I haven’t confirmed my decorating style — just yet.
But one thing I DO know is that my decorating choices need to be affordable since I grow tired of things quickly and before long everything is changing and then ta-da things in my home become “new” again.
One day I changed out our silver frames that were above our living room couch and decided I needed something more visually substantial to compete with the new dark colored table and chairs that could be seen from our living room.
So I dismantled our hallway gallery wall, (that I still hadn’t blogged about) since the pictures in the frames were so old they might as well have been from my childhood in the mid ’80s.
You know your pictures need updated when your six year old son points at one and says. “Who IS that girl standing with the guy that looks like daddy before all his hair fell out.“
Whoah.
Just whoah.
I know the wrinkles are creeping up with each passing year, but c’mmon kid, you don’t know who your own mother is?!
So, I scrapped the pictures of the fresh faced couple and left the hallway full of nail holes.
I am still praying they magically fill themselves.
Then I hung the old hallway frames in a new spot, simply and quickly with a level, a high heeled shoe and a little arm power.
Those frames then stayed empty for a few months while I pondered what beautiful updated family pictures could go up in their place.
When I realized our most recent family pictures were taken over a year ago, I moved on to plan B.
I hunted down an old vintage book, the same one I used to make my book page wreathe….
Which has turned out to be the best few bucks I have ever spent.
You can read more about that wreathe project HERE.
I kissed the gloriously dicoloured pages and then proceeded to cut them out, one by one.
I carefully overlapped them and glued them down on to a piece of craft paper, and then cut out key silhouettes to match some leaopard-like sticker keys I had found on my travels.
I glued the cut out keys on to the pages, and put them back together in their frames.
To add some more black and something that gave off the feeling of being more current, I took some left over fabric I had on hand after recovering our dining room chairs and simply put them into some more empty frames.
You can read more about the dining room chairs HERE.
I love the graphic black and white chain link design and love how it now ties both the living and dining areas together.
This neutral, eclectic gallery wall cost me nothing which is why I think I love it so much.
It is good for now, until I can weed through all of our family photos and find some that are frame worthy.
Those long awaited family photos are over due and more apparent then ever; maybe this summer we can all manage to smile sweetly all at once and be semi clean at the same time….
Ha. Who am I kidding.
Ya, all you parents out there know what a miracle THAT would be. 😉
Until then, this little gallery wall will do just fine. 🙂
Do you love a gallery wall as much as I do? What makes it into your gallery wall? Have any tips for wrangling little people and having them all smile at once for the camera? Please share your secrets?? I will love you forever!
marty (A Stroll Thru Life)
July 22, 2013 at 5:37 pmLove your gallery wall, it looks amazing. The book pages with the keys is such a clever idea. Now as for the family pics, not sure they will ever all smile at the same time or be clean all at once, but hey, that's what makes the pictures fun. Hugs, Marty
habakuktwofour
January 25, 2014 at 2:31 pmLove this idea. I also love the sofa where did you get it. My sofa is hair lighter than yours and I going for a cottage look in my home.
bethanygier
January 27, 2014 at 4:56 pmThe couch is older and the store we got it from is closed. 🙁 It is the best with three messy kids and a dog who has the same hair colour. 😉 Wish mine was a lighter colour but we wont risk that until the dog and kids are older. 😉