Wednesday, November 10, 2010

what's on your walls?


I'm so inspired by wall galleries! I'm really digging these lately. The photographer in me just can't get enough of having portraits and photographs everywhere. I ran across this beauty in a pottery barn catalog I had from a while ago. I'm DYING over that yummy brown paint, even though I tend to be a light paint person, I'm LOVING the way it pops against the white trim. This has me wishing my basement stairs where even MORE open, we opened up the stairway as much as possible, but I want to do something like this. I'm so inspired by this space. I love the contrast of the industrial looking light fixture with the more traditional wainscot and banister, and HELLO orange striped rug, you are gorgeous! I tore this page out of my catalog and I've been staring at it a few times a day, just analyzing what makes it work so well.

I went looking for more on the pottery barn site and found this useful little guide to making a wall gallery:


Can you tell what's on my mind lately? Right now our basement projects are taking up most of our time and energy, but I'm still thinking about how to make a great display of favorite family photos in our family room.

I think I'm going to wall ledge route for above our couch, I love that even though there are a lot of pictures, it still looks "clean" and collected.
I'm thinking it's time to get to work. The hardest part for me will be choosing which photos to display. I love all of our pictures, and when the time comes to hang them up on the wall this is always the biggest challenge for me.

Mine might end up looking like this:

Which is lovely, but in real life, it's just a tad too much. Nice for an ad though.

Real life would be something more like the one Lindsey (the pleated poppy) has in her dining room:
I'm in love with her whole house, actually.

If you'll notice, the majority of these are black and white images. I see the logic behind it, they all match and go together, but I'm kind of a color junkie. I don't know if I could commit myself to doing all black and white.

Have you done a wall gallery of any type? I want to see it! leave me a link in the comments and I'll come check it out, I'm on the hunt for more inspiration! (if I were a REAL home blogger we would have a real linky party, but I'm just a little "how I'm decorating my new house" blog, so this will do!)

16 comments:

Angie said...

I'm loving that brown paint too. Too bad my basement is done and I'm not painting for a while now. Let me know if you find the color though. I've been thinking of a gallery display for one of my walls in the basement. Thanks for the helpful tips!

Shantel said...

I have been lovin' on the wall picture galleries for quite a while! In fact, in my parents house as I was growing up we had a picture gallery that went down our stairwell. It was a completely enclosed stairwell, and there were LOTS of pictures, but it was very tastefully done and I LOVED IT. (That is probably where my love of wall galleries was born.) I remember always taking a minute as I walked down the stairs to look at the pictures of my family and point out my favorite pictures to my friends.

Right now we have a gallery display in our living room. I don't think I have a picture of it online, but we are going to do a post about our apartment soon... so be on the lookout. Its really cute with accents of turquoise frames mixed throughout.

Holly said...

I'm really enthusiastic about how my wall gallery is coming together. Once I finally find the perfect solution to a clean edge on my styrofoam pieces it will go together in no time. I am doing all black and white images because (as you know) I live for my soothing neutrals and I like that it doesn't commit the room to any particular colors and gives all images a uniform look.

Lisa at Paint in my Hair said...

I love those ledges and am dying to do something similar in my entry. I need to find a great sale on frames.

And BTW, you ARE a real home blogger!

Bekki said...

What great inspiration. I have a lwedge gallery in my living room over the sofa. It is perfect for such a log blank wall. It's been up for 4 years and I still love it.

This is the only picture on my blog I could find. It's about halfway through the post. Apparently I need to take current pictures. It is quite different now as I have some antique ironing boards between the sofa and the wall and new lamps, but you'll get the idea.

http://littleredhen4.blogspot.com/2009/07/gone-to-long.html

Mindy said...

Thanks for the link Bekki, can't wait to check it out!

destiny said...

Hi! I LOVE your blog...it's very inspiring because we are making lots of changes to our new home and I love to see the progression of your abode!
I'm really into Gallery walls right now. It's the perfect solution for big, blank walls! And I have lots of those right now! This is a small one I did in my living room. http://adayinthelifeoftheperkinsfamily.blogspot.com/2010/10/before-and-after-living-roomhallway.html
I plan on doing more in other rooms of our house so this post is very helpful! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I just finished putting together a gallery of different wallpapers. I love wallpaper but it is expensive and a lot of work to take off your walls when you get tired of it. The wallpaper gallery is on the first page of my blog and I have another gallery a few pages back. It is a gallery of my homework. I also want to do a gallery of my kids homework. I am working on a gallery of family pictures but I don't have any pictures of that up on the blog yet. BTW I am a big fan of your blog. Thanks! www.mingledelements.com

TheCatLord said...

i have always wanted a photo wall in my dining room. i didn't know exactly how i was going to do it until i saw this post- thanks for the inspiration!!

Laurel @ Ducks in a Row said...

I don't have a gallery wall - I love Lindsay's house too! Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Christina said...

I love these pictures...and I still think I might take you up on being your neighbor so I can share that mountainous view with you :)

BTW- I gave you an award on my blog today...thanks for posting such great inspirations! :)

Anonymous said...

I sort of have a gallery wall, 4 big black and white photos, but it just dawned on my I don't have a picture of it on my blog at all. You can see part of it in my living room picture, so I guess I will have to put a post up of the whole wall so you can see the photos.

It's the living room picture, the 2 photos on the right side of the armoire, there are also 2 photos to the left of the armoire, too.

http://shoppingcandy.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-house-before-after-pictures.html

Anonymous said...

It's me again, I just found a picture of my last apartment on my blog with the gallery wall I had. I am going to do something like this down my hallway with white distressed frames.
http://shoppingcandy.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-living-room-in-progress.html

Amy @ Chicy-Creations said...

I've been wanting to put some gallery shelves up, thanks for the guides! PS, left a blog award for you on my blog!

Anonymous said...

that is so funny. I look on the blogs and long for the white walls and I have the brown and could never give it up. I call it a melted fudgecicle. I like to cacoon and it just does it for me and believe me, it doesn't make your room look smaller.

N-JO said...

We've had that brown (I call it "YooHoo drink brown)in our guest room for 5 years...and are about to paint over it with the color you used for your son's room, actually. We had the same color in our master bath but painted it a much deeper richer brown called Fudge Truffle or something. This medium brown was neat at first (lots of white trim here) but we suddenly felt it seemed aged and "dusty", and can't wait to get rid of it. I prefer it to the cafe au lait colors that most houses are "neutralized" with, but it just seemed like old people color to us, after a few years.

our mirror wall, which was my summer project and started because the big middle mirror was moved from another spot. I'm not sure it's the final-final...and I tried for a random-symmetry if that makes sense....
http://tinyurl.com/3837e4s