wall makeover

Ever since we moved into this apartment the wall behind our dining table stayed empty. It has mocked me with its blankness for three years now. Also my boyfriend never got tired of kindly pointing out that the wall was still bare. But don't worry I have something I have been just as annoying about. ;)

 

step 0: dedication

You have to finish what you start! I left everything I bought for the wall somewhere right in my way to constantly bother me as a reminder of my project. I ignored the urge to tidy everything up and put it out of my way.

step 1: decide on a style

As usual I turned to Pinterest to find some inspiration. The thing is though that just because something is inspiring to me doesn't necessarily mean my better half will like it as well. After me showing him endless wall decoration ideas in various colors and forms, he just gave up and let me do my thing with his main no-gos in mind.
In a nutshell that meant: lots of picture frames in various colors and sizes, no wall paint, no letters, no frames with quotes.
I am not a fan of super colorful frames, so color to me means white, black and silver.

We hit different stores and did some damage. To be honest the variety of frames was not what I was hoping for. So we had to go with lots of smaller frames. Also if you are on a budget you might want to start a smaller gallery. By the way since when don't they sell any round white frames that don't look like crap anymore?

step 2: pick out pictures

Anyway.. The next step was to pick out the pictures for our gallery. That was a lot harder than I ever would have thought. We never take a lot of photos. In retrospect I always regret it but I don't seem to learn from my mistakes. Again I felt like there were rarely any usable images. Keep in mind we have been together for 9 years! Maybe we are just too goofy to take perfectly staged Instagram worthy images of our oh so interesting lives.

My decor consultant - aka. my boyfriend's sister - and I also decided we would go for black and white photographs but that turned out to be a little too dull paired with all black, white and silver frames, a white wall, white chairs and basically no color anywhere in sight.

A little tip on the side: Try not to choose photos with a lot of people in a small frame. It might look good standing on your table or while you are holding it in hand but as soon as it's on the wall the image will get lost among the others. From afar you won't be able to make out anything. So rule of thumb should be the more faces in a picture the bigger it should be. Or just stick to two to three people in a pic altogether.

step 3: preparation

I traced every frame onto a piece of cardboard. You can also use paper or whatever you have on hand. It is also very helpful to mark where you need to place the nail on the paper. Every frame is different and you don't want to mess up your layout.

 

step 4: layout

I tried out different arrangements on the floor until I was satisfied. It is up to you if you want to go for chaos like I did or any kind of order. It all depends on your liking as well as how many frames you want to put up and on how much space you have.



 

 

 

step 5: mock it out

It is very important to make sure you know where you want every picture to hang before you put a nail in your wall. Ask yourself what and where you want the center to be. I don't have a center picture but my dining table as center of my gallery. You should also consider how high you want everything to go, other furniture as well as the space between the frames. Another tip is to label the cardboard. I had some similar sized pictures and knowing me I will mix them up and wonder what went wrong.

 

 

step 6: enjoy

 

 

 

I have to admit it is not the perfect Pinterest revelation. Plus the images don't do my work justice. ;) BUT for a first try I do like it.

The wall and I get along much better now.