How to Create a Gallery Wall
Perhaps this holiday season, you joined me for my house tour after I decorated for Christmas. If so, you probably remember the piece of decor that stole the lime light from the tree, my gallery wall.
I’ve always wanted to design a gallery wall (remember my 5 living room ideas?) but often heard it was so much work. It didn’t seem like too big of a task, so I set out one day to recreate a bunch of old artwork and canvas I had laying around my house into this cheerful, whimsical display.
When I first got started, I was working with this:
I figured the layout would be the hardest part in creating a visually attractive gallery wall. I took a rather unconventional approach and just began with my two largest pieces diagonal from each other (the brown frame and the large white canvas). Then I placed my two smallest pieces near them (the monkey and the small white canvas). I had two perfectly square matching frames that I placed directly opposite each other diagonally (the palm tree painting and the watercolor flowers). Lastly, I filled in the spaces I had left. I have to be honest, I just kept pounding holes in the wall until the piece was placed where it looked right. It was all trial and error. I would not recommend this method for planning your gallery wall because when I was finished, I had about twenty holes to fill in with spackling and repaint. I would suggest measuring masking or painters tape to the size of each piece for your gallery. Then place the rectangular tape markers on the wall and arrange them until you like how it looks.
Once I had my layout planned, I began revamping each piece. The first thing I did was paint frames. I began by spray painting one silver. Unfortunately, I had to spray in my basement because it was only 11 degrees outside. Another tip: DON’T SPRAY PAINT INSIDE! I’ve done this once before and I don’t know why I can’t learn my lesson. I spent the next two hours with the windows open and fans running to pull the smelly and toxic air from my basement outside into the cold. Hello heating bill.
For the other frames I wanted to paint, I gathered my white acrylic paint and a paint brush and did them the old fashioned way.
I painted numerous canvas I had with white paint to start fresh. One of them I tried a technique I use often when painting letters or words and that is to create a stencil out of tape. I gathered my turquoise paint and green frog tape and ripped pieces to spell out the letter “E.”
Then I just rolled the paint over the tape.
When I pulled the paint off, It looked like this. It was so much easier than trying to trace or freehand a letter and paint it white.
So I had three canvas, three frames I painted white, one frame I spray painted silver, and one frame I kept brown, one frame I kept red. The “V” I simply glued glitter in the shape of the letter and outlined it in red. The “e” is cut out of wrapping paper and taped onto the canvas for easy removal. The “R” is cut out of card stock and taped directly to the wall, the frame just hangs around it. The “y” has a background of wrapping paper and I cut the letter from regular white printer paper.
The “m” I cut out of card stock and taped onto the glass frame. I think it is cool it has no back so you can see the wall through it. The “E” you learned how I made above. The “R” I cut strips of red scrapbook paper and placed them like a candy cane striped on a piece of white card stock. Then the letter I cut out of white printer paper and outlined in black so you can see it better. The next “R” I just used a silver paint pen to free hand the letter directly on the canvas. And lastly, the “Y” I painted turquoise in the shape of the letter and outlined it in glitter.
There you have it! That’s how I created my “Very Merry” gallery wall. I did not think it would be a big task, but when I was finally finished, it had taken me most of one day. If you want to create a gallery wall in your home but don’t know where to start, feel free to bounce ideas off of me. Thanks for reading!
