hey kev, what do you want for christmas?

i thought maybe my husband might mention a new shirt, something from amazon, a yeti mug. something i could easily buy and wrap in the hustle and bustle before christmas. not that my husband’s gift doesn’t deserve some heart and soul. it does. his requests are just usually pretty simple.

yeah, uh, i was thinking maybe you could do one of those gallery walls for me in my office. on this wall?

yikes. i mean. look at that wall. a whole gallery wall? there? in time for christmas? my husband asks for very LITTLE so i quickly agreed to the gift. then i started stressing. it’s not that i don’t love a good diy project. it was mostly just the timeframe. and doing something non-girly. i am pretty good at girly decorating. my husband tolerates it well in the rest of the house but admittedly, most of our decor is more female than male {think aqua and white}.

one fast non-girly gallery wall. coming right up.

designing a gallery wall step 1

the first thing my husband and i did together was decide on a theme/color scheme. i asked my husband what his vision was for this wall. he showed me a bunch of framed posters and records, as well as three guitars, and three floating shelves he’d purchased on amazon. he also showed me pictures on the computer that he wanted printed for the wall. my first thought? guitars are heavy. my second thought? floating shelves are hard to hang. but i had already agreed to this. after deciding on a music theme for the wall, we chose a black/silver/gold color scheme because the things he had were already framed in these colors. step one done.

designing a gallery wall step 2

the next thing i did was map out my space. the thing you have to remember is you are not painting along these lines, you are hanging along them. so they need to be almost 100% straight but you have a tiny bit of wiggle room. i have a hard time with a laser level. i know they are supposed to be easy, and if you are good at them, go with that. i prefer to use yardsticks, a level, and painters tape. i know. it’s weird. my husband thinks so too.

my space included the whole wall, with about a 15″ margin on the top and bottom, with enough room on the sides for the door to open.

using my crazy method, i taped a yardstick to the first edge of the space, making sure it was level. then i ran painters tape the length of the yardstick and beyond, creating the first side. i used the yardstick as a guide so i could get the whole stretch of tape straight. i did this for each side of the wall. it went remarkably quick.

like the gallery wall on our stairs, i wanted to work within a hard rectangle edge for this design. you might want your edges to be less exact. in that case, you will want to work around a midline. basically, this means placing a piece tape, either vertically or horizontally, right in the middle of your gallery space, rather than outlining your edges. then you work up and down {horizontally} or left and right {vertically} from your line.

above is a great image from simplified bee on creating a gallery wall from a midline. the image was taken from a whole book on home decor cheat sheets found here on amazon.

after mapping out my space on the office wall, i created a staging area on the floor of my basement that was the same size. i used pink yarn. i know. also weird. but if you remember, i was under a time constraint and needed to work with what i had. i could have used painter’s tape but the yarn was easier to move around. i cut four pieces of yarn the same length as the four sides of the space on the office wall. i used a level to lay these in a rectangle to match my space on the office wall. {note :: if you use this method, yarn is stretchy. you have to measure it when it is not stretched and then lay in on the floor unstretched.}

designing a gallery wall step 3

time to arrange your pictures in your staging area. i knew from my last gallery wall that it is important to have equal spacing and a cohesive color palate. as i started arranging, i started to get excited. as hard as floating shelves are to hang, the dimension they added to the wall made me pretty happy. also, i knew i’d get to do some shopping for some fun goodies for the shelves. those extras, i decided, would be what i wrapped for my husband for his actual christmas presents.

i started by arranging what i had. after this, i measured the remaining spaces and had metal and mounted prints made at sam’s club to fit these gaps. sam’s had the best variety when it came to the sizes they could do. when i ordered, the estimated date for the photos was after christmas. sigh. but at least i could finish most of the wall in time. for the interim, i cut white pieces of paper to mimic the prints i ordered and placed these in the blank spaces so my husband could get a sense of the whole wall for the big christmas day reveal.

designing a gallery wall step 4

the final step is transferring your items from your staging area to your actual area. the truth? i am terrified of hanging things on the wall. it is such a commitment with that nail hole! i always mess up at least once and i use command strips every chance i get. but those weren’t exactly going to to work for guitars. my best advice if you have hanging anxiety like me is to take your time. and use this magic hanging tool. it changed my life for the low cost of $14.99! i am not a spokesperson for this product, i just love it! {i’ve seen it at lowes, target, and here on amazon.}

i started hanging three days before christmas. despite the time constraints i felt, i worked very slowly. i used a stud finder, and hit not a single stud. so i used anchors.

i have two anchor kits. i’ve had the orange one forever. it is from ikea. the other one is from lowes. i have no idea the hanging weights of the ikea kit {though i am sure i could look it up}. typically, i hang lighter things with the ikea kit. the lowes kit gives specific weights for each colored anchor. i like that. the guitar hangers came with anchors so i used those. same for the hanging shelves. for other heavier pictures i used the lowes anchors. for the lightest items, i used command strips.

the first thing i hung was a guitar. i just needed to tackle the challenge. then i hung the bottom left beatles picture using the magic picture hanging tool. then came another guitar. there is no perfect place to start. whatever helps you get your spacing right is probably the best method for you. and no one is going to know if your spacing isn’t exactly perfect with this kind of wall. i promise you mine is not.

another method you might use to help with spacing is to outline each of your pictures on a piece of white posterboard and then hang the paper to make sure they fit the space. i did this for the pictures i was waiting on.

the best part of doing a gallery wall is removing the tape! there is so much satisfaction in peeling it off to reveal the finished product.

my favorite part about this wall is the dimension created by the shelves. and i was almost too scared to try to hang them! the kids and i had fun at homegoods picking out all the pieces for the shelves to give to keven as gifts. i also really love the color scheme. it is not a palate i’ve worked with before but i think it fits the vibe of keven’s office perfectly.

i am glad my husband made me venture outside my comfort zone with this project. if you’re like me and a gallery wall is outside of your comfort zone, remember to break the project into steps. decide on a theme/color scheme, map out your space, arrange your pictures, and transfer! take it slow and ask a friend to help if you can. you got this!

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