Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Personal Project: Entry Photo Wall

Last weekend was one of those weekends where I was super productive and tackled a bunch of little projects on my never-ending to-do list around the apartment. I re-organized the kitchen cabinets, donated bags of things we never use but were taking up precious space and finally finished our entry photo wall! I painted this wall about a year ago and hung a few frames but it never looked right to me. For months I've been staring at this wall, chomping at the bit to really do it right. Here are a few notes on how I created this photo wall. I plan on switching out the photos every 6 months to keep things fresh and interesting. Let me know what you think! Do you have any plans for updating your entryway this year?

I painted the main entry wall this amazing shade of gray from Benjamin Moore (which I can't find the name of at the moment but will update this post as soon as I do!) I didn't really have a layout in mind on how to hang each piece, but I started with this larger piece first and worked around it. I had all of the frames laid out on the floor and hung them sort of like pieces of a puzzle as I went along - holding up different sizes to see what worked before mounting them with a nail and picture frame wire (although there are quite a few extra holes in this wall with my "eyeball" method!).

I wanted to mix it up and have more than just frames, so I incorporated a few pieces of art (from Homegoods) and small round gold mirrors, which breaks up all of the photos.  Most of the frames are from Ikea and are in all different finishes, which gives the wall an eclectic feel. Tip: don't fill the frames until after you've hung the entire wall so you have more flexibility on the direction to hang the frame (horizontal or vertical). It's extra work but worth it!

A shot of our front door - as you can see, our entryway is very small and the kitchen is just to the right. Even though it's just an apartment, I really wanted to make our entry dramatic and fun. I hung the frames high on the wall to give the illusion of higher ceilings.

Details of frames in all different finishes, which works well.

I know it's very "Friends" from the 90's, but the glass broke in this gold frame so I decided to make use of it by mounting it to the door (I used these awesome Hanging Strips from the Command).

Now that the wall is complete, I'm realizing that we need a runner in a fun pattern, maybe with some color, to complete the look. I'll add that to the list!
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18 comments:

  1. You are incredible! Thank you so much for posting pictures on this--it's fantastic. You did a great job!

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  2. It looks great! Actually I`m looking for ideas like your work, so thank you! In my last post I show an another dyi-idea for the door. A little difficult and for wood enthusiasts;)

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  3. Looks great! I love how the gold mirrors look on that grey paint colour. I've been planning a gallery wall for over a year - I should really get my butt in gear!

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  4. Great job! And I love the idea of switching the photos once in a while.
    I had the same problem with my entryway- It's very small ( about 3,00 sq.metres) and have 2 pairs of doors, but it's decorated with small crystal chandelier and little gallery ( well, maybe not 'gallery' - 3 framed pictures and wooden letter...)

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  5. julie! love the wall color, love the placement of everything. and the addition of the mirrors to break up everything is brilliant. you make apartment living chic-er than chic! you did a great job!!

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  6. I enjoy your little nod to FRIENDS! Your gallery wall looks great :) Kristin

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  7. I love the soothing grey color of the wall and how you mix the different frames for an eclectic feel. Everything works perfectly together and looks great!

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  8. Great job Julie, you did fantastic!
    http://www.dawnajonesdesign.com/

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  9. Thanks everyone for your positive feedback! So glad you like the end result. More personal projects to come :)

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  10. I'm so jealous you got all that accomplished in one weekend! It looks so awesome!

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  11. simple and beautiful :) I really like it
    Regards Mag

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  12. Hi there, I am a decorator in Burlington, Ontario Canada and a subscriber to your blog. If you want to take your gallery wall to the next level paint your interior entry door black, believe me it will look sensational!!

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  13. This looks great! I love he eclectic frames, shapes, sizes. Nice job! I actually plan on painting our entryway a fun contrasting chevron stripe, inspired by a photo I noticed in one of your previous posts. I wrote about my fun project here -- http://www.rememberwhenwelivedinthatcastle.com/2012/12/raindrops-on-roses-whiskers-on-kittens.html. It's on the never-ending and ever-growing 2013 To DO List!
    XOXO
    --Ashley

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  14. Julie, the wall looks fantastic!! Great job as usual :)

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  15. So great! I started one as well, but I don't have enough pieces ( frames/etc) to fill it yet, so doesn't feel's like I can't really do anything until I have enough and the right ones!

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  16. Love this! I'm in the process of decorating my sons nursery and I am so torn on what I want to do. It seems like the decision to put on a wall is bigger than what car to buy! I love what you did and couldn't have done it better myself! A method you can use to do this without creating a ton of holes is putting up wax paper and tracing out the frames to see what they look like and hammering over the paper if it is what you like!

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  17. Wow, what a difference! I absolutely love what you did with the wall and how you arranged everything, it looks amazing! I am going to feature this on my Links to Love post tonight on my blog! :)

    http://apinksunset.com

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  18. Do you have the name of the wall color? Love it.

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Thank you for your comments! I appreciate you stopping by :)