Gallery Wall in progress!

Man, it’s been awhile since I have made the time to blog! I blame my new found obsession- creating items for my Etsy shop.

Anywho, you know that gallery wall project that I said I was starting soon a LONG time ago? Well, I finally got around to starting it yesterday.

I knew it was going to be a big project so I kept putting it off until finally I got the bug to do it. I’m not totally done with it since I had to space out the banging of the nails to when Bean was awake, but I have just a few things left to hang (thanks to my wonderful hubby who did all of the hanging so far.

Before:

BORING

First I took a tip from a wonderful little blog called Young House Love to create newspaper templates to map out the layout so you don’t end up with unnecessary holes everywhere.

Here’s a little tip- I used newsprint, because I didn’t have many ads, and instantly regretted it after starting to hang them.

If you’re not SUPER careful you’ll end up with smudges all over the walls. If I were to do it again I would use the ads.

Their Version

My Version

We started hanging the photos in the center and then worked our way out:

Almost there!

It’s weird how much the wall color changes according to what time of day it is…

ANYWAYS I am SO proud of it. I worked very hard slowly collecting the frames from thrift stores over time and then spray painting them all.

Not to mention gathering the photos and editing them in Photoshop to black and white (I wanted a somewhat cohesive look).

And the best part of it is that there is still room to grow! Some people may think that it would look cluttered with a full wall of frames, but I love that look.

UPDATE: Finished!

Besides getting this wonderful project done I also found time to create a nifty filing system for our mail.

We never really had a dumping ground for our mail so it would just end up all over the place. We’re lucky we never lost an important bill or letter!

I didn’t want to spend a whole lot (if anything) on buying one so I brainstormed what we had lying around that would work.

After our “rock n roll” themed wedding we had a PLETHORA (like that use of wordage?) of vinyl records that we could never use. How perfect! While planning our wedding I had seen tutorials about how to melt them into various shapes to use for other things.

I basically popped them into the oven at 200 degrees on top of a glass bowl, waited until they started to slump, and then pulled them out and formed them into a shape that would hold letters and mail. VOILA

The one thing that I still need to do to them is to label each one- File, Bills, & Mail (can’t think of a better word for all the other stuff).

Did you also notice the envelopes in the top photo? Since I last wrote we have also started to follow Dave Ramsey’s “Financial Peace University” program and have instituted a family budget and now use cash envelopes for our day to day spending.

I know, I know, I rock. What can I say- 2012 hit and I decided that since we are now a little family with a little baby we better start living like adults.

Hope you enjoyed reading about my recently completed (and almost completed) home projects 🙂 Make sure you check out my shop, too!