My Family Gallery Wall

Hey I'm on a roll with blogging! Ha! actually posting once a week - woo hoo!  Today I just want to show you my gallery wall and how it's coming along. 

A couple of years ago I put these two things on the wall in the family room with the intention of adding to it. Well, you know what they say about good intentions :)

Okay, so not bad, but definitely not very exciting either.  I finally started adding to the gallery.  I took some pictures from another spot in the house and moved them over here.. and also took two of hubby's pictures and gave them a bigger frame with a mat, and hung those up.  I bought one white frame and stuck it in there to hold the space. (sorry for the blurry pic)

Now we're on a roll.  This is definitely more interesting and fun.  I had the two bigger pictures of hubby and his kids and one picture of us all to go along with the individual head shots of the kids.  I needed to balance it out and add more of my kids.

About a week later I figured out which pictures to print and frame.  I had a frame I picked up from Ross for about $5, but I didn't like the way you had to hang it.  It had two small holder thingies on the back and I knew it would end up uneven and driving me crazy.  I took some floral wire, which is very easy to bend, and ran it between the two holder thingies so I would be able to hang it on one nail.

I adjusted the wire and twisted it around itself to the length where when I hung it the nail wouldn't show.  MUCH easier to hang now.

I knew I wanted the white frame to be gold, and hold a very special picture, so I spray painted the frame and added a picture of my daughter, her husband, and their sweet little angel.

I am very happy with they way it's coming together.  A lot of people have tutorials on putting together a gallery wall, and they make a lot of sense.  But, I'm an impatient person so I didn't measure anything, I didn't trace my frames on craft paper to make a mock-up wall, I just started hanging.  I'm not saying that's the best way to do it, that's just the way I did it.  Absolutely if you feel you need to plan it more then you should.  As long as you are happy with the results, I think the getting there can be whatever works best for you.. :)

The wall is plenty big enough to add more pictures, but I really like to let it grow naturally.  I do not plan on it being two more years before I add to it this time. I'll be back with an update when I do.

I have another small gallery that I showed here, when I talked about my black doors.  I love them and want one in my master bedroom next!  Do you have any gallery walls in your house? I would love to hear about them!

Love,

Kelli

Rachael's Room::Update

As I was looking back through some of my older posts, I realized i had not done an update and showed the progress of Rachael's/guest room.

Rachael is living in Tennessee going to college at Middle Tennessee State, and only comes home a few times a year.  I showed you how we painted her room here - and left you with the image below... kinda sad huh?  a lot has been done since this!

My idea was to have a place for her when she comes home, a place where you could watch movies (on an old tv) and a place for guests to sleep.  We don't have ton of overnight guests, but my sister stayed here for several days this past fall (remember, she painted my pink dining room) and the room was perfect!

We had the twin mattress from when Rachael lived in Atlanta and went to school at Georgia State, so all I needed to find was a cute bed frame; one that looked like a daybed.  I found this one on Craigslist for $50. The owner had just put a fresh coat of white paint on it!  Then began the fun part of dressing the bed and moving the furniture around..

I found the large gray body pillow and the two fluffy white pillows at Ross, and the little ombre mint one I got at Target along with the rug.  The comforter is from IKEA - $20!  What a deal, right?

Back in September I found these adorable curtains on sale at HomeGoods so I snatched them up thinking they would be great in this room.

I just hung them YESTERDAY, Feb. 12. Six months later.  Who does that?  I guess I just forgot about them because I hung them in the closet.  But this week we have been out of work/school because of a really bad ice & snow storm - so I ran to Lowe's before the snow came in and found two cute curtain rods on sale for $10 each, and we (hubby and me) hung them up!

I took the picture below in the evening, so that's why the wall color looks so different. During the day I could not get a good picture at this angle, just too much light coming in through the windows. Can you see all the snow out there though? so. much. fun. Seriously, we never get snow so I was thrilled!

The picture hanging between the windows used to hang in our family room (you can spy it in this post) and was painted by my husband's Uncle Sam - same uncle who painted the picture that sits on our mantle.  The colors work perfectly in here with the mint and gray.

I'm pretty much in love with this little room.  Although there are still a few things I would like to do, like paint those two little lamps a matching shade of something and change their shades, add more artwork to the walls...  also, i'm going to have to add some material to the bottom of those curtains.. I wanted to hang them higher so they are too short..

I could not wait any longer!  I had to get them up - and really you don't notice the length behind the tables, but wanting full disclosure I'm showing you where they literally fall short.  I need to find just the right fabric, just like I did for my family room curtains - again, it's the thrill of the hunt ;)

Now let's go way back to the beginning to see how far this bedroom has come... this is one of those times we started a project before I took the "before" picture - bed already gone! (and yes, we did store a box spring under the bed.. doesn't everybody?)

And now... today..  YAY!!!  *clap clap clap*

So how did you spend your snow days?  Did you have snow days?  According to the weather reports, every state in the country except Florida had snow somewhere in the last few days.. wow!  Crazy winter huh?  I'll share our snow days story soon!

Linking up again with Thirfty Decor Chick and The DIY Showoff and Party!

Love,
Kelli

More Black Doors

Lawd it has taken me forever to get some things done around here. I started painting the doors on the first floor black way back here - over a year ago - then kind of ran out steam/gumption/desire whatever you want to call it.. But now I have managed to paint two more doors! "Yay!" she said so proudly.

The door leading to the garage (even though I have not tackled the other side - it has been too cold!!):  And I ALWAYS forget to take a "before" picture so I stop and take one after I started.. it's a blurry phone pic too. #bloggerfail #lol

Here you can see all three - the other two are pantry and coat closet in the short hall that leads to the dining room. We have a long row of hooks for extra coat/jacket/purse/lunch bag/dog leash storage on the opposite wall.

 

And the back door going out to the deck: again, forgot to take a picture so i found another pic i took when my husband was out on the deck grilling...and it's grainy too...

I have just one door on the first floor left to paint, and it's kind of a weird one. It's the door to the office and it's an exterior door, so the grids are inside the glass and there's no way I can paint them.

I'm wondering if I should paint it at all - ?? Will there be too much black since it's next to the front door?  Would it be weird to have one door not painted?  What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by :)

Linking up with "That DIY Party!"   and Twirl and Take a Bow!

Love, 
Kelli