A Gallery of Fun

This week I am doing a mini-house tour of our brand-new condo look! We have been busy painting and decorating, stepping up this 1,000 square feet in the sky into something that is grown-up and geared-up for 2012 and beyond. I am sooo thrilled with the results and can't wait to show you what it all looks like!

Back again today with another fun update - the gallery wall! I have been dreaming of gray-blue paint paired with a black-and-white gallery wall since many, many moons ago. Pottery Barn just KNOWS me, ya know?

Even though we unexpectedly found the new oversized picture for above our living room couch, I knew that I still wanted to use all of our black frames in some form of a gallery wall. Luckily, our hallway left much to be desired after painting it the pretty new gray-blue color. The one print I had hung there looked almost lonely. So one evening (the night I got engaged, actually, I just didn't know it yet!!) I sat down with a bunch of newspapers, some scissors and some tape and planned out where the pictures could go:

After shifting and moving some of the placeholders around a bit, I was pleased with what my eye saw. I should note, the free-form placement? A big deal, y'all. You are looking at Katherine-Loves-Order OCD girl here! It helped me to keep all of the shapes within a general "square" shape, though.

A few days (and a ring on my finger, LOL) later, I sat down to fill in the creative gaps while my resident live-in Handyman got to work with the hammer drill to get the holes drilled for the photos.  

Side note: Live in a highrise with poured cement walls? We can share some tips, if you ever need them. Goodness gracious, gallery walls + cement = crazy hard hammer drill workout.

I had some of the frames already filled, but some needed some pizazz. I also wanted to add some color to the whole black/cream/white theme. Scrapbook paper came to the rescue with just the right amount of complimentary themes.

 

 

Then, let the hanging begin!

Here is the finished product. Minus the spot on the lower left. Where Brad "got into a fight with the concrete wall." Hammer Drill, 0, Concrete Wall, 1. We will fix that later :)

 
I wanted to keep some of my M.C. Escher prints, so I picked out two of my favorites to incorporate onto the wall. 

I also used a spare oversized map (long story) to cut out parts of the world we want to visit someday.

At the bottom of the wall, I framed a piece of sheet music from one of my cello drill books. Mwahaha no more practicing that sonata anymore!

I particularly love the view of the gallery wall from the kitchen. Without any lights on, it adds some brightness to the end of the "hallway" where our washer/dryer and coat closet are.

And when I turned on the flash, it especially showcases the change in paint color that happens from the kitchen into the hall. The kitchen is a shade lighter, but it flows so well that you might not even notice it at first glance without the help of a camera flash. Our painter? Amazing job on that line, sir. Amazing. Especially since that corner is curved AND textured concrete. Amen.

The last thing I really love about our new hallway is the red-orange photo frame I hung around the peephole, Friends-style.

This one's for my BFF, Laurie! She is a Friends fanatic! The plain white frame was $4 at IKEA, and with so many cool, neutrals going on in here, I knew I wanted a pop of some color here and there. The gallery wall has a few similar pops of red, as does the living room. So I picked out a bright spray paint and went to town.

Well, that's that! What do you think? You have seen the entire place all done up. I hope you love it as much as we do.

It's been fun to live in a place that now seems so hotel-ish. It's amazing what some paint and some pictures on the wall can do for a place, isn't it? :)