Some of you may recall that 'arranging a gallery wall above my desk' was on my list. I've always wanted one. I've even daydreamed about what pieces I would include. I arranged it and rearranged it in my head, and then I hosted a baby shower.
And by golly I wasn't going to rest until I had something on the wall above my desk if there were going to be lots of people in my home so help me God.
Here's what you'll need if you're thinkin' about a gallery wall-
1. Lots & lots of stuff to hang on your wall-
most (or all) of which will have great sentimental value to you and therefore make you extremely happy whenever you work long hours at your desk and glance up at them from time to time.
Lucky for me, I've been stashing frames + sentimental things in the same spot for 3 years, so putting my hands on the items I needed didn't take long.
As you can see,
I went ahead and laid them out on the floor and played with the arrangement until I was satisfied with it. Here's what I landed on-
(sorry for the late-night-absolutely-horrible-lighting-pictures)
Here's what you'll need if you're thinkin' about a gallery wall-
1. Lots & lots of stuff to hang on your wall-
most (or all) of which will have great sentimental value to you and therefore make you extremely happy whenever you work long hours at your desk and glance up at them from time to time.
Lucky for me, I've been stashing frames + sentimental things in the same spot for 3 years, so putting my hands on the items I needed didn't take long.
As you can see,
I went ahead and laid them out on the floor and played with the arrangement until I was satisfied with it. Here's what I landed on-
(sorry for the late-night-absolutely-horrible-lighting-pictures)
2. You will also need a blank wall or enough wall space to hang all of these sentimental things and whatnots you've collected.
The wall above my desk has been an empty blank nothingness since we moved in.
see?
I read on several other blogs that the best way to go about making sure your items end up on the wall exactly the way you want them to is to cut out paper in the exact sizes as your stuff and stick that to the wall. This way you can calculate where the nails will need to go and can even mark it on the paper, and heck...you can even nail straight into the paper itself and then tear the paper away from the nail and BOOM.
You're ready to hang.
Last year's Christmas wrapping paper worked perfectly for this-
With the help of my Dad, his hammer, and a level, we measured where each nail (or nails) needed to go, and...
a gallery wall was born.
Beautiful, ain't it?
And for those of you wondering, these are the pieces that made the cut-
a huge-honkin' key that belonged to the hubs grandfather,
a framed film magazine from 1962 featuring my homegirl Audrey,
a fabulous piece of artwork from THIS etsy shop of my sweet home Alabama,
framed sheet music from the musical Hairspray with a personal message from the composer.
Yup.
That's Marc Shaiman's signature.
Thanks go to my friend Jameson for this fabulousness.
a photo taken from the balcony of the Bama Theatre.
Wish I knew what year it was- I'm guessing 1960's...
the dress pattern art I purchased at the Kentuck Art Fair,
a houndstooth monogram I made in THIS post,
a Picasso-inspired piece of art painted by my son,
a group of photos taken of my kiddos last year,
a Picasso-inspired piece of art painted by my son,
a group of photos taken of my kiddos last year,
the metal 'M' is from the hob lob and the little boy lives with me.
And although it's not technically on the wall, one of the doo-dads on my desk fits in perfectly with the arrangement:
an orginal black & white striped Barbie swimsuit I scored for $5 on ebay.
Have I mentioned lately my love for all things Barbie?
Have I mentioned that I could pee my pants with glee because my 2 1/2 year old girly loves Barbie too?
Hmmm?
Other items next to the swimsuit include a ruby slippers paper weight and another 'M' from hob lob.
Rounding the corner, you can see where my chevron art ended up after taking it off the mantel-
It now lives above the piano and I'm pretty sure this home will be permanent. I like to change things on up on the mantel too often for anything to stay there too long and the wall above the piano needed a lil' zig-zagyness anyway.
So that's my gallery wall. SO glad to get to check that sucker off my list. Have any of YOU been putting lots of holes in YOUR walls lately? Or maybe you've recently done some switch-a-roos with art + pictures in frames already on your walls?
Anyone else have a childhood play thing in a frame on their desk?
Do tell...
