My gallery wall update

Now that you’ve seen my tiny bathroom and my wall bed, I think it’s time to show you my gallery wall! When I first started thinking about putting up my gallery wall, something that I do in every place I live in, I questioned if it would be the right decision. The room I’m living in is small, really small. I thought that maybe a gallery wall would make the room feel even smaller. Clutter is a huge issue when you’re in such a small space. But the more I thought about it and realized that the wall is indeed a large wall (the ceiling of the room is angled) the idea of the gallery wall actually worked perfectly.

This is what I started out with- a blank wall that reaches up pretty high.

I wanted to incorporate all the same paintings and such that I had up at my last place and especially my triangle shelves, which I still really love! Almost all of my paintings on my wall were made by one of my parents, so I LOVE to display them.

This is what I was going for:

I haven’t seen many gallery walls behind TV’s but I don’t mind that the paintings peak out from behind. Why not add more visual interest to a focus point of a room (not that I like TV’s to be focus points)??

And this is how it ended up! It looks a little different than what I drew up, but it’s definitely still the look I was going for. I LOVE it! And with my favorite blue dresser, it all goes perfectly.

But if we want to break it down, this is how I made it work:

A. These are my big items, what you hear called anchor items. These are the ones that will help you decide what you can fit in where. I used the two flower frames as one large item because they always go together in that formation. Before I stuck them on the wall I played around with them on the floor, but after having done this several times now it gets easier and easier to figure out the spacing on the wall. If you’re not sure HOW to actually stick them up and make them look well spaced, check out this post from Lulu And Georgia and this one from Collective Style.

B. These are my accent items. The triangle shelves and the mirror act as the pieces that give a little dimension to wall so that it isn’t all just two-dimensional and flat. These pieces add visual interest and texture and the awesome part is that you can basically use anything as an accent piece. I considered using fabric, like one of the runners I purchased in Guatemala or even a plant. Mirrors are perfect for this and give you that extra space feel you want.

C. These are my filler pieces. They are usually small and can fit in those areas that just need a little pumping up. Incorporating items of different sizes is what really makes a gallery wall work so don’t worry if something seems to small next to that large frame. It’ll work!

The last thing is that everything works because I have it in an imaginary box. The top items are all aligned with the imaginary box, and then they trickle down:

But you can also do this with an imaginary line in the middle. Aligning everything to that line and moving out from that point:

The middle line is the point to work from. There are a ton of ways to do this, you just have to find what works and looks best for your wall!

It’s so fun to move things around too, so I can’t wait to see what I can incorporate in this gallery wall. I have enough space to even move over the doors! Happy Monday!