Family Room Gallery Wall

It's been staring at me for awhile. You know- a blank wall. Well, not anymore. Our family room feels cozier with family faces and special prints on the wall.

I collected art and prints for awhile until I felt I was ready for a gallery wall. First, I drew out the space. Then on another paper I cut and taped the art I would use- this way it would be easier to move things around on paper. After I was happy with how it looked on paper, I hung up the art- without using any tracing paper or anything. I got this great idea from Lauren Liess who created the most gorgeous gallery wall above her bed using this method.

                                        Here's a BEFORE shot of what this space looked like.

Now, I'm thrilled to have some meaningful pieces up. I enlarged an image of our daughters by taking a CD to Staples and having them print a large 'engineer print'. Engineer prints are genius and it only cost me $3. I framed my print, but a lot of people who use engineer prints mount them (using double sided tape) on foam core. You can get large pieces of foam core at Home Depot and they can cut it to the size you need.  Before you print an enlarged image, make sure it's a quality photo.

Also, most of the engineer prints I've seen are black and white. I don't know how well they would turn out if they were color. The frame I used was given to me by a friend who didn't need it, so I painted it black and put the print of our girls. The sailboat painting was painted by my dear grandmother. The basket is my husband's grandparent's, they got in Africa when they served as Christian missionaries during WWII. The ferns and agates are art projects I've made and then I love the other pictures of our family on the side.

What I love about this space is there is room for a few other small things or art to go up. Gallery walls are a great way to tell stories about things you love and your interests. I'm happy with how this wall shaped out.

Best of the nest