seen this post, but I wrote about it here.)
For me, it was helpful to keep the frames all the same color (even though I added in a few vintage options, they're all a rich dark brown). I've seen a million mismatched galleries on Pinterest, but I am just not stylish enough to get that right -- yet!
By the way, LOVE your guest book! We did the same thing :)
The gallery wall looks amazing! I really, really like it! Most people can't do it but you nailed it!
Great post! :) I'm new here- thought I would say hello and let you know that I adore your blog so far! Off to stalk the rest of your site... Have a wonderful week, sugar! xo
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