I've had grand visions for several years of beautiful gallery walls of pictures throughout my house. Pinterest-worthy galleries with various vintagey frames found in random mom-and-pop stores. Frames that, when asked, I could say, "Oh that one? I found it at the cutest little thrift store for $5." In my grandest of visions, these thrift store finds were made in some quaint beach town while on vacation...
In reality? I'm lazy. Gallery walls take time and lots of effort to look effortlessly put together. And while I adore beach vacations, vintage frame shopping with little ones is not something I've mastered. Heck, I'm still working on getting grocery shopping down. So when I came across gallery walls in-a-box, I thought, "Woohoo! A lazy lady's answer to home decor!"
While not quite effortless, for the price and time spent, these gallery in a box sets are perfect for our family. Here's how I put together our latest wall. Nevermind that it took me a year to get these pictures printed...
I'll note that I took each of these behind-the-scenes pictures on a different day, so this was not a done-in-one-afternoon job. The gallery wall kit takes some of the guess-work out of how to place frames, but it's not foolproof. I always end up cutting up the suggested templates to make my own to better fit the pictures I choose to print. And in the ones I've purchased, the hardware for hanging the frame doesn't allow you to adjust them for leveling once you've placed the screw/nail (although they thankfully seem to have changed this in their latest frame sets).
So, it's still not as easy as I'd wish it to be, but it's easy enough that I'll actually get it done. And I love walking by these pictures in my hallway every day.
I still have two sets left to hang before maternity leave is up. I remain optimistic, but I count getting this one up as a big win. :-) How do you display your prints? Any framing tips?
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