While the Mud Dried...

This weekend was all about mending fences cracks in our fireplace wall.  Unfortunately, it was an-ever-so-slow process {the joint compound I used said to wait 24 hours between coats...bleh}, so I was forced to take on another project to occupy my time.

Lucky for me, when I was cleaning out our 2^nd guest bedroom...aka the place where I store all my craft/project crap...I created two big piles of frames.  What the heck could a blogger do with a superfluous amount of frames?!?!  Create the very first gallery wall, EVER, in Internet history!!! ;)

For those of you who are over gallery walls...my apologies.  Please just avert your eyes, and wait for my next post about crack{s}.

I previously hung a mini-me gallery wall in our dining room, but I quickly swapped that out for some DIY picture ledges.  Since I didn’t want another cluster of frames in our very open living/dining room, I figured our hallway would be a great place to experiment, a la YHL.

We already have a few frames up in there.  They helped to fill the blank wall space, and they also sorta-kinda-maybe helped to camouflage our ugly thermostat.  I liked the look, but it didn’t knock my socks off.  I’ll be the first to admit...rarely do I get things “right” on the first try, if ever.  And even if I happen to nail it, I’m usually switching things up down the road.  It’s just how I am.  I like to tweak and make things fresh.  {Although I know a few of you are rolling your eyes, thinking...ummmm, gallery walls aren’t “fresh”.  I know, I know...but they are for my little hallway, so just pretend that this is a wonderful, albeit, not-brand-new idea.}

Technically, I have four walls to fill in our hallway.  {The spaces are broken up by alcoves to linen closets, a bathroom and a bedroom.}  I wanted to begin with the wall we’d see the most...the one visible from the kitchen.

I started by removing the two frames that were previously up, and I had all the other frames/things to hang in piles around me.  I just put things together like a puzzle until I liked what I saw.  Helpful tip {for me at least}: take a  picture of everthing once you settle on a layout.  It will help greatly when you are standing there wondering if you had that frame horizontally or vertically, etc. You'll be suprised at how quickly you forget...or maybe that's just me.

Then I took out some left over rosin paper from when we covered up our newly re-finished hardwoods.  I took each frame from the group, traced it and cut it out so I had a paper representation of it.

Once all the pieces were cut out, I taped them up on my wall.  I wanted to get the height, spacing and layout on the actual wall itself without any commitment.

I called the hubby over to see if he approved {because you know I wouldn’t have gone a step further if he didn’t like it ;) hehe}, and I got a big thumbs up.

That’s when I busted out my trusty 3M picture hanging strips and got down to business.  These things are amazingggg.  They are literally holding up everything in our house that they can.  Depending on the size and weight of your frame, you just stick the size and number of strips you need on the back of your frame...then when you are ready to hang them, peel the other side off...stick to the wall.  Press for 30 seconds, and voila!  You have a picture hung without any holes in the wall.

Of course, after you stick the frame to the wall for 30 seconds, you should remove the picture frame for 1 hour...and then put it back.  I may {or may not} have followed that rule, but they do tell you to do it that way in the instructions. ;)

One by one, I removed one “paper” frame and replaced it with a real one.  I used my level app on my iPhone to make sure things were pretty level, but I also used my stencil on the wall to see if things appeared straight.  {Old houses never have level walls.  I’d rather the frames seem level with my stencil pattern and wall, than level with...well, the Earth.}

Here's an picture from my last hanging experience to demonstrate my leveling abilities.

In no time, I went from this...

...to this!

That leaves me with three more walls to go.  Oh, and I also need to put some actual pictures, fabric, quotes, pretty paper, etc. in the frames.  Who wants to bet that I’ll be done with this project before the fall?!?!

PS-This post was not sponsored by 3M...I just religiously use their products to hang anything in my house that I can.  I've had nothing but success with them, so I wanted to pass along the tip to my awesome readers!

Several Months in the Making

Are you ready for it?!?!  I’m talking about a project that took entirely too many months for me to complete!!

………………………

……………………

………………

…………

………

……

…

No, no.  Don’t get all excited.  It’s only a teeny, tiny gallery wall took me way too long to cross off my to-do list.  {But hey, I’m all about full disclosure on this lil’ sliver of the web...even if it means embarrassing myself for all to see.}  Unfortunately, the wall ended up being one of those projects that didn’t keep my full attention.  I would get easily distracted by other stuff, and drop the gallery wall like a bad habit.  Here is how it all went down...

I started by collecting a bunch of interesting, but mis-matched frames from Home Goods in the spring.

I spray primed and painted them white.  I forgot to take a picture of this step, so instead I will include a gratuitous shot of my hubby’s backside to show our old patio-ish area that served as my spray painting spot until we demo’ed everything this summer.  All that white on the ground = proof I was spraying my heart out.

Then the poor frames sat in our guest bedroom for several weeks until I found the motivation to get to hanging.  I wasn’t sure how I wanted to arrange everything, so I played around with the frames on top of a piece of rosin paper {left over from covering our refinished hardwood floors}. 

I thought I’d trace the frames onto the paper, hang the paper, and easily transfer the arrangement from the floor to the wall, but I changed my mind midway through.  I decided to wing it, start from the “middle” {that I eyeballed} and work my way out instead.  

It wasn’t the most accurate method, and I may or may not have made a few too many holes in the wall, but it’s nothing a smidge of spackle and some paint couldn't fix. ;) 

Once everything was hung and I gave two thumbs up to the placement, the frames stayed as is...for wayyyy too many weeks.  Yup, I literally got used to seeing this...several price tag stickers and all.  Not cute.

So during our recent staycation, my Mom suggested we get busy filling the gallery wall with actual pictures.  Point taken.  The gallery wall had been 90% complete for long enough.  I started to hunt through all my photos.  My goal was to display pictures of our entire immediate family {me and hubby, our parents, my sister’s family and hubby’s sister’s family}.  Once I picked out all of the winners, it was time to turn them into B&W, and have them printed.

I also found a free fall printable online to fill up the center frame of the wall.  I wanted a pop in the middle of the black and white photos, and I love that I can switch out the 8x10 to coordinate with the seasons/holidays.

While this isn’t the most fantastic gallery wall, like say, YHL’s awesome hallway, it still warms my heart because IT’S DONE it represents our entire family.  I love having something sentimental to finally look at every day! :)

Anyone else take a crazy long time to complete the easiest projects???

F.O.S. {Fear Of Stenciling}

My apologies for my long absence from the blog world.  My life has been quite hectic lately, so the blog had to take a backseat for a while.  :(  But I am so happy to be back, and even happier to share a project that I wrapped up a couple weeks ago.  It is by far one of my favorites, and definitely one that I was terrified to take on.  {For those of you who follow me on Instagram, retroranchreno, you've probably already guessed which project this is. :) }

For quite some time it was very apparent to me that I needed to spice up our hallway.  It was a whole lot of wall space, with not a thing going on...and since part of it can be viewed from pretty much every room in our house, I knew I needed to add some interest.

My first thought was to create a ginormous version of the very popular gallery wall.  Ultimately, I decided against it because of the small gallery wall I already hung above our buffet {which reminds me that I have not shared it with you guys...ohhh boy, am I behind in my sharing!!!}, and I didn't want to put something together that would make our open hallway feel heavy or crowded.

So on to my second thought...using paint to put a fun pattern onto the walls.  Thick, straightforward stripes?!?  Nah, I already did that in the main bathroom.  A cool Moroccan tile pattern?!?  Definitely.  But wait...that meant I'd have to tackle stenciling, and for whatever reason...stenciling intimidated the heck out of me!

Fear aside, I couldn't get the thought of fixing the hallway up out of my head.  I kept browsing Royal Design Studio's website for the perfect pattern and I always found myself checking out the Moroccan Stencils section.  I have quite a few favorites in there, and I was able to narrow it down to the Moorish Trellis.  My choice was perfect since I wanted to avoid anything too small and intricate.  A crazy, busy hallway is not the look we were going for.

And even though I am CLEARLY not a professional stencil artist, I took a risk and ordered a "pro" sized stencil.  I was willing to pay the extra cash {$98 vs. $44 for a standard size} for a larger stencil so I could minimize the amount of times I'd have to put the stencil up on the wall.

My stencil arrived quickly, and then just sat in the corner of our bedroom for a month or so.  I finally found the motivation {and mainly, courage} to start this project after my parent's came for their visit earlier this month.

Here is the best "before" picture I could come across.  Of course, I forgot to take a proper one...so this oldie, but goodie will make do.

I started out by spraying the back of my stencil with some Easy-Tack spray adhesive I purchased from Michaels.  I started the spraying process on our back porch and eventually moved it to our great room floor.  I just used a drop cloth underneath the stencil when I needed to reapply.

I was a little nervous about how well the spray adhesive would hold, but it worked well.  I didn't even need painters tape for the first half of the project.

I coated everything in paint.

Ta-da!  One section done....a million to go.

I decided to do the top half of all the walls first, and then go to the lower half.

The paint did bleed a bit under the stencil since I wasn't "truly" stenciling with a proper stencil brush...but I don't mind.  I used a small roller and it went much more quickly that way and still gave me the effect I desired.

 Onto the lower half....

And after 9 hours of work...I was done, and obsessed with the finished product!  It was just what me and the hubby wanted.  {Please forgive my blurry, awful iPhone pictures.  I could not find my camera for the life of me...not like that would have made a difference in the quality of my photography hehe.}

Love this view from the kitchen now...

It's a little hard to capture the pattern throughout the entire hallway in photos since it's a subtle color difference, but the appearance in real-life is perfect!

And I love how our mirror at the end of the hallway reflects the design beautifully.

What do you think?  Worth the full day of work?  I definitely think so! :)