Gallery Wall for the Girls' Room

I decided it was time to change out the cute-but-babyish wall decor in the girls' room for something a little more imaginative and artistic. Like most kids, Ivy loves animals, books, fairy tales, and pictures of herself, so that's what we went with.

I'm sure there are millions of tutorials and methods for doing a gallery wall, but this is my method. It works and it's easy, so I thought I'd share it:

Step 1: Arrange frames on the floor until you get something you like. Take a picture. It doesn't matter whether or not they already have pictures in them because you'll add those digitally.

I had a whole bunch of mismatched frames, but I kind of like that look, so it didn't bother me. Every single one of these was given to me, most of them by my mother-in-law, so I worked with what I had. Also, I got lucky by not having to buy any! I did, however, have to buy glass and backing for them.

After looking around for a while at the glass and backing kits, I had the brilliant (to me) thought of going to Dollar Tree and buying a bunch of cheap plastic frames just to use the glass and backing. I spent about $9 for seven 8x10 frames and two 5x7s. I even ended up using two of the frames. I also already had all the matboard, so that didn't cost me anything extra.

Step 2: Take the picture into Photoshop (or other editing program) and use Transform>Skew on the image so the frames appear straight. It will be harder to place the images naturally if you don't do this, but it's not completely essential. This is the same photograph as the one above, after skewing.

Step 3: Add pictures to the image in Photoshop to see which placement you like best. I ended up adding a few things to the upper right corner once it was on the wall because it seemed unbalanced. I switched up a few frames in the hanging process as well.

Start with hanging one large or central image first, then add to the wall one at a time, using your Photoshopped picture as a reference to frame spacing.

I painted the picture of the owl when I was in high school and used to really liked to draw and paint animals. I also did the colorful cat on the green paper in high school. They've been tucked away in a portfolio in a closet for years, along with a bunch of other old art of mine, so I pretty much forgot I had them until now.

I like to step back after each picture is hung to analyze where the next should go. There aren't any rules at this point. Just go for it!

I used images from Vintage Printable again, along with other free public domain images from Old Book Art. I found some of the other ones by searching for Edmund Dulac, Warwick Goble, and Beatrix Potter, some of my favorite children's books illustrators.

I purchased the cute little baby deer and duckling from Shutterstock because I got a packaged deal, making them pretty much free, but I was inspired by these oh so adorable baby animal photographs and prints.

I put a few pictures of my kids into the mix, naturally. I also put up a little plate my grandma got me in England when I was a kid. It too, has been in a box for years, so I decided I needed to use it or get rid of it, because I hate just storing things forever.

Ivy and Maren were ridiculously excited, which is always the best part about projects like this. What do you think? Does she look happy?

P.S. Thanks to all the generous people who gave me the frames, having access to free printing, and using my old art, I spent under $10 on this whole gallery wall!

I finished my painting! + Oil painting supplies & free printables

Well, the painting I thought I'd never finish is done! It's a relief to have a project off my to-do list that's been there for, uh, four years. I reeeaally dragged this one out.

It's nice to have something big and colorful hanging on the main focal wall in my living room. I have been bugged with the emptiness for as long as I've lived here.

The painting is of a street/river in Recife, Brazil, where my husband served a church mission. It's a special place to him and I thought it was pretty, so I painted it. Who doesn't love colorful buildings?

The evolution of the painting

I tried to show the impasto (raised texture) of the paint here, but it's hard to photograph.

A friend asked me if I was going to blog about the materials I use and any tips I have for oil painting, so I figured I'd share what I think might be useful. I'm no expert, obviously, but knowing that an ordinary person like me can paint should be encouraging, right?

You can see from the picture above that I have a hodgepodge of paint brands, brushes, and supplies. Most of the paint was given to me and some are 10+ years old. I did buy the Utrecht brand paints while I was in an oil painting class in college because the teacher said they were her favorite (they are good). The color is rich and super creamy and goes a long way. But most oil paint is that way to an extent, which is why I like it.



I really like to use these paper palette sheets with a closable container to keep the paint from drying up. It's nice for when you take a few days off (or more). The palette knife is what you want to use for mixing paint colors--not a brush because more paint is likely to be wasted that way and get into the metal base of the brush.

To oil paint, you also need some paint thinner (odorless is best) in a jar, a board or canvas, and somewhere to prop the canvas (I use an easel, but you could do without). Most importantly, don't be intimidated! Even if you start with abstracts just to get used to the medium, they can end up being beautiful if you use rich colors that you love. The great thing about oil painting is that you can't mess up. You can cover up mistakes over and over again, unlike watercolor or other media that are less forgiving.

I also hung up some prints on my other walls so they'd be all balanced out. I got most of these from Vintage Printable, a good source for free public domain images that you can do whatever you want with. I'll share the source for each image below.

I tried to hang the pictures in pairs of similar color schemes. It's harder to see the colors with the glare from the glass and the low lighting. I hung them using these frames from Walmart. Each set of six was only $12, and I bought a full sized white matboard for $7 and cut it myself with a mat cutter, so with the free prints (and I was able to get them printed for free too), it was a very affordable way to put some art on the wall. Plus, it was really fun for me to browse the Vintage Printable website forever to choose the art. :)

Top: here and here

Middle: vintage family photograph and here

Bottom: here and somewhere in this NYPL gallery 

 Top: Carl Bloch public domain image and here

Middle: here and here

Bottom: here and here

Hooray for pictures on the walls! Ivy's room is next. I've chosen some old children's book illustrations that I love, along with some more free printables and some of my art from when I was younger.

Painted Peacock Pillow

Sometimes, I just get so antsy to change something that I grab an old pillow cover and acrylic paint, and without much planning at all, make myself something new. I saw this Urban Outfitters tapestry (on a blog I love called Swoon Worthy), but it was only sold on the UK site, and now it's not sold at all. And I liked it. So I used it as inspiration, okay fine, I copied it.

Urban Outfitters

I used a navy blue pillow cover I've had for several years and just regular old acrylic paint. If I had planned, I would have used fabric paint or at least added a fabric medium to my paint, but no big deal, it worked well enough.

Also, I made a gif slideshow of the progress. Because who hasn't always wanted to make a gif? Or is that just me?

The pillow is currently residing on the French chair I made over. It goes with the other colors in my living room, but the darker background adds some contrast. It's a quick and easy project--paint your own pillow today!

2012 in 12 Minutes

At the end of the year, I like to assemble some of my favorite home video clips into a short movie. According to this video, all we did was laugh, dance, and play. Not that far from the truth, I guess.

Ah, I'm so in love with my family. Here are the lyrics to the song Ivy sings at the end. "Forgether" is a blend of "together forever," FYI.

We're sisters forgether

We're sisters forgether

We keep each other safe

And we would not lost Maren alone.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Before & After Home Projects

First of all, welcome to new readers who came here from Apartment Therapy or Becoming Minimalist!

I haven't been very good at posting little changes to my home, so it's a good time to catch up!

I finally got some lamps for my living room (yay!). And right when I had decided on which ones I wanted at Ikea, I walked in there and grabbed this new Holmliden lamp instead:

$25 price tag including the shade? Sweet. I immediately imagined them painted a bright color, like these colored wire pics.

Little Green Notebook (LOVE that blog)

Fenton & Fenton (Cool, but $1500!)

Chair image found here, on a post about wirework in homes.

I still love yellow, so I went for it. I used Krylon spray paint for plastic and metal and it worked great. I know this lamp isn't everyone's cup of tea (including my husband's, haha, but he says he "can live with it"). I like the modern touch it adds to my living room, but I'm still deciding. They're sitting on the sideboard I painted last year.

A few months ago, I bought this chair from someone in my city for $10. The best part is that I carried it home strapped on top of my double stroller with my kids underneath. I totally felt like a crazy homeless lady, especially because I laughed to myself the whole way home.

It looks like I darkened the wood, but it's just the lighting. I did cut a new piece of wood for the chair seat before I upholstered it because it was one of those toilet seat style wood rings--not so comfortable. I use this chair when I sew, so I needed something good for sitting a long time.

My sister-in-law gave me some of her leftover fabric (thanks, Kristin!). I'd had my eye on this fabric, Premier Prints Barber Taupe, for a while and I kept wanting to use it somewhere.

I also switched lampshades on my little $14 Walmart jelly jar lamp. I never actually liked the pleated one, but I ignored it out of indecision. I pretty much put every home project off for a long time because I'm not sure what I want yet. Then I make an impulse decision anyway. It's kind of messed up, I know.

I got the new one at Walmart too for $5 and added a black ribbon along the top and bottom. It was a little hasty--not my best work.

What do you think? Especially about the yellow lamps? Do you like or dislike the wire style? Be honest--they're just lamps. They don't have feelings.