Until recently, this wall in our living room had only been housing a lonely Yellena James print. It was a gift from John and I love it, but it didn’t quite fill the space in the way we wanted.
John and I have been gathering and creating unique items over the last few months. As you can see, those new pictures had accumulated on the cabinet below, and were us begging to be hung. We decide that the best way to showcase all these items was with a picture wall.
The first step in hanging the new art was to measure the approximate space we wanted to cover. This allowed us to arrange the frames freely, but kept us safely inside the boundaries. The plan is to gradually climb our way up the wall as we find and make new things we love. We have a tall wall to work with, so it will take some time.
With the measurements in mind, we started rearranging the pictures, and rearranging, and rearranging, and rearranging. After about a solid 45 mins of going back and forth, we landed on a layout.
So now the trick was getting the frames from the floor to wall in the exact position with minimal headache. I had seen the brown paper hanging trick before, but I came across a different solution that I liked even more on Pinterest. This one used waxed paper, some tape and a marker. It seemed very simple. I like simple!
So we turned all the pictures over on the floor so we could see exactly where the hanger was on each frame. We marked it with a Sharpie and even traced out the corners so we knew everything would be in the correct spot once it was on the wall.
We used some painters tape and attached it to the wall. Then we broke out the level to double check that each frame was in just the right spot.
Next came the hangers, which we just tapped into the wall in their designated spots through the wax paper.
Finally we ripped off the paper (leaving the hanger hardware in place) and hung our art.
We are now able to really enjoy all those things we love, that formerly weren’t getting enough love.
So what are these things we really love? We told you about the Yellena James print that used to live up there solo. I am slightly obsessed with her work. (Even my phone case is covered in her art.)
Next to the print is a baby photo of John that his grandmother gave to us when we got married. (He is pouting and it is adorable.) I reframed it in a Christmas frame from Target that I plan to enjoy all year long.
Below that is a set of photos that John gave to me for my birthday. It’s a montage of us on roller coasters from our second wedding anniversary trip to Busch Gardens. He joined the frames on the back with wire so it looks like a lift hill! We are cheesing in all of them, and it cracks me up every time I look at it.
Underneath and beside that, are 2 canvases that I painted of Sketch and Harvey for John. They are silhouette style with Sketch jumping to get a frisbee and Harvey inquisitively perking up his ears.
Lastly, beside those canvases is the chipmunk print we told you about last week after our visit to the Scrap Exchange. We spray painted the frame red to give the print a little more life.
With minimal measuring and zero headache, the space there doesn’t feel so empty anymore. We now have a more active, personal wall that grabs the attention of us and our guests alike.
