HOME :: Living Room Gallery Wall

     

Hello everyone! Today I am sharing with all of you my living room gallery wall! I love the way it turned out and I'm excited to show it to you! Gallery walls seem to be sticking around and NOT going anywhere anytime soon and that is GOOD news for the rest of us who love doing them. I have designed a couple already in my house but only ONE gallery wall you have seen . . . thusfar, but I believe you can have one in every room if done right. The thing about gallery walls too, is there aren't really any rules to follow except for a few tips and that is it. You really can't go wrong or mess it up at all. If you have never done one before and would like some pointers, then refer to this post on my tips for creating a gallery wall.

I personally start, as with any project, with a big piece or a statement piece to put on the wall. For me I made this huge piece of canvas art which is simply, some amazing IKEA fabric I picked up in this black and white print and wrapped a canvas with it! That is it! My living room is decked out in black and white, mostly with green accents so when I saw that fabric, I knew I needed to use it in a BIG way in this room. I also wanted to add shelves this time and make one really long shelf above the couch (that needs replaced- no judging- lol). So I grabbed two white IKEA shelves and butted them together to get this look. I used the wall shelves that you can sit frames on, with a ledge so I can interchange my art out for the holidays throughout the year and not have tons of holes in the wall. It has worked perfect and I love changing it up every now and again! Once I figured out where I wanted my big pieces, I pretty much laid it out on the floor until I liked the layout and then up it went.
 

With this gallery wall I really kept it simple as the other gallery wall is near this one and I didn't want them to compete with each other. This one has some of my favorite sayings displayed: pray big, believe you can and of course I had to hand letter something: Choose Happy!

One of my favorite pieces I was so happy to score for this project, was the large ampersand as I kinda have a thing for them around the house but this one is the biggest, so far. I guess I love the "&" sign as I feel it gives me hope. As in, there is always something else coming when you hear and . . . . =)

All of my items that I used for this project I either purchased at IKEA, Pier 1 Imports or Hobby Lobby. Hope you enjoyed it and thanks for checking it out!

Have you designed a gallery wall in your home? Please comment below with your best tip for doing one as I'd love to hear . . .

  

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HOME PROJECTS :: Most Popular of 2014

One of my favorite things to do is a good home or room makeover. I added this series to my blog a little over a year ago and have rounded up some of the TOP ones you checked out for the year.

It definitely is nice looking through these as it's like I am looking at a scrapbook of my work and it's cool to have it documented to see how far some spaces have come. I highly suggest if you ever do any home/room makeovers to always take before/ after photos as you will thank yourself. Trust. ;)

As you are looking through this list of the most popular home projects from last year, just know if you want more details about a certain project, simply click on the link for all of the fun details! So let's take a look back and see what the TOP ones were . . .


TOP HOME PROJECTS of 2014: 

 

How to Repaint a Bathroom Cabinet

How to Create a Gallery Wall

 Tween Bedroom Wall Decor

 Decorating with Wallternatives Vinyl

 Front Door Makeover

Now that was fun! It also makes me really excited to finish up some of the projects that I have since been working on, so I can share them here with you all, as they are turning out better than I imagined - always a GREAT thing!

So which home project was YOUR fave? Did it make this list? I would LOVE to hear from you & find out which one was your favorite last year . . . just let me know by commenting below. xoxo

Are you loving the "eye candy" here? 

Then join me over on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter & Instagram so you never miss out on an exclusive deal or any behind the scenes photos!   

Check out my designs, artwork & decor in my Etsy shop! 

 

HOME :: Christmas Gallery Wall

Today I am sharing a super fun project for the holidays that I just finished! As many of you, I started decorating for Christmas a few weeks ago since my first holiday party is this week and gotta be ready! One of the items on my list to have my home "holiday-ready" was to create a simple but fun Christmas gallery wall in my living room! I am one of those people that go ALL OUT with decorating every room and I love BRIGHT colors in my decor! Plus Christmas just happens to be my favorite holiday so I was super excited to get this going! 

One of the things I wanted to do for this project though, was to create my own graphic painting for the gallery wall. I have been painting for years and love any chance I can incorporate it into a project that I am working on. For this painting I knew I wanted it to cover a large area - I LOVE doing BIG paintings. For this, I decided on using 2 canvases and just painting them as one & then I could hang them separated or keep them together for one huge piece - I was leaving my options open. ;)

To create your own graphic Christmas painting, you will need: 1-2 canvases, some paint in your choice of colors scheme, some paint daubers, a paintbrush with a pointed tip and a couple stencils from Royal Design Studio! I always have the best luck finding what I need from them, so I used these two stencils for this project: Herringbone Pattern Christmas Stencil for the majority of the painting and then Fly Away With Me Christmas Stencil for the middle of my design. They worked out so well!

The steps are few but can take a little while if you are creating a big canvas art so have some patience. 

Step 1:  Follow the directions for using the stencils and line up accordingly to use on your canvas. You will need to decide what kind of design and layout you want ahead of time so try maybe doing a quick sketch of how you would like it to look so you know what you are doing before you start painting.

Step 2: Dispense some paint on a paper plate or a palette for the paint. Using a paint dauber, lightly cover the dauber with the paint and then start dabbing the stencil you had lined up. Continue doing this until all of the stencil has been filled in with paint.

Step 3: After you have 'dabbed' or painted all of the stencil on your canvas, you will need to move the stencil to continue the pattern. Allow the paint to dry first and then move and line up the stencil to finish your pattern if need be. 

Step 4: You are now ready to use the dove stencil. I switched colors for this and added him to the left of the canvases, leaving room to hand letter my word 'peace' behind him.

Step 5: For the last touch, the hand lettered word, I would suggest lightly sketching it out on your canvas if you are not comfortable doing it freehand. Grab your pointed paintbrush and "write" away your word with a different color paint. Remember it does NOT have to be perfect . . .it's your writing! ;)

I decided to put on my shelves above my couch instead of hanging them as I thought it looked more balanced this way. Plus I can change them out with something else if I need to.

So what do you guys think? I am loving this Christmas Gallery Wall. Do you have one that you do in your home? Would love to see it!

Which stencil designs do you like from their amazing selection? I would love to know, so comment below as I am wanting to do more projects with these as well and would love to hear what you like. Thanks for reading. xoxo

I received compensation from Royal Design Studio in the form of product / payment for this project. All opinions are strictly my own and I would never talk about or share anything on here that I wouldn't use & trust myself.

Are you loving the "eye candy" here? 

Then join me over on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter & Instagram so you never miss out on an exclusive deal or any behind the scenes photos!
 

Check out my designs, artwork & decor in my Etsy shop! 

Looking forward to seeing you again! :)

DIY :: Paper Mache Letter WORD ART

     

It's CRAFT time, so let's get your craft on! Today's craft is so simple but yet has an awesome impact! This paper mache letter WORD art is one that you may have seen on one of my latest posts about How-to Create a Gallery Wall. I made it awhile ago but I'm already planning on making another as they only require minimal supplies & time. It's a simple craft DIY using just a few supplies & a couple hours and then you will have your own DIY paper mache letter word art!

Like I mentioned, I made this one for my gallery wall & I picked the word FAMILY as this wall was dedicated to photos of just that. 

You just need to grab a few supplies: paper mache letters to spell out the word art you want, paint, paintbrush and a hot glue gun/glue. I picked up the paper mache letters at a local hobby store, but they have them at pretty much any craft store. I used white paint since I wanted it to match my color scheme and I didn't want it to be very obvious . . .kinda was going for a subtle vibe, AND I may end up painting this room a really light grey so it will definitely blend in better with the background - which is what I kinda was envisioning.

 
To make this word art, simply start by painting the letters and letting them dry. I chose to paint mine all along the sides as well since I was going to hang it on the wall. Afterwards, hot glue the letters together where you can, to make it into ONE piece of art.

Then simply hang it on the wall and enjoy!

I love using these paper mache letters as there are so many things you can do with them & hopefully you will give it a try now that you see how easy it can be. Super easy and quick right? Now who's gonna go make one? Raise your hand . . . please let me know below if you think you will try this project as I would love to know if anyone was inspired. Or maybe you have already done a paper mache letter WORD art . . . let me know what word you used. Try it, you'll love it! ;)
 

 
I would love for you to connect with me by email or become a blog follower too! {on the right sidebar}  Looking forward to seeing you again! :)

Are you loving the "eye candy" here?

Then join me over on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter & Instagram so you never miss out on an exclusive deal or any behind the scenes photos!

Check out my designs, artwork & decor in my Etsy shop!

 

HOME | MADE :: How To Create a Gallery Wall

Hello! Today I am sharing with you how easy and fun it can be creating a gallery wall in your home. It's part of my series that I started called "Home|MADE" that features room renovations MADE into nicer living spaces and all of the things used to get her there, plus the supplies used and all the DIY details to go along with it! All so you can make your house a HOME. I am so very thankful I can (finally) get back to adding more to this series.

If you missed any of the posts from this series, you can catch it here:
"Creating a CHALKBOARD DOOR".
"Creating a Mudroom"

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So just a reminder, I am living in a condo (for now) and am looking to make better use of the space I have all while making our lives more organized in the process. I have been wanting to do something with this space for awhile and finally settled on the perfect "style" of gallery wall as it needed something BIG to command the space because as you can clearly see from this "before" shot below, it certainly wasn't commanding much of anything! ;)
 
The condo I live in is 3 stories and in the shot below this is a huge wall that you see as you are walking up the steps from the walkout basement/ garage area and heading into the living room so it soooooo needed something, wouldn't you agree, as these two pitiful framed pieces were NOT cutting it. lol

So this is the "before" shot:

and here is my list to accomplish JUST with this space:
- design and purchase all items for gallery wall
- print photos for frames
- paint this entire area (but has to wait as it's shared with the living room)
- paint the ceiling
- paint all of the trim WHITE
- paint the banisters
- hang shelves, picture frames, artwork in this area
- remove everything else
- replace door stops

Step 1: the first step to creating the perfect gallery wall is determining how much space you have to work with. Ask yourself, do you want the design to go from floor to ceiling? Side to side? Or just fill a certain space above a piece of furniture? Measure this area out to determine what you have to work with before getting started. Next design a "color scheme". Mine was easy since this gallery wall is technically in the living room, I decided to match everything with my living room decor. Our living room is black and white with a touch of spring green. So I decided to have all of the photos printed in black n' white and put them all in black or white frames.

Mix it up a bit too and feel free to add other items like mirrors, shelves, art prints or whatever you have and like to give it some variety and keep it interesting.

Before attempting to put everything you have purchased, had printed or bought on the wall, I would HIGHLY SUGGEST you do yourself a favor & lay it all out on the floor to decide on a layout that will look amazing. This step seems like the hardest but it allows you to try out different scenarios to your layout before you get the perfect one.

 

Step 2: Clear the wall area that everything is to go on. Remove anything that can get in your way, take out old nails, screws, etc. until you have a bare wall staring back at you.

Step 3: This step is the MOST IMPORTANT! And trust me, you are glancing down at these pics and saying to yourself . . . "oh hell no am I going to do all of THAT!" . . . but yes you are! Wanna know why? It's simple, you can change your mind as often as you like by simply re-arranging the paper. So first part of this step is after you figure out an arrangement from (step 1) take some old newspaper, newsprint - anything you have and trace & cut out each thing you are going to want to hang in your gallery wall layout. AND label them accordingly.

I would suggest starting in the upper left hand corner and work your way across and then back to the left side and work on the middle and so on. This way if you need to re-adjust as you go, you can simply move the paper instead of having to re-hammer a nail into the wall. I used some washi tape to hold the paper in place as I stepped back and looked at my layout. It keeps everything in place until you are ready to get the hammer out. Trust me you do NOT want your wall to look like swiss cheese when you are done with fifty billion nail holes because you couldn't make up your mind or you miscalculated something. Trust me - go grab some newsprint & get tracin & a cuttin. You will THANK me later. ;)

 

Step 4: It's time to hang!!! Start in the upper left hand corner and before you hang up each item, look at where the hook is on the back and mark it on the newsprint paper hanging on the wall. Then go ahead and hammer in the nail before you take the newsprint down, this way you are getting a pretty accurate placement of the nails/ screws used to hang up everything the proper way. Once in place rip down the newsprint & hang your frame/ art. Repeat this process going from left to right, top to bottom.

So what do you all think of THIS piece in the above photo? It's a hand painted embellished canvas wall art piece that is available in my other shop: Skylar Raine.

One of my favorite DIY projects for this wall was the "FAMILY" artwork letters I did for this wall. It was such an easy project and I will be sharing how to make one for yourself in the coming week.

And just so you can see the IMPACT of designing a wall like this, here is the token "before & after photo for your enjoyment . . .

So what do YOU think? Pretty sweet huh? I love it and have gotten sooooo many compliments on it, so I guess that means it's a keeper. ;) I still need to do some major painting in this area but it feels good to have gotten this done for now.

Gallery Wall AREA "to-do" LIST:
- design and purchase all items for gallery wall
- print photos for frames
- paint this entire area (but has to wait as it's shared with the living room)
- paint the ceiling
- paint all of the trim WHITE
- paint the banisters
- hang shelves, picture frames, artwork in this area
- remove everything else

Well it's a start but it looks like I have a whole lotta painting to do next. ;)

I really hope you are enjoying this series on home DIY.
I would LOVE to hear if you have ever designed a gallery wall for a spot in your home? Did you use the tips I provided here? Do you have any additional tips that worked well for you? Do you think you will try a gallery wall yourself?

Please comment below with your thoughts as I would love to hear from you! 

Are you loving the "eye candy" here? 

Then join me over on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter & Instagram so you never miss out on an exclusive deal or any behind the scenes photos!

Check out my designs, artwork & decor in my Etsy shop!  
Looking forward to seeing you again! :)

I would love for you to connect with me by email or become a blog follower too! {on the right sidebar}  Looking forward to seeing you again! :)