Collage Wall

Lets deviate from kitchen updates for just a little bit today! 

Now I know that these are called Gallery Walls, but I just don't get it.  I've never been in a gallery that has had the art displayed this way.  Why are they called this?  I normally refer to the collection of picture frames on the wall as our collage.  I mean it is a mixture of picture frames and little wall chachka.  But I digress, I'm here to show our my gallery wall, not discuss why it's called that.    

Now don't get me wrong, I love this idea of hanging pictures together with a mixture of little things that make us smile.  I've been waiting to do this for a very long time, long before we bought the house.  So I was elated when we found a house that had a large wall begging for a large amount of art.

Here is my first attempt, and it wasn't even completed.  J had me take it down because it was to random for him.  He didn't like the large gaps and he didn't like the placement. That's an engineer for you.  I told him I wasn't done, that I had a lot more frames to add and more wall things.  But he didn't budge, and that's an only child for you  ;-)

So down those came. Then I patched and repainted. And I've been staring at a blank wall for months now. It was driving me insane. I just couldn't stand it any more. So this is what we've working on for the last couple days. Yes, you heard right, it took us days to finish this project. I put J in charge since his engineer mind would not be happy if there was not some sort of symmetry. He put up and took down the templates a few times. Then I suggested that we just start putting up a few frames we knew we would be happy with. Well that seemed to work and after a few hours we had accomplished this.

Sorry for the bad cell phone picture, but I was in a hurry last night.  I actually had to take some frames from other rooms to satisfy his picture frame arrangement demands.  I even took two small frames I planned on using for my beading, but it made him happy, which in turn made me happy. We're keeping an eye out for some small frames for the lower left hand side.  And maybe some more chachka.

But I'm not done yet.  I need some pictures in those there frames.  So after a quick download to the Walgreen's photo site, a few changes so everything would be black and white, a few clicks, and a quick run up the street, I had this.

Looks pretty good if you ask my (okay it's hard to tell because of the glare).  All of the pictures we've taken.  One of Nacho attacking the camera, one of Toonces with bubbles on her head, one of Yoda as "goat pug".  And a few of us on our many trips around the world (yeah you read that right).  It's the perfect collection of our lives.  And because it's so easy to get pictures printed out, we can change them out when ever we want.

Now I do have two frames that need mat board still, the store was out of this size.  But I think we might be close to being done with this project.

Now just to get that side table built.  Then this wall will be complete, for now.  Oh wait, J wants to add sconces to this wall as well.  Well someday it will be done.  :-)