Create a beautiful but simple gallery wall with things you love!

I love beautiful things! I have an eye for vintage decor or things that may not be truly vintage but look vintage. I like to mix new with old and my style is probably more eclectic than any other type of decorating style. I’m OK with that because I love lots of different things. When I wanted to create a beautiful gallery wall in our family room, I didn’t want to spend a ton of money or a ton of time creating a wall we will love for years to come. I also wanted it to evolve with us as our family ebbs and flows over the years.

I have a ton of photos that I have been wanting to frame and display on a Gallery wall. We didn’t have a free wall to display them on in our condo. So you can imagine my excitement when we moved into a much bigger house with lots of walls to fill up with beautiful art and family photos.

I have been collecting different photo frames in the colors I love in all different sizes for some time now. Before we moved into our house, I had gone thrift and discount shopping at various thrift stores and big box stores around town and found some frames I liked either already low priced or on sale. Some are vintage-inspired and some are just in the colors I like; teal blue, gray, distressed white, and gold. I already had a few things that I wanted to use, so I added new to the old and made it beautiful.

With the stuff I had on hand, I got to work using Command Strips and a couple of nails to get my Gallery Wall pulled together. Using Command Strips helps not put a ton of holes in your walls. My husband doesn’t like when I fill the walls up with nail holes. I actually put this wall together before we even had a couch. I guessed on how high to put the first row or layer of the Gallery Wall. I would recommend that you measure and not guess. I got lucky that it worked out. By using Command Strips, I was able to put things up and move them around a couple of times before deciding if I wanted it to stay where I had originally placed it. I moved things around a couple of times before I got it to look the way I really like it.

You can do your Gallery Wall any way you’d like, but I used things I had on hand and also hung up the new to me different size frames that I filled with my favorite photos. I plan to change the photo’s out as the twins get older and we have more milestone moments in our family’s life. I love inspirational quotes too so I have some great quotes interpersed on our Gallery Wall in addition to the photos.

I plan to add more photos around what I’ve already placed on the wall and will be on the lookout for some old windows (I will use them as frames) to add to the wall along with other great frames as I find more. For now, I like the way the Gallery wall looks, but I do plan to add more to it and am excited to see how it evolves.

The Gallery Wall as it evolves!

As you can see, I’ve used a couple of vintage-inspired things (check out the cute little mirror on the right that I found at a thrift store for $10!) along with framed quotes and the eclectic frames I found before we moved into this house. I do plan to add more photos of different sizes on the top and around the sides. I’m hoping to find some vintage windows to clean up, paint and turn into frames to sue like the one in the middle.

Since I only have time to work on projects like this during nap time, this project had to be completed in 2 hours or less. I was able to get this one done from putting the photos into the frames and then deciding how I wanted to space and place the different frames in about an hour and a half. I have tweaked it a little here and there after I originally got it all put in place. The tweaks probably took me about 10 minutes and I’ve done that twice. So total, I’ve spent less than 2 hours on this project. As I add things to it, I don’t plan on spending a ton of time on it. I will keep an eye out for the perfect pieces to complement what is already there so I won’t have to do a complete do over.

If you decide to create your own Gallery wall, remember use what you already have and love. You don’t have to spend a ton of money or time on it. You can be creative and it can as eclectic as you’d like it to be. Also, my Gallery wall has photographs of my family, but you’re gallery wall can be anything you love. If you love vintage movie posters, you can make a Gallery Wall out of those. If you love photographs of flowers, use those. If you have a ton of old photos of your ancestors and have been wanting to incorporate those in with your family photos, that would look amazing in old frames next to your kid’s school photos. However you decide to create your own personal Gallery Wall, I know it will be perfect for you and your family.

Share your photos of any of your own nap time projects in the Comments, but especially of your Gallery Wall!