In our apartment, we had a gallery wall in the bedroom, and I was always a little sad because I loved it but no one other than Sam or I ever saw it. So when I was debating what to do with the large walls in our living room, a gallery wall was top of the list. One weekend afternoon, I finally buckled down and created one:
One of the great things about a gallery wall is that takes up a lot of space, but it’s a lot of little items which means you don’t need to fall in love with/pay a pretty penny for a single large piece of art that would take up a similarly-sized space. Most of the things I put up in our living room gallery wall we already had on hand, though a few were new to celebrate our new hometown, Malden.
Top row, left to right: An inexpensive printable from Etsy (affiliate link – read about our policies); page from the personalized calendar I made Sam a few years ago (and created a new version of for Valentine’s Day this year); snowman painting by a very talented 7-year old (aka me) | Middle row: Print from one of my favorite artists on Etsy, Erin McNulty (affiliate link – read about our policies); print that Sam bought during one of his summers living in China; colorful map of Malden I found online | Bottom: Another inexpensive printable from Etsy (affiliate link – read about our policies); Heart art that I made using an old Atlas, showing cities that are meaningful to me and Sam; drawing that I bought for Sam from the hilarious company I Want to Draw a Cat for You (You send this guy a description of a cat, and he draws it for you. That’s it.)
Top row, left to right: Another print from Erin McNulty (affiliate link – read about our policies); gift from Sam’s dad and stepmom; fabric left over from an upholstery project | Second row: gift from my father; photo of me running my first half marathon; drawing that Sam’s very talented brother made of our not-so-svelte cat, Owen | Third row: Another page from the calendar I made Sam a few years ago; print of Boston drawn by a guy who draws cities in the style of fantasy books like Lord of the Rings and sells them on Etsy (affiliate link – read about our policies); Yet another print from Erin McNulty — I especially love the red cardinals — the cardinal is the mascot of Wesleyan University, where Sam and I went to college and met, so I like to think of us sitting in that tree together | Bottom row: two cards, from my mom and stepmom.
Best practice for creating a gallery wall is to cut out scrap paper the size of each frame you have and then arrange the paper on the wall so you can play with the spacing without making a lot of unnecessary nail holes. I did not follow best practices, because I’m lazy. Instead, I played around with a layout on the ground, and then snapped a photo to refer to as I transferred everything to the wall.
So, that’s the gallery wall.
But wait, this post is also my chance to tell you about the rest of the work we did on the living room!
One of the first things we did after moving into our house (indeed, on our first day living there) was paint the living room. I knew it was the first room I wanted to paint, and since all our furniture was still in the basement where we’d had it moved when the seller was still living there, we thought we’d take advantage of a few furniture-free days (we had movers coming back in 48 hours to move everything upstairs) to get some painting done.
Here’s where we started (photos are from the listing sheet):
Pantone may claim that this is the color of the year (“dramatic and at the same time grounding, the rich and full-bodied red-brown Marsala brings color warmth into home interiors”), but it wasn’t the color for us.
While still at the hotel, I’d purchased all our painting supplies, including a gallon of Zinsser primer and a gallon of Olympic paint in eggshell, color-matched to Benjamin Moore’s Moonshine. This is a light gray color that I thought would be pretty neutral to help the living room feel bigger and make our colorful accessories the focal point, but also give the space more interest than just plain white. It’s super risky (and ill-advised) to buy paint without being able to tape up swatches in the actual space to observe it in different lighting situations, but we had a major time crunch and I felt pretty optimistic that it would look good.
First we did a coat of the primer. Even though the paint is technically “paint and primer in one,” when painting a light color over such a dark color it makes sense to prime first to avoid having to do endless coats of paint (primer is cheaper than paint).
Such an awesome paintbrush-wielding husband!
Then we did a coat of paint, which pretty much did the trick except for having to add some extra coverage in a few places where the roller missed the first time (it was getting dark and we didn’t have much lighting set up yet). That left us here:
The blue tint on the left wall is just a figment of my iphone camera
The next step was getting a new sectional sofa — it’s something we’ve wanted for a long time, but it wouldn’t have worked in our apartment. Now we have the perfect layout, with two relatively long walls framing the central living space. We decided to go with the Karlstad sectional from IKEA — we already had one of these but in sofa form (see it in the sunroom now), and we’ve really liked it. Plus it’s relatively inexpensive for a large sectional, while still feeling and looking fairly nice.
We’d originally planned to buy one new and have it delivered, but then I saw one on craigslist that was only 2 months old for a few hundred dollars less so we scooped it up ($600 slightly used compared to $800 new plus $150 for shipping). We did have to rent a uhaul truck to get it (which cost $45), but we still came out ahead (and I like to buy used where possible for sustainability purposes).
The pieces of the sectional hanging out in our sunroom
Before setting it up, I painted the legs just like I did for our Karlstad couch — I just detached them all and took them down to the basement for a few quick coats of spray paint in oil rubbed bronze. (It’s hard to tell, but they’re set up on a clear shower curtain that I use as a dropcloth for spraypainting.)
The darker legs make it feel so much less like a generic IKEA piece. The oil rubbed bronze looks like dark wood from afar, and is an easy alternative to sanding and staining.
The other thing we did was put on a new cover. We love the dark gray (called Sivic Gray) that the couch came with, which is the same cover we have on our sofa version, but we found that it gets scruffy looking fast because our cat sheds light-colored hair. (More about my decorating-for-cats genius advice here.) We picked up a new cover in Isunda Gray when we were at IKEA a few weeks before in anticipation (we knew we’d be buying the couch a few weeks before we actually picked it up), and then swapped out the covers when we finally brought the couch home. It’s relatively easy to swap out the covers, but still took awhile to do the body of the sectional and all the cushions.
With some additional decorating, we had a completed room! Let me take you through it:
In addition to the gallery wall, I added a large mirror that I grabbed from Bed Bath and Beyond for $50, which seemed fairly reasonable for such a large mirror.
I also put up some curtains, which I sewed using fabric I ordered from Fabric.com — it’s called Alex French Grey by Premier Prints, and I got enough fabric for four thin panels for $53. The panels just sit on either side of the semi-sheer privacy curtains we have up over both windows. We have blinds that we can use to darken the room, so the new curtains are more decorative than functional.
The TV stand is an old dresser I found on craigslist and painted a bright coral color.
Since we don’t have overhead lights in this room, we also had to stock up on lamps. The silver lamps — one a table lamp, one a floor lamp — are from Target. I like that they’re the same style but not too matchy-matchy. The lamp by the TV used to be gold, and I spray-painted it ages ago. It actually plugs into an outlet on the other end side of the long window that connects to a light switch, so we can turn it on with the switch when we walk into the room — so convenient. I hid the cord completely, by taping it to the back of the table as it comes out of the lamp, then running it under the radiator, and hiding the outlet where it finally plugs in under the curtains.
So that’s the living room! Some day I’d like to get a chair or two for under the window (I have dreams of getting a beat up old armchair and then using it to learn how to upholster). But in the meantime, it feels finished — which in a house with a long to-do list is a great feeling. In a few short months, we’ve really come a long way:
(UPDATE: Be sure to check out some subsequent living room updates including: my dream chairs under the window, cat shelves, and some rug tweaking.)
(FEATURED at Tatertots and Jello and Thrifty Decor Chick! – and sharing at I Heart Naptime, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Thrifty Decor Chick, Designer Trapped, Remodelaholic, and That DIY Party)
I love your gallery wall; the collection is personal, fun & cohesive, the colors in keeping with the room, truly the focal point of the room and everything together does look complete and finished…except for the baseboard heaters which caught my attention because of the off-color. They probably don’t pop out in real life as much as in the photo & the color may be another camera quirk, but they can be painted successfully. With the right paint (for metal & heat resistant) they can blend right into the wall or mimic baseboards.
Thanks Mary Ann! The basebaords are definitely noticeable in person too and I for sure plan to paint them down the line. It’s a house-wide problem 🙂
Beautiful! Let me know if you want to review our available armchairs … :-).
xoxoxo
Will do! Perhaps this summer I can re-raid “the second hand store” (aka your home).
Wow, that’s a huge transformation! Love it! Your gallery wall looks great!
Thanks Samantha! Right back at you about the gallery wall — love what you did in your dining room!
What a transformation! I love it, it’s so bright now. And uh, that cat condo is amazing!
Thanks Ashley! Yes, the cats must have their tower… 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
i love the color of the sectional, and am having major sectional envy as i’ve always wanted one. yay for the mega cat condo, that is awesome. i have GOT to look into the guy who draws cats and intrigued by the random wine holder on the floor. love your room, and enjoy your space!
b
Thanks so much! The wine rack is something we found at Goodwill years ago. Definitely look into “I Want to Draw a Cat for You,” it’s an absurd but fantastic concept.
Thanks for reading!
Love your pretty gallery wall! The whole room is lovely! Good decision to lose the marsala 🙂
Thanks so much Carolyn! Haven’t regretted it for a moment, even when Pantone made their announcement 🙂
It’s so ironic that your walls were Marsala. Take that, Pantone!
I love both of your styles! After sifting through lots of shabby chic/cottage style blogs I ran across yours and it is so refreshing and nice to find someone whose aesthetic is similar to mine.
Thanks Mandie! And it’s too funny, after you commented yesterday I showed Naomi your blog and we both exclaimed that we like your style (and your photos). So glad we came across each other!
The gallery wall is beautiful…..but I just adore your tv cabinet!
Thanks Gilly, I had a lot of fun with that one! And I’m loving your blog — your photos are *gorgeous*!
I have a large wal of windows similar to yours and like the way you’ve dressed them. Can you tell me where you got the sheets and approx how wide the fabric panels on the end are?
Thanks!
My gosh autocorrect made my question unreadable!
Wondering where you got the “sheers” and how wide you made the side panels! Thanks!
Oh autocorrect, you never fail to entertain! 🙂 Thanks for your kind words! For the curtain panels, I just used the width of the fabric, which in this case was 54″ (minus a few inches lost to hemming a seam on both sides). It’s thin, but does the trick for what we need. Alas I can’t report on the origin of the sheers, since the seller left them behind when we bought the house. But in the past, I’ve had good luck finding affordable sheers at overstock.com!
Wow! Your whole space is transformed. It’s so much lighter and brighter. I love it!
Thanks Christine!
What a beautiful room! The coral accent is my favorite part! I am visiting from Think and Make Thursday!
Thanks Zografia! Your beaded wreath is so fun!
OH MY GOODNESS IT LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER! I saw the “after” picture from Home Love Stories and COULD NOT BELIEVE when I saw the “before” picture that it was the same room! It looks so much larger and airier with the lighter colors! Ok, i’ll stop gushing but congratulations on a job well done! Also, i’m going to steal your sheer curtains idea. We live in a rental that’s very close to the other rentals so we don’t like to keep the blinds open all the time, but there is hardly any light when the windows are darkened. This is a good compromise!
Thanks so much, Adrienne! Don’t stop gushing on my account 🙂 It really is incredible what a difference paint makes, though! Before we bought our house, the sheers also worked so well for us as were renters living on street level for four years, so I definitely highly recommend them — a perfect way to maintain privacy at all times while still letting in lots of light.
WOW! Amazing transformation! You mentioned painting your dresser. Which paint did you use? I have kept a few furniture diy projects on hold as I am not able to find chalk paint in my city. Is there any alternative option?
Thanks Nikita! Absolutely there are alternatives — the DIY world is kind of on a chalk paint craze right now it seems, but regular old latex paint that you can buy at any hardware store definitely works (and is what I used on the dresser). You just have to sand and prime first, which milk/chalk paint don’t require, and it can chip away more easily (plus brushstrokes show more, though a paint conditioner like floetrol can help a lot with that). But I’ve had lots of luck with it as long as I prep properly! Here’s my post with the details of painting the dresser, in case that helps! http://www.plasteranddisaster.com/furniture-makeover-dresser-tv-stand/
WOW! What a transformatioN!!! especially from the listing photos
XO Ellen from Ask Away
http://www.askawayblog.com
Thanks! I can’t believe those listing photos were real, they show the space so poorly! But the lighter color really does feel better in the space, too.
Wow. What a beautiful gallery wall. This is the exact type of layout Im looking for for my house, no matter what I do I cant make one that looks right layout wise. I love how detailed all your posts are… would have loved a breakdown of the size frames you used so I can be inspired (*meaning shamelessly copy your genius)
This may seem like a silly question, but do you happen to still have the dark gray cover for your sectional?