ONE of my major projects this summer was making a gallery wall in my dining room. Because we live in a townhouse (long and narrow) the kitchen is followed by the dining room which is followed by the living room at the back of the house, making the dining room a passageway. The dining room is very small, so I wanted to make the hall wall visually part of the dining area.
I started by deciding which pictures I wanted to use. The only criteria was that each image had to make me smile or evoke a happy memory. I refused to use anything that I felt "should" be displayed. I am sorry to say that I have done that in the past. I decided to make my home truly "rise up to greet me" (thanks, Oprah and Nate) and that I would start with this wall.
Jack asked that there be no "posed" photos. This was difficult because I really wanted to use my mom's high school graduation photo which was a studio shot. I compromised by using mainly natural-looking pictures, even if the subjects were looking into the lens. I also wanted to do mainly black and white images. I didn't stay exclusively with b & w as my mom's picture was colourized. The pictures that were coloured I scanned, saved on a flashcard and took to my local Walmart store to be printed in black and white. A 4x6 photo is only 30 cents!!! Who knew.
I had frames stored in the basement - some empty and some filled with "beautiful" 80s images of flowers. Yes, that is how long I have been moving them house to house. Don't judge me. But I didn't have nearly enough. My goal was to "NEVER PAY RETAIL". I found most of the rest of the frames at Goodwill for under a buck each. Then I spray-painted each frame in Tremclad Gloss White and the mattes in flat white. Confession time: I did end up paying FULL RETAIL PRICE for some frames. I was at the dollar store and found 4x6 frames with a double mat already in white, so I bit the bullet and spent the $2 each for 6 frames. Sue me.
Now it was time to put my plan into action.
I laid the items on the floor until the arrangement pleased me.
Then I moved everything into the dining room. Duh. Why didn't I put everything on the dining room floor???? Because I like doing everything twice? Then I hammered indiscriminately. Don't look behind the pictures - there are lots of holes ;P (ssshh, don't tell anyone), but I like the freeform style.
You will notice I also used items that were not photos. This was to add interest and to pay homage to items that had been stored in boxes for decades. Seriously. Decades. I included a door knocker with Jack's family crest, the handles from his TV cabinet growing up - on which he saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, the M represents our last name, I have 2 pieces of my children's artwork (even though they're grown up), the lyrics to
our song, a map showing where our horse ranch was located and, of course, a horseshoe!
The pictures include old photos of our parents, Jack and me as children, our cats, our horses, and our kids.
And I smile every time I walk by the wall.
And that is what it's all about!
Nadine
I received these beautiful flowers from the Horsey Girl's boyfriend on my birthday last week. (Trying to suck up, eh?). They still look great today on the table of my breakfast nook..
