Creating a Gallery Wall

The set up of Fiona's nursery is such that you really only see 2 walls when you walk in. The wall on the left is where the crib is placed and the wall straight ahead has a window to the far right (this is why we did not put the crib on this wall... limited space!) I wanted something large to place on this main wall but without spending a fortune! I knew that a gallery wall was the perfect solution! I liked the idea of starting with some key pieces and being able to add to it as she grew!

I was OBSESSED with unicorns when I was growing up and my mom happened to have saved a unicorn stick horse that happened to be in the exact same color scheme as Fia's room! Serendipity :) So I turned to Etsy for inspiration. I searched for Unicorn and was ecstatic to find a beautiful vintage looking Unicorn constellation print! I quickly ordered it and eagerly awaited ints arrival so that I could get started (mind you I was about 32 weeks pregnant and the contractions were just about to put me on bed rest!) Well it was just my luck that not only was the Etsy seller from Canada which means no expedited delivery, I also had my old address listed on my PayPal account. We finally got it sorted out and I got my beautiful print in about 3 weeks time which seemed like an eternity to me!

My Unicorn that inspired the Gallery Wall :)

Once the print arrived, I started scouring the house for frames and other things to include in the Gallery Wall. I am huge fan of shopping your house before heading out to the store. 

I literally have every size and color frame jammed into a closet, so this is where I started. I try to hold on to them no matter how ugly the frame or print is since it's so easy to revamp them! I was lucky to find 2 nice sized frames that had long since been pulled from the walls. The frames were both silver in color and had a nice scroll design that wasn't the same but looked to be in a similar style. I also stumbled upon a bright yellow square shaped wall hanging. It could easily be made into a picture frame or it could display a little trinket. I also stumbled upon a red vintage looking door knob and 2 large scallop shell wall hangings. I knew that I wanted to include a letter on the wall but since we had yet to choose her name this would be added after the fact, so in the mean time I used a M letter that we had as a place holder (for our last name). This gave me 7 pieces to start the wall with... and wouldn't you know that I only got one before picture?

Since, I was able to gather all of this stuff I knew that I needed a way to unify it all to make the wall look connected and what better than spray paint to make this happen! I had stumbled upon this beautiful color called Champagne Nouveau on one of my many trips to the craft store. I loved that it was a metallic that looked gold in some lights and silver in others. 

So I took the frames off the pictures and set up a spraying station outside. Then armed with my spray paint (and mask being that I was now 35 weeks and just off bedrest!) I spray painted the frames, door knob, square hanging, and the letter M. The shells actually worked without being painted and I loved the variation in color and texture. Here is my one before shot of the frame and once I ripped off the cardboard backing to remove the print.

I loved the color and it was finally starting to come together! Now I just needed to find something to put in the smaller frame... I toyed with a page from a cute child's book but could never quite decide which one. And as I was blog surfing one day, the perfect idea appeared... paint swatch art! So on our next trip to the Man Store, I let Little Man select all of the purple paint swatches he wanted. He loved it! I definitely recall taking pictures of this project but I attribute it to prego brain that they are nowhere to be found. I cut the swatches into rectangles and I opted for a combination of a herringbone and chevron design. There was really no rhyme or reason, I pretty much just laid it out until if looked right and then glued it down. I will say that it took me a good hour to get it to a point where I liked the color variation and that was for a pretty small 8x10. I cannot imagine how long a large piece might take! 

So far everything was progressing well, so it was high time for something to go wrong. And it came in the form of the glass from the smaller frame that was to hold the paint swatch art breaking. I was excited to see it all finished that I did not remove all of the staples from the frame that you see in the picture above and when I put the glass back in after painting it the staple broke off several chunks of glass. I had no clue how to remedy this and with my shower quickly approaching I just wanted things to be finished and easy. Suddenly the solution occurred to me... I could put the matting on the outside and place the glass behind the mat. Thankfully, it worked! 

I then placed all of my now finished pieces on the floor in front of the wall. Now how do I figure out the design and placement? I grabbed several sheets of scrap paper and some tape. I made the paper the same size as each of the pieces and then started placing them on the wall. This was great as it allowed me to easily move them around and it made it super easy for my hubby to hang them once I got it right. He literally just hung each piece where the paper was and was done in less than 5 minutes!

And here is what it looked like when she first came home...

And in just a few short months, we have already made some changes. Here is what it looks like today... 

Obviously, I replaced the M with an F. I also decided to add a clock which is one of the nicest things to have in a nursery. I can easily peak at it to see how long she has been sleeping or eating and the gentle ticking of it is so relaxing! The best part? The clock was less than $5 at Target and with a quick coat of Champagne it fits in perfectly!

Linking up at Paint it Challenge!