Who else has a bare wall in their house that looks pretty dull and uninteresting? Since moving into our current house nearly four years ago it has taken me up until now to start actually putting up pictures on the walls. Sure there are a few pictures here and there but it was finally time to knuckle down and get serious about finishing off the ideas that I had in my head for so long. We floated around a few ideas for this space over the past few years. One was a large piece of artwork, a few family photo's printed on a canvas and my most recent idea a picture gallery.

I've been pinning collage ideas on Pinterest for a while now trying to get a feel for what I think will work in this space. This wall is located in our lounge room, it's a dark room, the wall is long and we don't have super high ceilings so I didn't want to create something that would make the space feel claustrophobic. This room is the room that guests enter through as they walk through the front door so it is the perfect spot to pop a photo collage for them to admire. Keep that in mind when doing something like this. You want to put it somewhere it is going to be noticed, glanced at and admired. I did one in J.D's nursery but it is only really us who sees it so it wasn't really worth the effort. I think I'll fill the frames in his rooms with some fun prints as he gets older.

I ummed and ahhed over doing the picture gallery in the lounge room for a few months. I knew I wanted to do it but it was a matter of timing. Like waiting for a sale on some frames timing. One Saturday afternoon when J.D and I popped out to the shops I stumbled across a sale at Spotlight. They were having 30% off all their frames. Score. Now I hadn't done any preparation in regards to what type of gallery layout I wanted on the wall. So like the crazy lady that I am I started laying out frames on the shop floor in a pattern that I thought would work on the wall. Thankfully it wasn't to busy in the shop and no one gave me funny looks. Mind you J.D was about over it by the end and let the whole shop know this fact with lots of loud wailing and whinging. Ah the joys.

I opted to go with white frames with white matte board in them to keep in light and airy. Using black frames would of created a darker feel in the lounge room which is already struggling for light on a good day. The layout above is not the actual original layout I did in the shop. Once I got home hubby and I fiddled around with a bit more to get it just right. Don't be afraid to do this because you want to get it just right. I added an extra 6 x 4 frame in the top right hand corner where there is a blank space in the picture above. I added in two different frames with a textured border to add a bit of interest in the layout which I though made for a nice touch. Hubby wasn't so sure about them but once it was up on the wall he thought they blended in nicely.

So let's put them on the wall shall we?

Once you are happy with your picture gallery layout I would recommend laying the frames out in the layout that you are happy with in front of the wall you are putting it on. Then get yourself some newspaper or butchers paper and trace and cut fairly accurate templates of each frame.

Using these templates stick them on the wall in the layout that you have created on the floor with the frames. It now gives you the opportunity to fiddle around with the placement to get it just right. We opted to spread our frames a little further out lengthwise to create a slightly wider gallery to center it over the TV unit.

Once you are happy with the placement of the templates the real fun begins. Putting up the frames!! From here it should be fairly easy. Measure down from the top of the frame to the placement of the hook at the back note this down. Take measurements from the edge of the frame to the hook and note this down also. Transfer these measurements to the corresponding paper template and mark it with a pen. Use the template to place your nail or screw to hang the real frame from. Repeat this with the remaining frames.

So if you are unorganised like me you will probably leave these frames up for a few months before getting around to actually printing out the pictures to go in them. Must put this on my to do list and get it done. You could also have some fun and add a few prints into the frames instead of pictures which I might have a look at doing also. I will post some finished pictures of it once I get it done, you know maybe next year....!