Posts Tagged ‘staircase photo wall

The gallery wall in the stairwell is outta here!

{15 months ago…}

I tried. I really tried. But this gallery wall has been a thorn in my side since day one. It makes me cray-to-the-zeeee!

I thought the issue was the wall color. So I painted the stairwell yellow to match my foyer (I also painted under the railing white).

The frames also ended up with a nice coat of white spray paint.

Still hated it. So I took all the little kitchy crap and shelves down. Maybe it will look better with just frames.

Even worse.

Then one day… I was just over it.

Totally over it.

This sofa table was moved to Kinsey’s room last week, leaving an empty spot at the top of my staircase.

See? No more table.

When I “borrowed” the table for Kinsey’s room, I didn’t really have a plan for replacing the table with something else in this now empty spot.

But two days ago, I’d looked at that eyesore of a stairwell gallery wall one. too. many. times.

And something just snapped inside me. Before I knew it, frames were a-flyin’ and I was a-huffin’ and a-hollerin’ and a-hammerin’.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

Orange Mocha Frappuccino! Er, I mean…

HALLWAY GALLERY WALL! Woop woop.

I gathered up all my supplies; frames, nails, hammer, level, chair to stand on, and I just started hammering and hanging frames.

Some people pre-measure and cut out newspaper the size of the frames and tape it to the wall.

Oh please, girl! Do you even know how fantastically lazy I am? I mean really? That would take way too long.

Plus, who cares if I screw up. It’s only a teeny tiny little nail hole. It’s not like the house is going to fall down around me.

Basically, the method to my madness consists of grabbing a frame, holding it up to the wall and eyeballing it, and then hanging that sucker up.

This honey badger don’t care! She just does what she wants.

And if it looks like gar-to-the-capital-bidge? Take it down, pull the nail out, and hang it somewhere else. Trial and error baby. Trial and error.

Finally, after a heart thumping 45 minutes, I was done.

Kinda.

I ran out of white frames.

So I started grabbing other frames to fill the gaps. Don’t worry chicklets. They will get painted white in due time. Like, either tomorrow, or whenever I decide to get back on board with this project and finish it.

Could be a day. Could be a month. You really never know when you are dealing with me.

But for now, this is the final result.

I freaking love it and think it’s so fantastic. I grin every time I walk by.

You are probably saying “oh no, girl. No no no. That does not look very good.”

Of course you are saying that! The ugly frames haven’t been painted yet. But trust me, just picture everything white. It will look fab.

And sorry the picture itself sucks so bad. I had a nice camera a year ago. And then I dropped it on the ground like 25 times. And now my photos look like that. Sorry.

Ben says when he can trust me with a camera he might consider talking about getting me a new one. I don’t blame him. I break every camera I own within a few months. Weeks. Days.

Once, when I was in middle school, my parents bought me a camera for my birthday. I was like 13 I guess.

In fact, here’s a picture of my sisters and I on my new gallery wall. Can you guess which one is me?

I’ll give you a hint. Back Right. Oh, sorry, that wasn’t a hint. O-well. And Merideth, please don’t kill me for posting this photo of you. Just tell people it was your “awkward phase”… In fact, I’m pretty sure it was everyone’s awkward phase judging by the photo from 1993.

Anyway, I just got a new camera for my 13th birthday.

I was tearing open the package to retrieve my very first, brand spankin’ new camera that was mine. All mine.

My dad says while I’m opening the brand new camera, and I quote, “Allison, be careful. Don’t drop it on the grou…”

Doh!

The camera slipped out of my hand and smashed on the tile floor.

The rest is history. Me and cameras are mortal enemies.

I’m that way with vacuums too. Don’t bring up “oreck” and “Allison” to my mom. I’m pretty sure she had to purchase at least 4 of them before I moved out.

Where was I?

Oh, gallery wall… Here’s a view from the game room.

For those of you that are so nosy you are squinting at your monitor trying to get a good looksie at my family, I’ll make it easy for you…

This is Travis 3 years ago:

Adorable? I think so. Drives me bonkers? You betcha.

And this is Kinsey (again, 3 years ago):

Prettiest and most ornery 4 year old I ever did meet.

Us goofing around:

Ben and his brothers like 10 years ago, maybe more:

(Ben is in the middle)

Can we all get a collective “awwwww”?

I won’t bore you with every picture on my wall. I’ll save that for when I am totally done, the frames are all painted, and new pictures are inserted. That’s when I’ll bore you to tears.

Wondering about that big ol’ empty stairwell now?

I have some BIG plans swirling around in my mind for the stairwell. You will just have to wait and see what concoction I’ve got up my sleeve for that one.

For now, I’ll leave you with my purposely-asymmetrical gallery wall. I like everything to match, but I get bored with too much symmetry.

I’ve determined people either LOVE gallery walls, or LOATHE them.

What team are you on? Team LOVE or Team LOATHE?

Do tell!

Have a great weekend!

I’ve finally added some pictures and fun accessories to my stair wall!

If I can’t rip them apart and build amazingly awesome new ones, I can at least decorate the walls!

(Paint is coming soon, I promise!)

Okay, so here’s what I started out with.

Don’t they just look SO inviting? Man, these stairs really make you want to just, well, go up them! Don’t they!?

Who am I kidding? This staircase is so dark and dungeon-like as well as just plain boring. I never want to go up there!

So in an effort to make myself want to actually use the top half of my home, I decided some wall art was in order.

I pretty much gathered up every photo I own that can hang on a wall and went to work.

First, I sorted them out nicely on the staircase so I could see what I was working with.

I took the biggest picture in my collection and hung it first. I wanted it low enough that I could easily see it from our family room because I just love it so much.

It’s this picture:

These are my kiddos in 2007. Our boy was 5 and our girl was 3. Oh my they have grown so much since then!

Then I just started working my way up the staircase with a pile of nails and a hammer.

I’ve seen so many people map it all out in advance, cut squares of paper the exact size of all their frames, tape them to the wall, move them around, etc… BUT I am just nowhere near patient enough to do that!

I pretty much just grabbed a picture I thought would look good in a blank spot and eyeballed where the nail should go. If I didn’t like where it ended up, I’d take the nail out and move it an inch or so and re-hammer the nail back in.

I did try to hang all the biggest pictures first though and I made sure they were spread out up and down the entire wall. Then after that I added the smaller ones in the leftover holes and gaps.

After ALL the pictures were hung, I hunted down some accessories to add to the ensemble. Before I started I thought I’d have way too many pictures, but once they were all up on the wall they looked so sparse.

So in an effort to fill all the extra gaps as well as add more texture and dimension to the wall, I added some accessories and shelves.

This is my favorite part of the entire wall:

I LOVE the Willow Tree Sculpture paired with the picture of my kids. LOVE IT.

I am NOT a collector. In fact, I really don’t like knickknacks and chachkies at all. But I do like a few pieces here and there as a statement piece. But if I ever end up with 10 Willow Tree sculptures, I swear I’ll hate them.

(So Mom, if you are reading… No Willow Tree for Christmas!)

Okay, funny side note about the sculpture… Have you ever seen the episode of The Simpson’s where Homer buys Marge a birthday gift and when she opens it up it’s a bowling ball with the name “Homer” inscribed in it?

Oh my, that is one of my favorite episodes. So funny.

I told Ben like 9 years ago that I wanted a Willow Tree sculpture. Well, after waiting for about 7 years for my gift, I finally just bought myself him this Willow Tree sculpture for Father’s Day two years ago. He laughed and laughed when he opened it because he knew I really bought it for myself. And now he calls me Homer.

Okay, so back to the stair wall…

Maybe this is too eclectic or chaotic for your taste, but seriously?!!

I.love.it. Like, a lot.

The red frame with the stars is a magnetic board, so I can switch out pictures frequently.

My second favorite part of my wall is this:

I don’t know if I like the plate more, or the picture of “us”.

That picture of hubbs and I was taken in 1999 when I was 19 and he was 22. We were such young kids!

Oh, and the three black&white boys in the corner? The upper two are my nephews and the baby is my little man. This picture is from 2002 during my SIL and my “painting black&white photos phase”.

I bought the two matching shelves from TJ Max on clearance for only $5! I wasn’t sure where I would put them considering they are quite small and would look odd on a large wall. I think they look great mixed in with all my photos on the stair wall!

And I love the LOVE chachkie because, well, it’s just so cute! And also because we actually bought it in Philly when we took a trip there so it’s got some sentimental value as well. I really should frame the picture hubbs and I took sitting inside the “LOVE” and put it next to the little chachkie.

The photo wall is mainly filled with pictures of the loves of my live – my kids. But I do have some neices and nephews & Aunts and Uncles mixed in as well.

I really had a great time hanging all these photos. In our day in age, it’s easy to leave all your photos on the computer and never look at them. I’m glad I have some actually printed out and framed so that I can see them and smile every single day.

My new goal now is to go back through the past 10 years of photos and print some. I need more framed photos around my house. Seeing them really does lighten my mood and brighten my day!

Have you updated your staircase with pictures, artwork, or anything else? Share it with us by posting a link in the comments section!

When I pulled the old bluebonnet photo for this post, I found this one that made me smile. So in an effort to end on the cutest note possible…