DIY Gallery Wall

It’s no secret that I’m obsessed with Pinterest. I constantly browse that website looking for ideas on things to DIY for my apartment. I’m still technically in college and I don’t make a lot of money working in the lab/being a teaching assistant so I have to be thrifty when it comes to home decor. Over the past few years I’ve collected frames from Goodwill and the dollar store to make a gallery wall in my living room. I know that’s a big trend now because of the many gallery wall ideas on Pinterest, but the amazing thing about gallery walls is that they are all so different! Also, you can basically do anything you want and it ends up looking fancy. My gallery wall matches my living room decor which is brown and a greyish-teal-blue color. I’ve used mixed metallics and also mixed black and brown frames. I don’t usually follow the “rules” with metallics or black & brown, even with my wardrobe. I think it looks more interesting when you mix them especially when you add a pop of a bright color like teal. Take a look!

My gallery wall above my couch (I would show you the couch too but my living room is a mess!)

A brown detailed frame with teal-sparkled scrapbook paper inside. The writing is actually on the glass! I used a black dry-erase marker on the glass so that I can change up the quote whenever I want. This quote is, ” ‘A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures for anything.’ – Irish proverb”. I found the idea for writing on the glass of the frame on Pinterest but I can’t seem to find the pin to link the source! I have way too many pins on my crafts board!

This is a dollar store frame. It is black with brown distressed edging. Inside, I taped a piece of lace to black scrapbook paper. I got the lace at Hobby Lobby to sew to a pair of cutoff shorts that were too tight. I will post about that project another time!

This is a canvas frame that I bought at Hobby Lobby. I took the canvas out and painted this pattern onto it. I was inspired by a Pinterest post of a fabric-covered switch plate. Here’s the link to the blog that was featured on the pin: http://tidymom.net/2010/fabric-covered-switch-plate-tutorial/

This frame was a Goodwill find. If I can remember correctly it was less than $5! I took the photo in the frame in Hawaii. I had a summer internship there and we took a trip out to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling! We bought disposable underwater cameras so I was able to get this amazing shot of the small clearance between the coral and the surface of the water.

I also took this photo in Hawaii on the North Shore. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen in my life. The frame is possibly a dollar store find (I can’t remember exactly).

This “print” is from Goodwill. It has a textured border around it and it lives in a skinny black “frame”. It is one of those pictures that is stapled in place so you can’t remove it from the frame. It’s okay because I like this picture and I wouldn’t want to change it anyway. It has a sister frame shown below.

This is the sister Goodwill “print” of  the image above. It has more teal in it than the other one and it is slightly different in shape.

This photo was taken by one of my previous roommates. It says “Rachelisonerie ’10.” The name “Rachelison” was formed by my friends Rachel, Chelsea, Chelsea, and Allison (no, I didn’t accidentally type “Chelsea” twice. There are 2 Chelsea’s). They were roommates one year and named their apartment “Rachelison”. The next year, one of the Chelsea’s moved out and I moved into her room. Then the apartment became “Rachelisonerie” for Rachel, Chelsea, Allison, and Valerie. We had a lot of fun living together. The girls wrote “Rachelison” on a piece of wood railing near the beach and then when they went back there again, they found the writing and added the “-erie” to the end of it. Love them!

This is my sideways family. Just kidding! This is a dollar store frame that I have yet to fill. I liked it better sideways because I have a lot of vertical frames already and this one could hang either way. I plan to fill it with a picture of my boyfriend and I, possibly with a map of where we met or currently live as a background. I haven’t decided yet. I will make sure to post when I figure it out!

This is a Goodwill find. It is another one of those stapled prints. Originally I hated the print inside and I was frustrated that I couldn’t remove it. I actually came to love it (even though my friends said it was super tacky). I love that it says “fleurs” on it, which is French for “flowers”, because I took French for 5 years (8th-12th grade).

Well, that’s my gallery wall! I had a lot of help from my mom and my boyfriend to place and hang the pictures. Yes, I’m an engineer but I’m not so good with tools. I grew up a girly-girl: I played with Barbies not tools! My mom helped me visualize what would look good and my boyfriend helped with the hanging part. He’s also an engineer, but he’s actually good with tools and stuff!

At some point (when my living room is not a complete and utter mess) I will take a picture of my entire wall including the couch and end tables so you can see what everything looks like together. I have some picture frames on my end tables as well as candles and other chotchkies.

If you like what you see, feel free to comment and link this to post on your own blog! (Let me know if you do this and I’ll share a link of your blog in a post!)

~Valerie