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| Looking into foyer from kitchen |
For the longest time, our foyer was very vanilla…right down to the cream colored walls. Well, we finally have a bit of warmth, thanks to the addition of a mini gallery wall.
Disclaimer: I’m by no means an art major or have ANY clue what I’m doing here. I just play around until I find something I like and then run with it. I mean, that’s what a home is all about, right? Finding stuff YOU like…not what you think other people will like. Sure, it’s flattering if they like it as well but at the end of the day, I’m the one coming home to see the darn stuff all night. Here's what we started with:
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| View from near the front door |
And here’s what I came up with:
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| Hope you ordered a large side of glare with that picture. |
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| You'll notice two frames are navy here...more on that later. |
Here’s the breakdown on the pieces and my thinking process along the way:
Family Photo - $12
My jumping off point was knowing I wanted to include a particular professional family picture we had taken the summer of 2012. Given that, I drew upon the colors in that photo to guide the palette I went with - blues and greens. And since I’m a fan of white frames, I opted for a nice new white one from Michael’s. They were having a BOGO (buy one, get one) sale, so it didn’t break the bank to go new and stray from my usual second hand frame ways. The frame ended up being $10 and the print was $2 from Walgreen’s.
Boys’ Photos - $3
I knew I wanted solo pictures of the boys to be in the collage so I sought out ones that fit that color scheme. I actually cheated a bit here (what’s that old saying? If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’?) Anyway, for the boys’ photos, I just grabbed some from the same family photo shoot since I knew their outfits would go with my color theme. Walgreen’s also printed those for under $1 total for both. Their frames were a total of $2 each from Michael’s. They were bare pine wood initially, but received an Anne Special paint job.
Centerpiece - $16
The centerpiece “All you need is love” Eric created for me in Microsoft Word in about five minutes flat. The navy blue font coupled with some turquoise cardstock I picked up from Michael’s for under a buck...bam. Done. Since this is the largest piece that catches your eye, I felt it was deserving of a nice, new frame from Michael’s. Also, the less than $1 art warranted the $15 frame splurge.
Home Keys Shadowbox - $4
This is one of my favorite DIY art pieces so far I think. I found a small shadowbox frame at Target on clearance for $5. And thanks to a few dings (that I knew a coat of spray paint would hide instantly), I was able to get a 15% off discount at checkout. It never hurts to ask! I had this idea swirling around in my head just before we sold our last house, so I kept one of the old fashioned keys for this purpose. Since the whole concept behind this foyer collage is family, love, and home, I thought it would be really cool to pay tribute to the first home we owned that was such a huge piece of our lives for the previous seven years. So here she lies right next to the key for our new home that will surely see the next seven years plus some. Back to the details – I used sage green cardstock as the backing of the frame to add some color and then used Word to type up the street names for each home and glued them on once I knew how far down the keys would hang.
Framed Cardstock Paper - $6
Once I finalized some of the above pieces in the collage, I knew I needed something else that would be a non-person photo that would flow with the collection. I basically just browsed around at stores for anything that would hold a nail and lay flay against a wall. I came up empty. And then realized the path of least resistance would be some pretty cardstock paper framed. So for under a buck for the paper and $5 for a frame, that’s what we call a completed mini gallery wall collection.
Oh and as for hanging, I did my usual method of tracing the frames on paper – this time I used extra wrapping paper we had lying around. I also figured out an even easier way to know where the nail hole should go. Perhaps you guys would’ve figured this out right away because I’m sure you’re far smarter than I, but better late than never, right? Previously, I was busting out my measuring tape on the back of the frame to find the center point (let’s say it was 3.5” inches to the center). Then I would go over to the wrapping paper on the wall and measure 3.5” and mark its center. Well, duh. The nail hanger will always be in the center of the back of the frame. So when you trace and cut out your wrapping paper, just fold the wrapping paper in half and create a crease line before you tape it to the wall. Then from there you can usually easily eye ball how far down from the top of the frame the hanger rests. That means no measuring tape needed! Score.
As you'll notice in the close up in the key shadowbox pic above, the two frames of the boys' pictures are navy blue. But once I got everything up on the walls, I realized I wanted them all white so back out to the garage for a fresh white coat (which is what you see in the final after shot). Also, I love that I have room for a few more pieces down the line if we find other cool stuff. But for now, we're really digging it.
Anyway, I’m currently working on the other side of the foyer wall now and will be hopefully reporting back with those details soon.
Total Project Cost: $41
Frames $36
Scrapbook Paper: $2
Map pins: $0, already had
Printed Pictures: $3
Nails: $0, already had them
Wrapping Paper: $0, already had it
Spray Paint: $0, already had it
Has anyone else made a mini gallery wall or your own art lately? Email me a photo!
♥,
Anne
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