DIY: Living Room Gallery Wall How-To

In the process of updating our upstairs living room I knew I really wanted to incorporate a gallery wall somewhere in the space.  Reason #1: everyone and their mother seems to have some kind of gallery wall in their house right now and I'm envious, and Reason #2: it would give me an excuse to show off some of my favorite prints and pieces.  I'm sure there are probably a dozen different ways to assemble and hang a gallery wall, but I'm going to walk through the method that worked for me.

Step 1: Collect pieces for your gallery wall.  This is the fun part!  Gather up any and all wall hangings that you want to have displayed.  If you need frames I'd suggest stopping by your local Goodwill or secondhand store.  Don't worry about the size, color, or width of the frame - having variation is a good thing!  But if you do want your frames to have a more cohesive look, you can do what I did and spraypaint most (or all) of them the same color.  So even though each frame might be a different style, having them all be the same color makes them more visually relatable.

Large cardboard boxes work great for spraypainting, BTW.

If you're looking for some ideas of what you can include in your gallery wall frames, here's a few suggestions:

-Pinterest is a great resource to locate free gallery wall images.  I found a few of mine using this site.  For example, the blue feather print can be found here, the arrow print here, the antlers here, and the birds nest here.

-Check Etsy.  Many artists sell digital prints of their art in multiple sizes for reasonable prices.  Once you purchase the PDF you can take it to a copy store and have them print it on some nice heavy paper for you.  You can also find other handmade items on Etsy including drawings, paintings, stitched pieces and other kinds of mixed media designs.

-Use old gift bags/wrapping paper/tissue paper that you have stashed away.  If you're like me and have small scraps of wrapping paper saved up, now's the time to use it!

-Display old cards that you received from friends or loved ones that have a neat design on the front.

-Scrapbook paper comes in tons of colors, textures, and designs that you can use.

-If you're into sewing use some of your fabric scraps.  You can even frame quilt squares or small embroidered pieces.

-Secondhand stores like Goodwill or The Salvation Army can have some pretty neat wall art gems every once and awhile if you look hard enough.  For example, the crocheted butterflies hanging on my gallery wall were from my local Goodwill.  I actually removed them from their original felt backing and placed them on some fresh new fabric that matched my color scheme.

-Sentimental items that you've saved can also look great in a gallery wall.  Things like sheet music, recipe cards, handwritten notes, and family photos are all items you can consider including in your layout.

-Hobby Lobby sells these packs of gallery wall images for super cheap- that's where a few of mine are from.  The pack I bought looks like this:

Remember that you don't have to just include framed pieces in your gallery wall - adding in other kinds of artwork like canvases, metal letters, embroidery hoops or other objects adds interest and variation to your assembly.  I managed to find multiple odd items at Michael's that I ended up including in mine, like a burlap-wrapped canvas, a metal key, and some raw wood slices.

Step 2:  Take 4-5 sheets of large sketch paper and tape them to your wall, making sure to overlap and tape them together until they fill up the entire wall space where you want your gallery wall to eventually hang.  This will give you an an idea of how much wall space you will have available for all of your artwork.  As you can see in the picture below cut out a space on the right hand side to allow room for our light switches.  Don't worry about all the outlines shown here - that's taken care of in Step 4.

Step 3:  Once you have the area of your gallery wall mapped out, remove the assembled paper from the wall and place it on the floor.  From there you can gather all of your artwork and experiment with the layout of all your separate pieces.  I must have done half a dozen different mock-ups before deciding on the final one!  Make sure to fill your frames with artwork first before you start.  And here's a tip: take a picture of each layout you try.  That way, in case you want to move something back to where it was you'll have a reference of it's original location.

Here are a few tips from an old art major to help you figure out the placement of your artwork:

-Decide on the location of your larger pieces first and make sure they are separated from each other.  In the layout below you can see that both of my larger art-filled frames are on opposite sides of the paper - one is in the top right and one is in the lower left.  Spreading the larger pieces out like this helps anchor the design and keeps it from looking to top-heavy or bottom-heavy.

-Try to identify the main colors in each piece and make sure the ones that have similar color palettes aren't too close together.  Referring back to the two largest framed pieces of art below: both of them also happened to have a mint color scheme going on so I placed them further apart.  This kind of thinking also applies to items that have a similar shape, like square or round pieces.  You don't want to have items that are too similar in color or shape grouped together because it will prevent your eyes from moving easily through your group of images.

-Shake up the orientation of your frames: have some hang vertical and others hang horizontal.

-Keep your spacing fairly even.  I'm not saying you have to get out a ruler and have things perfectly symmetrical, but try and keep the distance between pieces consistent.  There are some areas in my final layout where I have larger gaps and spaces but that was only because I didn't have small enough items to fill those gaps.

Step 4:  After you decide on a final layout, take a pen or Sharpie and trace around all of your artwork.  This will help you remember the location of each piece once you hang your paper back up on the wall.

After you've traced each piece you'll now want to go back and mark where all of your nail holes are.  Carefully flip over each item and use a ruler or scrap piece of paper to measure the distance from the top of the frame to the hanger on the back, and then translate that to your paper layout by drawing a dot or "x".  While this process is a little tedious, it makes the hanging part go SO much quicker!

Step 5:  Once all of your nail holes are marked on your paper, remove all of the art and hang your "gallery map" back up on the wall.

Step 6:  Hammer in all your nails right through the paper.

Step 7:  Double-check that you didn't miss any nail marks.  Once you're sure that all nails have been accounted for, remove the paper from the walls.  Now if you took a picture of your final layout there's no need to keep the paper so you can laugh evilly while ripping it to shreds if you feel so inclined.  But if you forgot to snap a photo then you may want to keep your paper intact so you can use your outlines as a hanging guide.

Step 8:  Hang all of your artwork.  (If that wasn't obvious....)

Now here's something I didn't figure out until after everything was hung up: if your gallery wall is near a door like mine, you may need to stick some foam tape to the back of your frames to make sure they don't shift.  I soon noticed that every time the door was opened or closed all of my artwork would go askew which drove me crazy.  This foam tape saved the day!  All it took was a few layered squares on the back of each piece and voila...no more shifting.

I still have a few pieces to finish, like the burlap square and raw wood slices.  What to put on them....I just can't decide!


Source List:
-Michael's: Burlap square, wood slabs, and metal key
-"Only Just Whisper" print: Kurt Halsey
-Metal "S": Urban Outfitters
-Heart/Life is Beautiful/Succulent art: Gallery Art booklet from Hobby Lobby
-"Happily Ever After" art: DIY (a closer look can be seen here)
-Crocheted butterflies: Goodwill
-Lace embroidery hoop: DIY
-WI state wood plaque: local art shop
-Feather art
-Antler art
-Arrow art
-Birds nest art


Thanks for reading!

DIY: Rustic Coffee Table and TV Stand Makeover

Hey guys,

Long time no chat!  Sorry for the unplanned hiatus - the end of the year is always a crazy-busy time with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years...so now that the holidays are out of the way I can try to get back on track with blogging.  Though I have to admit there was one more culprit that distracted me from crafting posts: I finally discovered Instagram.  Seriously I had no idea what I was missing!  For a slacker like me, Instagram is a lazy-girls dream.  Instead of spending hours writing up explanations and laying out posts, I could now post photos with small descriptions in a matter of minutes.  Super awesome, but also super distracting.  Whoops.  While Instagram is a great tool to share my projects and DIY's with a different audience, I still like having detailed records of what we've been up to, which is why I'm trying to switch gears and get back into the blogging world.

Soooo back to the house!

In one of my last posts I shared our upstairs living room makeover.  One of the many changes we made to this room was repainting our coffee table and TV stand.  These two pieces of furniture had definitely seen better days - I bought them from a couple off Craigslist about five years ago and they're made mostly of particle board so they were definitely in need of some TLC.

I took both pieces out to the garage and primed them with Gripper water-based primer followed by two coats of Behr paint.  I didn't paint the tops of either piece because we had decided to attach some wood boards to the top instead for some visual interest.

After picking up our boards at Menard's we cut them to the needed length for both tables.  Then I got to staining!  I decided to try the vinegar steel wool method since many people on Pinterest were able to achieve a nice weathered gray look with it.  After experimenting with a few different mixtures (one with coffee grounds, another with black tea) I settled on the black tea concoction since the test board had the color I was looking for.  I set to work painting each board with the vinegar/steel wool/tea combo using a foam brush.

While the color looked perfect during the initial application, I was disappointed to discover that once the stain dried it turned an orangey color.  I thought maybe if I tried another layer of stain it would help, but just like the first layer it eventually turned orange as well.  Such a bummer!  Since I didn't want to hold this project up I decided to continue on with attaching them to the tables, but I'm hoping at some point to play around with re-staining them a darker color to get rid of this 90's-looking hue.

After the boards were completely dry we started attaching them to the tables board-by-board using wood glue.

To make sure that the boards wouldn't pop up or shift while drying we used these small clamps to keep them in place.  Worked like a charm!  Before long our table tops looked like this:

The inconsistencies in color were my favorite part, but other than that I doubt I'll be using the vinegar-steel wool method in the future.

After a bit of distressing and some new hardware our TV stand and coffee table looked like this:

Even though I'm not super happy about the color of the wood tops, I really do love the overall look of this transformation and am crossing my fingers that both pieces hold up for a few more years until we can afford something of higher quality.  For now, we can check these off the list!

Thanks for reading!

Rustic Christmas Decor Ideas

Snow is finally falling here in Wisconsin, which means it's time for the fall decor to come down and the Christmas stuff to go up!  I was able to find a lot of great things for our place this year, which is a good thing considering we didn't have much to start with.  (We moved into our house in September of 2014 and barely had a budget for holiday decor last year!)

My favorite thing to decorate for Christmas has to be the tree.  Kevin and I are both huge fans of having a real tree, and this year I went for a more rustic theme using things like burlap, small chalkboards, rusty sleigh bells and metal tags.

I don't know about you, but it's feeling pretty festive up in here.

I found some super cute wood deer figurines at Michael's and placed some silver ornaments inside a cloche that I also bought there earlier this year.

I'm a huge fan of Lucy at Ms. Craftberry Bush's printables.  She makes the most beautiful watercolor designs - definitely check out her work if you haven't already!

This pillow was one of my first purchases from Decor Steals.  They have some of the best rustic and vintage-looking pieces.

Our mantel got a big 'winter wonderland' makeover as well.

I also updated our chalkboard to something that fit the season....

....and decked out the area above our kitchen cabinets with lots of Target hot spot finds.

I also made sure to give the outside of our house a little holiday lovin'.  I hung this wreath from HomeGoods on our front door.  I love the mix of burlap, pinecones, and rusty tin stars!

Next to the front door sits our antique window flower box which I filled with scraps from our Christmas tree.  To add some interest I stuck in some red berry branches from Hobby Lobby and a lantern from Kohl's.

Last but not least, we can't forget our Grinch lawn ornament.  Kevin and I made him last year and he's one of my favorite DIY projects to date.  He's definitely a show-stopper and one of the most fun Christmas decorations on our block.  (if you'd like to see how we made our Grinch, check out this post.)

I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season with your friends and families.

Merry Christmas, and thanks for reading!

Source List:

Living Room

-Chalkboard Christmas tree ornaments and burlap ribbon: Michael's

-Rusty sleigh bell ornaments: JoAnn Fabrics

-Twine tree star: Michael's

-Tree skirt: Menard's

-Wood deer figurines and glass cloche: Michael's

-Birch tree & red berry garland: Stein's Garden and Gifts

-'North Pole Toy Co.' pillow: Decor Steals

Fireplace Mantel

-Burlap 'joyful' letters: DIY

-Wood candle holders: Target

-Snowy trees and star garland: HomeGoods

-Burlap glitter trees: Michael's

-Green garland: Hobby Lobby

-White sweater stockings: JoAnn Fabrics

Kitchen

-Burlap and green trees, small wood crate, wood candle holders: Target

-Snowy twig balls: Hobby Lobby

Outside

-Wreath: HomeGoods

-Antique window flowerbox: local thrift store

-Lantern: Kohl's

Fall Decor Ideas for a Rustic Home

There's a crispness in the air and the leaves are turning, so it's time to start decorating for Fall!  Today I wanted to share how I decked out our house for the season starting with our porch and front door.

I included multiple objects in our porch vignette that included a lot of different shapes and textures: a mix of real and fake pumpkins, corn stalks, Indian corn, and mums.  The window box and the wood chair were antique store finds, the little gray table was a roadside rescue, the white post was bought at a craft fair last year, and the crate was bought from Home Depot and was roughly stained.  The welcome sign was a DIY and the burlap banner was found in the Hot Spot section of Target.

Recognize this wreath?  I originally made it for Christmas last year but made the decorations removable so I could customize it for different holidays.

Inside the house I stuck with a more neutral theme.  The area above our kitchen cabinets was filled with mostly Target finds (the wood candle holders, all pumpkins, the little wood crate, and the 'give thanks' pillow were all from there!).  The greenery is from Michael's and the white vases are from IKEA.  The black scale and antlers were thrift store finds.

I had been on the hunt for a vintage kitchen scale FOREVER and finally snagged one from a local consignment shop.  I love how versatile it is!

Our lower level didn't get quite as much attention, but I did find this adorable pillow at a local shop and displayed it near our fireplace in a big basket from Michael's along with a knitted throw from IKEA.

I kept things pretty simple on our mantel - just a few fabric pumpkins, a cotton stem, and a small wood sign from Target.

And in case you'd like to know where any of these items are from, I've recapped with a source list below:

Outside:
-White window flower box: Roost (local shop)

-Small gray table: roadside find/DIY

-Wood chair: Burlap and Lace (local shop)

-White wood post: bought from an art fair

-Burlap banner and little white pumpkins: Target

-Large twig pumpkin: HomeGoods

-Small twig pumpkin: JoAnn Fabrics

-Large white pumpkins: Michael's Arts and Crafts

-Wood crate: Michael's (stained myself)

-Orange bow on wreath: JoAnn's

-Wreath decorations: Michael's

Inside:
-Wood candle holders, white pumpkins, black mesh pumkins, small wood crate, 'Give Thanks' pillow: Target
-Greenery: Michael's
-White vases: IKEA
-Black scale and antlers: thrift store finds
-'Thanks and Giving' pillow: local shop
-White knitted throw: IKEA
-Large basket (holding blanket and pillow): Michael's

Thanks for reading!

Christmas Cheer in the Soden House

Maybe it's just me, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that New Years has passed and it's almost February.  Here I thought time would slow down a bit now that we've gotten ourselves married and in a routine with the house and Zoey (our puppy), but I guess not!

Halloween Housewarming

After Kevin and I closed on our house, we came to the realization that we should probably plan some kind of housewarming party so our friends and family could come and check out our new digs.  Conveniently the year prior I had made a promise to my sister the night of Halloween since her big costume party plans had fallen through and she was understandably bummed: if Kevin and I had a house by the next Halloween, we'd throw our own Halloween party to make up for her previously bashed plans.

It's all in the Details

While I've now posted about many of the different details of our wedding ceremony, there are a few little things that have been left out that I'd love to share.

DIY: Cupcake Ladder Display

If you've been reading any of my previous posts, you'd know that Kevin and I were pretty dead set against having a fancy cake at our wedding.  A big part of it was due to cost (since a detailed wedding cake design can cost upwards of $500!), but the other part of it was because it allowed us to cut out the middle man and buy from a local bakery that I've supported since I was in diapers.  So to make a long story longer......we got cupcakes.  But we still needed a place to put them, and Pinterest gave me yet another brilliant idea - to use a ladder as a cupcake display!  The best part about this was that my parents already had an old wood ladder stowed away in their garage, so we didn't even have to go rummaging to find one.  It must have been destiny, right? 

DIY: Rustic Wine Bottle Centerpieces

Because Kevin and I had around 180 guests at our wedding, one of the biggest focal points in our reception space was our table centerpieces (mainly because there were so many tables!  23 tables to be exact).  Even in the initial planning stages I knew our wedding budget wouldn't allow much in the way of table decorations so I figured I'd have to get thrifty. 

Wedding Ceremony Signage

Now that Kevin and I have spoken our vows, ate some cake, danced the night away, and traveled to Jamaica and back for our Honeymoon, it's FINALLY time to start recapping all of the beautiful handmade elements that I made for our wedding day!  Throughout my school days I always had decent handwriting, but through the last few years I've really developed my calligraphy skills.  Add to that a whole Pinterest board filled with fancy handwritten words, and I had plenty signage inspiration to incorporate into our wedding reception space.