This week has been BUSY! Evan was on vacation all week and it has been GLORIOUS! We are taking advantage of this vacation by having family visit all week ... my parents arrived on Friday and left on Tuesday. Evan's Dad and wife arrived on Wednesday and leave Sunday. And since we're nice to our guests, we put them to work. ; )
One of the big projects we got done this week? I finally worked on the playroom art gallery wall! I only have one project left in that room and it will be done! YIPEE! I am OH SO HAPPY with the result!
Here's how we got the gallery wall accomplished:
While Evan was working hard planting a tree in our front yard, my Dad and I mapped out the size of the collage wall. We determined the best looking size would be about 86 " by 36 ". In other words, a big piece of art.
I bought everything from the wall at Hobby Lobby. I got unfinished frames to save on money, used 40% off coupons that are ALWAYS available online, and had a heck of a time deciding what to finally buy. Don't be ashamed to lie everything out on the floor of the store. I don't care if I looked crazy. Quite frankly, it helped me see what I would need. At worst though, buy too much and return some. I know a ton of gallery walls use all white frames but I opted not to do that for a few reasons. First: I wanted color ... this is a playroom after all! Second, buying unfinished frame REALLY saves on cash. The average cost of each frame was $4.00 and with 40% off coupons? Talk about afordable. The wall has three 4 by 6's, two 5 by 7's, one 8 by 10, one 12 by 12, one mirror and then the letters.
First I laid the frames out in a pattern that looked pleasing to me.
Then I sat down and painted for about 2.5 hours. I wrote a W, P, or B on each frame and made sure I had enough variation.
After I let them dry during Liliana's nap, I put the art and prints in and waited for Evan to come in and hang all the frames and letters. Let me tell you, this ended up being quite an obstacle because the sticky Scotch wall pieces that we put on each piece WOULD NOT stay on the wall. Literally, by the time he had put everything up, they had all fallen and are all nailed on the wall now. It took patience, and a lot of batting of my eyelashes for Evan not to give up on the project completely. The result though?
LOVE IT!
As you can see, most of what's highlighted is Liliana's artwork from school! I made a print of "playroom rules" and that is in the top left hand corner. Here's a close-up of it.
Here is a view of how it looks in the room!
I have a few more projects we did this week to display later on, but for now, I have some shelves to paint! Gotta love vacation!
Hello there, Cristy! You really did a great job on the gallery wall! It’s great that you considered hanging some of your daughter’s artworks there. It’s lovely and it came out perfectly! :D Well, displaying artworks like that has become a trend in interior design. Aside from that, it’s nice that you get to see the works of your kids. It’s a simple way of appreciating what they’ve learned. ;) Keep up the good work and I would love to see more of your home renovation projects!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job, Cristy! My kids’ playroom also has an art wall like this. Aside from our family pictures, I also hung up some children song lyrics, poems, and the art works that my children made in school. I see to it that learning is still there as they play.
ReplyDeleteAside from the wall decorations, I love the idea of having a comfortable sofa on the playroom. It’s very constructive since kids would definitely love to lie down there once they get tired of playing! ;)
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