Gallery Remix Remix

Do you ever start project that you want so badly, but you keep having fails? No matter what you do, you just hate it every time? Oh, it’s just me?

Well my Groundhog Day project is The Gallery Wall. I started one in the downstairs hallways.

Yeah it looked like that for at least a good 6 months before I even filled the frames. But I still kinda hated it. So I started the ever popular stairwell gallery.

Yes, there were still empty frames.

I hadn’t really made anymore progress on it, except that each time I went up and down the stairs I hated it more. I wanted an eclectic feel, but it just seemed chaotic. I think the problem was that I kept trying to reuse old things that didn’t earn a spot anywhere else.

So I decided to start over. I collected all the frames and decided I would paint them white and arrange them on the wall at the bottom of the stairs (between the dining room hutch and the living room). But since I had a bad history already with arranging a gallery, I asked my friend Amy to come do it for me She’s a wiz at that sort of thing. Once she was done, I took a picture of it so I could re-create it on the wall.

Over a few days I painted most of the frames, but during the process I decided I liked some of them as they were. Then it was time to think about filling them. Eclectic had failed me several times, so I tried to narrow down a loose theme. I came across a stock photo of some paintbrushes, and it hit me- photos of my hobbies! How incredible self absorbed of me! I’m not the type of person who likes to have pictures of myself all over the house, so I figured this somewhat subtle hobby theme would allow me to pick images that actually mean something to me. I found some free prints of paintbrushes, yarn, knitting needles, sewing notions, paint cans, and tools and had them printed at Office Max for about $6. I did try to print them in sizes for my existing mats, but I had to buy some new mats anyways (some were too yellow for the white frames). I added a few non-photo things to the mix as well. And guess what. I FINALLY love it!

If you’re wondering what happened to my Glitter Stag (he used to live here), he needed some plastic surgery and will have a new home when he is fully recovered. For now, this is the new view from the stairs.

The mirror color was just a little fun, it’s sort of a nod to the pear colors I have going on in the dining room.

I’m hoping that because everything is more personal, I’ll be less inclined to start hating it down the road. Does anyone else have gallery wall issues?! I can’t be the only one. It all looks so effortless in the magazines.