Recently I decided that my living room needed a facelift. This was accomplished by hanging a photo gallery on wall, new couch cushions, and a new rug.
I had been seeing all these gallery walls on Pinterest and got my inspiration from them. Some walls had all the same size frames and all the same color. Others were a random mess of any color and size they happened to have available. I decided what I wanted was somewhere in between.
Goodwill provided me with 7 different frames for under $1 each (I used 3 that I had on hand as well), and Lowe’s was the place to buy spray paint. My living room is green and tan, with brown and red accents, so the colors I bought were red, brown and cream.
Here is the wall that needed a face lift. It’s just okay. Nothing real spectacular on the wall, the couch cushions were old and faded. (It was used on someone’s porch for who knows how long, before I bought it for our first home). You can also see the blue rug which matches nothing else in that room.
Painting the frames and finding photos for them was the easiest part. Now I have 10 photo frames, plus the 2 candle holders with S’s in them to hang up and I didn’t want to write on my wall, nor did I want a hundred nail holes.
How to hang a Photo Gallery on Wall:
I always save packing paper, so I laid out a piece the same size as the area of wall I wanted to hang my frames on, and started laying out the frames. I ended up adding a small piece to one section because the frames went higher there. The best advice I can give you at this point, is to make sure your edges are straight and your corners square.
Once your frames are laid out the way you want them, use a marker to outline the frames and then mark where you need to put nails. I did this before I painted my frames and I suggest you do as well. The marker WILL get on your frames no matter how hard you try. Or maybe I’m just messy. 😉
Next, use packing tape to attach your paper to the wall. This is a two person job, and you want to make sure the paper is squared on the wall. I used the chair rail and measured up, but normally you would measure down from the ceiling. (Unless your ceiling isn’t square.)
Once the paper is up, all you have to do is put nails in the appropriate holes, and then gently pull your paper down!
It worked like a charm! I had a problem with one of the candle holders though. The first place I put it on the paper didn’t look right, so I moved it and thought that was the end of the problem. No. I ended up pounding 3 more holes before that silly thing looked right! Fortunately they were right beside the other holes from what was hanging there before, so it wasn’t a huge pain to fill them.
The candles that had been in my candle holders were a very faded burgundy. So rather than go out and buy new ones, I just painted the old ones! After all, it’s not like I’m ever going to burn them. 🙂
I found the cushions I wanted at Lowe’s on sale (score!) and several years ago I had used old scraps to crochet rugs. I had kept the red one and it looks great at our front door now. I love how my living room looks now, and hubby will sit in his chair and look at it and say the same thing. ~That man knows how to make me happy!
One more photo; If you walk in my house, the first thing you see is a lovely bookcase that hubby built me, and secondly the huge mirror that my mom etched. Now in the mirror you see my photo gallery wall as well!
Beautiful transformation! I love the couch cushions! Looks like a whole new sofa! And you did a great job on the wall gallery! I just did one myself and I think it is a little busy, lol, I have 18 pictures and a Family is Everything sign above it all. The Sweetheart did a great job hanging them all perfectly above the couch but sometimes it feels a little overwhelming. Great post!
Thanks! I actually planned on painting the wicker part of the couch as well. But once I added those cushions it looked nice.
I’m sure your gallery wall looks great, sometimes it just takes a little while to get used to something new 🙂
First off, I’m a sucker for wicker! I LOVE it! Now, let’s talk gallery wall…I love how you angled the colors of the frames! Great job!
Thanks Sue! I bought that couch for $100 when we got married and I still love it. 🙂
Looks great!
Genius! I love the look of a gallery wall, but I’ve always been afraid to try it. Maybe I will now…. 🙂
I wanted to make one for a long time but it just seemed like a lot of work. In reality, it took longer to decide on which photos to print and where they should go, then the actual act of hanging them!
It looks beautiful! 🙂 In fact I may have to borrow your picture placement for my own gallery wall that I’ve been wanting to do but can’t decide on!
Go right ahead! This is one of the few times that my finished product looks exactly like I envisioned it in my head 🙂
Your living room is where you share the story of who you are. So our living room furniture helps you do that – with lots of ways to show off the things you’ve done and the places you’ve been. And plenty of comfortable seating – because sharing it all with your favourite people is the best part. And your living room wouldn’t be complete without those all important finishing touches.
Your picture wall gallery truly uplifted the room! Great job. I love photo galleries of family pictures because, to me, a home is all about family.
I love this, those photos are all perfect above the couch like that! And that’s a totally brilliant way to hang them; I’m forever putting one up, and then trying to get the next one to match it, and the one after that…blech. Pinned this, and thanks so much for sharing at my link party!
Thanks Jessi! It certainly made my task super fast and easy!
This worked out beautifully. Great advise. Thanks for sharing with us at our Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop.
Angel
So, I have pictures to hang and I am the world’s worst. Now, if I can find some paper I will be doing good. Your pictures look great and your living room looks inviting. You’re inviting me, right?!
Tape together newspapers 🙂 That is what I was going to do until I got a box with all that lovely paper in it for packing!
And I honestly love having people over! Messy house and all 🙂