Gallery Walls

I am completely obsessed with Gallery Walls!  


I've been doing my own versions of the gallery wall since way before I realized they had a name or were 'cool'.

My hallways have always served as a gallery wall of family photos and such.  And this house is no exception.


Some of you might remember forever ago that I posted the problem with my current gallery wall...it had the "highwater effect".

I've taken the 'stuff' further down the wall now. I'm still on the fence as to whether it's low enough now or not, but it's working for now.

Now I'm moving on to creating a gallery wall in the living room!

I told you I'm obsessed with gallery walls!  

Pinterest is only encouraging my obsession.

After lots of looking and searching and pinning...I have definitely learned that I am drawn to the eclectic type gallery walls.  I like a hodge podge of items. Artwork mixed in with pictures and letters/numbers and plaques and whatever strikes your fancy. 

Don't get me wrong I love structured gallery walls too.  Like these:

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Then there's the pseudo-structured gallery walls.  These have structure to them in the way they are displayed, but the items on the wall have variety.  Like these:

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This one with all the paint by numbers makes my heart go pitter-patter!  I LOVE vintage paint by numbers! 

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THEN.......

BE STILL MY HEART!!

There's the ones that truly make me drool.  Okay, maybe not literally.  Not that I would admit too. But these are the ones I want in my own home. 

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Does it get anymore spectacular than these?!?!  :)

If you are interested in following me on Pinterest so you can keep up with all the things that make me smile, laugh, or that is just plain adorable, beautiful, stunning, or whatever else smarks my interest, here is the link to follow me.

Gallery Wall

Sorry, if you got a VERY abbreviated version of this post.  I have no idea what happened, but as I was typing it posted on its own. LOL  Don't you hate when that happens. :)

Gallery walls....do you love them?  Hate them?  Don't think about them?

Personally, I love them!!

As us bloggers know...gallery walls are the "it" thing going on right now.  This is one of the trends I just HAD to do. :)

My tiny hallway seemed like the perfect spot.  You can see this wall from the front door, so it's important that it flows with the look of the living room.  And I think the vintage look is perfect for the new changes in my living room.

Most of the frames I already owned.

Like this picture of Doodle when she was a baby...the picture has always been in this frame.

Or this picture of my mom when she was a little girl which used to hang in my spare room.

With the matching framed picture of my dad when he was young.

As well as this picture of my grandparents.

I took new pictures and antiqued them by turning them into sepia tones with Picnik.

I did purchase the smaller frames.  I got them at Hobby Lobby at half price.  So, they each cost around $4.

I took this picture that I LOVE of Doodle and I, and I scanned it on my scanner and again used Picnik to sepia tone it.  Then I just printed it on my printer.  I also did this with my close friends family picture.

Technically this isn't legal since it was taken professionally...but it was so long ago I have no idea where it was even taken.  So, sue me. LOL

The metal "V" monogram (which is our last name initial), I purchased a loonnngggg time ago at the Habitat ReStore for $1.  It was white and I just spray painted it black with paint I already had on hand.

The little plate was in with my mom's old pictures and belongings.   My mom died when I was 10 years old from breast cancer.  So, I don't know the story behind this little plate, but I thought it was adorable.

Now, for the problem...you know I always seem to have one. LOL

Let's back out.

Boob light.  Need I say more? LOL

AND, it feels like I need to take it furter down the wall.

This is foreign territory for me!  How far down do I go?  Where do I stop? 

There is absolutely NO room in this hallway for a piece of furniture to go there, so it all has to be on the wall.

HELP!!! :)

Lamp Shade Redo

Oh goodness my friends!!  I know I haven't been around much lately.  The weather has been so nice I've been taking advantage of it and working in the yard.

I have mentioned before that I love gardening!  I'm new to it, but I really do love it!  So, I've been cleaning up the mess winter left behind, planting new things, moving old things, pulling weeds and just enjoying the sunshine. :)

I would like to apologize for leaving you all high and dry with no postings, but my soul needed the time outside.

So.....here is project I've been meaning to show you for a couple weeks now!

I'm so thrilled with it! :)

Let's take a look back, shall we?

Do you remember how this table lamp on the left felt out of place with it's bright white drum shade?

Well, at first I figured I would buy a new shade because I was scared to mess this one up. 

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it would cost me much less to change up this shade than to buy a new one and then be stuck with a bright white shade I didn't need.

So, I mustered up some nerve and got some inspiration from all the fabulous lamps they sell at Hobby Lobby and headed to JoAnn's (with a coupon) for fabric and trim with all my new inspiration.

First, I cut the fabric.  Which is just a 1 yard piece of muslin.

Then I used spray adhesive to attach the fabric to the shade.

I trimmed up the fabric at this point and just hot glued on pre-bought trim to cover the rough edges.

Isn't that little velvet strip down the center fantastic?

My new lampshade fits in so much better with my darker overall look!! :)

AND...while I don't remember my exact price (isn't that so unlike me?)...the entire redo was under $10.

I think I would eventually like to change out the base too, to something 'chunkier', but we'll see what I can come up with on the cheap.

My living room is coming along.  This is how the room is currently looking.

Still working on the balancing out that shelf, those sconces and I can't wait to do redo that coffee table.  I think I may actually own a rug already that will work for this room (won't that be nice....FREE - one of my favorite words).  I'll be putting it down tomorrow to see if it works or not. :)

Latest Living Room Changes

I have been excitedly working on the living room!  :)

After I posted about the MANY problems with this try (sometimes it takes several tries and many tweaks to get the room you want).....

I started tweaking almost immediately.

I took everything down, patched the swiss cheese holes, and touched up the paint.

Then using only stuff I already had on hand, which means FREE people, I got to this, which I'm totally LOVING!!!

I know it looks very beige in this picture, but there really is color...plus I'll be adding more color as this room continues to evolve.  It's been so gloomy, rainy and gray here in Indy it's next to impossible to get really good pictures. :(

Anywho, here's a close up of the wall above the couch.

See?  There really is color! :)

What's really important to me is that some of the pieces incorporated here have alot of meaning and history to me.

The purple inlaid floral in the center, I purchased when I lived in Italy.  I purchased it during one of my many trips to Sorrento, Italy....my absolute, most favorite place in the entire world!!! 

The blue star candle holders were purchased in Germany.  My ex-husband purchased those on our last vacation the month before I transferred to Hawaii. 

The red shelf is my "independence shelf".  That was my first purchase after I left my husband (the first time, LOL).  It was something he would have never went for...so I bought it.  I have always loved that shelf but hadn't displayed it yet in this home...my first house.  Isn't that strange?  Maybe that's what's been missing all along. :)

Now, let me point out this area is not done. 

I need to create balance by adding something on the wall to the left of the shelf.  I'm working on that.  It won't necessarily be plates or even round, but we'll see what I find.

I still have to work out the lighting over the couch as these sconces are way to modern for this look. 

Plus, I need to paint or stain or a combo of both (which is what I'm leaning towards) the coffee table, add a rug, and I'd really like to replace my modern looking glass/wood Ikea nesting tables with something more worn and all wood (I hate glass tables!  They are impossible to clean!).  Although I'd still really like nesting tables, they are convenient in a small space. 

So, I'll be on the looking out for cheap nesting tables I can paint.

Some of the other elements I used on the shelf are Dollar Tree redo's (that I already had), like the bird, the little box the plant is sitting on, and even the finial which was a pale tan before I painted it will some ORB paint! :)

The little "Blessed" sign on the wall was a half priced Hob Lob item ($2.50) and the planter was a Marshall's find one day ($5.99), and who knows where the fake plant came from.

The plates were all picked up at various times (for cheap) and displayed in my house at random times.

And the mirror was a flea market score for $10!!!  

You've seen it in staged pictures before....it was white.  White was too crisp for my living room, so I took it out and gave it a couple coats of black spray paint and then distressed it a little.

Can I make a confession?  I hope you don't think I'm strange for this. 

Do you want to know how I remember how much I paid for all this stuff, even though some of it I've had for many years? 

I leave the price tags on the backs!!  On purpose!

Seriously!  I love a deal so much, that I leave the prices on the backs so everytime I move something I can relive how awesome of a deal I got!  Am I crazy?  Does anyone else do that??

Anywho.....out of nutty-land that is me and back to my living room. :)

Let me be the first to point out the pet bed in the room.  At any time there could be either cat or the big fat pug on the bed cushion.  Did you notice it?

Quite frustrating! 

It's a good thing they are all so darned cute! :)

Well, I think that's about it for now.  So, what do you think of the newest changes so far (it's not done)?  Is this a better stylistic flow?

Evolution of Design

As I take my living room from a fairly modern look to a cottage look, I've run into a dilemma.

I thought this would be the perfect time to walk you through how I make my decorating decisions. 

Not all that long ago I purchased this beautiful picture for my living room. 

It was kind of a kick off and inspiration for turning my living room into the garden cottage I envision in my dreams.

It is GORGEOUS!!!  And I adore it!!

Then I made my no-sew curtains!  Which I also ADORE!

Here is where the dilemma comes in.  If you have a keen eye, you might have even noticed it as you looked at both of these pictures.

What is it you ask?

The new picture looks to NEW compared to the darker, more vintage looking curtains!!!!!

Not sure?

Let's back out and take a look.  This is my living room as it currently sits.

Do you see it now that I've pointed it out?

If not, let's get even more detailed as to how I know these two don't work together.

Don't look at the picture above the couch.  Lets just look at the bright red throw pillows and the curtains for now.

Would you say these pillows complement the curtains?  Or clash?

I'd say they clash.  They are way too red.  The red in the curtains is a much darker, deeper red.

Now let's take a look at the picture and pillows without the curtains.

Now do you think the red pillows compliment the picture?  Or clash?

I'd say the red pillows are a complimentary color to the picture.

SO......if the pillows compliment the picture, but clash with the curtains....then the picture and curtains must not have complimenting reds.

Let's take a look again at the whole picture.

Now do you see the dilemma?

One of them has to go.  But which one?

Let's look at other aspects of the room that have been updated lately, to the cottage style I'm going for.

This vignette I showed you earlier this week.

When you see this vignette, do you see the curtains or the picture?

I clearly, without a doubt, see the curtains here.

This is how the pie safe in the room currently looks.  It's not done, but it's definitely going in the direction I like.

Do you see the curtains or the picture?

Again, I clearly see the curtains.  The picture just seems to "new" for the pie safe or bookshelf vignette.

So, when I take everything in to account, the picture is the delimma.  It's the thing that is not going to make the cut (along with the bright red pillows).

But I love it so much I'm going to find it a new place in my home.  I'm not ready to part with it, that's for sure.

So, my living room is heading exactly where I want and what I have envisioned in my mind.  But not every decision is right the first time unfortunately.

Decisions like these can be costly.  But I know me and I know that clash of the reds and the clash of too new vs. vintage feeling will drive me batty.   Well, battier than I already am. ;)

Thank goodness for Craigslist.  Or in this case, another room, :)