Creating a Gallery Wall By Shopping Your Home
Gallery Wall; DIY craft; shopping your home; inexpensive project; no measuring needed.
Have you ever thought about shopping your own home to find home decor? I guarantee, you would be surprised. Here are some ideas to create a gallery wall using items and decor you already own.
I’ve loved the gallery wall idea ever since I saw it on Pinterest years ago. I found the perfect place in our house, a little by mistake. Here is how it all started.
My inspiration
I knew I wanted to make a feature wall in our den/playroom which is right off of our living room. I looked through many ideas but nothing clicked until I saw this image. It was simple yet playful enough and I loved it!
I didn’t want to spend a whole lot of money on this. My plan was to only make it happen if I could find most of the supplies for cheap. I figured it would be best to start with a plan. It would give me an idea of what direction I would be going with this. Even if it was a vague one, a plan was better than no plan.
My process
Now, I had to decide what word I wanted. I played with a couple of words but decided to stick with the word “play”. It was very appropriate for the room it was going to be in and was simple enough.
I printed the individual letters on standard printer paper (8 1/2 X 11) and added them to frames I already had and was not using. I thought I was done until I saw them hung in our space…
Something was missing and I was not sure what… I thought about it and figured that it wasn’t playful enough for a young kids’ playroom. The letters and their simplicity made it too serious and grown-up. I went back to the drawing board and looked for simple ideas to spruce up the letters I had.
The gallery wall build up
After browsing Pinterest for ideas, I figured out a new plan. I would do my best to turn my four lonesome letters into a gallery wall by using what I had at home.
- Updating the letters with scrapbook paper was very easy and made them look more appealing and fun. All I had to do was cut out the letters on white cardboard and glue them to grass-looking scrapbook paper. Into the frames they went.
- Looking through our basement, I found picture frames that I had and was not using. Instead of pictures, I bought and added different scrapbook paper designs in each frame. In one of the frames, I printed free woodland creature printouts. I also found wall decorations I had to intention of hanging.
- Once I found the right amount of items to complete my gallery wall look, I made space in our living room to set up my gallery wall on the floor. I laid out the items on the floor. This gave me a visual idea of what it would look like once on the wall. I played with it a little until the design satisfied me.
- Once you have everything where you want it, it’s just a matter of hammering nails and hanging everything up. Did I use a measuring tape? Nop! Did I use a level? Nop! I eye balled it and it was so much fun!
Quick Tip: If you don’t want to use nails to hang your wall decor pieces, possibly because you are renting, you can certainly use pins or even 3M Command Picture Hanging strips. Check out The Convenience of Command Strips and their Multiple Uses for more ideas.
Most recent gallery wall view
I painted a few of the pieces not too long ago and switched things around, which is what is so much fun about this. You can easily change things whenever you like. This is what it looks like right now.
A friend of mine made me notice that you can read: “Play-N-Dream”. It’s a funny coincidence because it was not at all planned. It just goes to show that it’s possible to add everything you like into a space and that the end result can work better than you could have ever imagined.
If this post inspired you to create your own gallery wall please share this post and/or comment below.
