Creating a gallery wall

I love gallery walls and I've wanted to try one for awhile - something dramatic like one of these. The layout of our open concept living room/dining room gives the illusion of a big, empty wall behind the couch (we've actually got a large vintage stereo cabinet hidden back there) and it seemed like the perfect location for a gallery wall.

So, I gathered up some of our favourite pictures, paintings and prints to make paper templates, which I then arranged on the wall using painter's tape. After lots of arranging and rearranging, here's what I ended up with (you can just see the top of our stereo cabinet in this picture - it got a little beaten up during the move, so one of my future projects will be painting it):

Following John and Sherry's advice from their hallway photo project, I measured the distance from each frame's edge to its hanging device (wire, hook, etc.) and marked an 'x' on the corresponding paper template. I hammered a nail into each 'x', tore down the paper template, and hung my frames.

It's an ongoing project, which means I'll be adding frames as I go (and probably switching out some of the pictures up there now). I'd definitely like to see some more family photos up there, and I'd like to add a few silver frames to mix things up. I'm also planning to replace the off-white and grey mats with white ones (luckily there are only a few that need to be replaced).

If you're thinking about building your own gallery wall, The Working Proof is an awesome place to purchase affordable art. As an added bonus, 15% of the sale of each print is donated to a charity chosen by the artist. How cool is that?!

And, until the end of the month, 100% of the sale of the gorgeous print below will be donated to Medecins Sans Frontieres to support their relief efforts in Japan. I just ordered mine and I can't wait to see it on my gallery wall!

Birds in the Bush, by Susan Schwake