Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Guide to Your Perfectly Personalized Gallery Wall

Oh hi, fancy seeing you here on my newly designed blog. I'm beyond thrilled with how it turned out.  The fabulous, Ashley, over at her wedding blog Lemon and Lavender, created this beautiful custom design for me!  I may or may not have been to my url 20 times in the past 2 hours just to admire it (: If you're looking for a new design, Ashley is your girl. She also just did Michelle's at Ten June, too!
Thanks, girlfriend.

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Lately, gallery walls have been all the rage.  I am a huge fan of them. So often I see such beautifully put-together gallery walls and today, I got to thinking...the process of creating one is rarely discussed.  So how is it done? Let's explore!

1. Start with something that inspires you.  This could be a photograph, word or saying, piece of art, clock, or an antique plate.

Ideas
Photographs
Your dog is the obvious choice (:


Paintings:
New Cocoa & Hearts line by Jen Ramos!
A mirror or two:
The Lettered Cottage
Fun fabric:

2.  From there, you want to build around the inspiration, gathering photos and other wall art that are of different sizes.
Making sure to balance the gallery wall with words and photos is the tricky part.  Sometimes, less is more, and only one, two or three pieces {depending on how many total pieces} should contain words or letters.  This way, the phrases or words will hold more significance.

Here are a few of my favorite phrases, letters, and prints lately:

Anthropologie
Made By Girl 
Via

3.  Depending on the style you're going for, collect different frames of the same color, different color frames, or a combo of everything {different colors, shapes and sizes}

Gold mix match:

Black and White: 
Emily A. Clark

Vintage:
Pinterest
There's really no wrong way to choose frames!

4.  Deciding the way in which you'll hang the frames is the most important part of the process.  If you have different colored frames, you want to be sure they are hung in a way that balances out the colors and sizes to the eye.  For example, a cluster of large black frames on one side and a few smaller white ones on the other wouldn't be too appealing. But, a large black frame surrounded by two smaller white ones would totally work!

In order to play around with the design before applying it to the wall permanently, try sketching it out or hanging sized paper on the wall first.

This:

To this:
Michaela Noelle Designs

This:

To this: 
Chris Loves Julia
Good news?  There's no way to mess it up, because a gallery wall is meant to showcase you and your personality.  It's one of the best personal touches on a space.  It's a fun project you can can totally DIY...especially with so many great inspiration images in blogland.  Bloggers do it right (:

Hope this has helped inspire some amazing gallery walls. Have you recently done a gallery wall for your home that you'd like to share on my blog?  Please email me the pictures and if I get enough I will showcase them (:

Have a blessed Tuesday.

Love,
Photobucket

50 comments

  1. Ah! Love this, I have been brainstorming a gallery wall all week! I'm think of using white and pale aqua frames possibly.. thanks for the helpful hints!
    Oh and I love the new design!

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  2. i love your new layout girl! I can't wait to have my own home. If your back in Cali by then I will have a go-to girl for interior decorating. I like your sweet and classic taste :)... Your going to make a great interior designer!

    ♥cheche

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  3. very nice. I always want to do this. thanks for this. :)

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  4. Love your new blog look. It is so you, purple!! Great post on gallery walls, love yours!

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  5. The new blog design is SO pretty :) I'm in the market to get my blog designed so I will def look into Lemon and Lavender.

    I love this post and have been wanting to make a wall collage for so long now - I've bookmarked this post in projects and am going to attempt it in June once the semester is over :)

    xoxo
    Jenna

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  6. LOVEEEEEE your new design!!!! looks SO SO good.

    also obsessed with gallery walls..i feel like they can go SO right or SO wrong. Cant wait to attempt one some day.

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  7. Very cool post! love the designs! Great ideas!

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  8. love the new look!!! and yes I LOVE the wall art in different sizes..planning on doing it for the nursery!

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  9. I love that they can constantly change/grow! This is mine, as it stands today :) http://cbsmallhome.blogspot.com/2011/05/i-got-my-shop-on.html (at the bottom of the post)

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  10. Lovey dovey the blog looks amazing!! So excited for you and all the great things to come your way :) Love you xo

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  11. Great post! Gallery walls are some of my faves!

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  12. Love all the great pictures :) These are all beautiful!

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  13. Love the new blog design. I love the fun fabric gallery wall. I must do that somewhere.

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  14. How about you just take to trip to Mississippi and help me out! :) I LOVE your new design!

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  15. ooooOOoo! pretty pretty! and...is that the baby room you were talking about?! you are speedy. and good.

    :)

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  16. First I <3 your new blog design! Very pretty! And thanks for this post too. I really want to put up a gallery wall in our living room but I am so intimidated by it! You definitely helped inspire me!

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  17. I love your new design! It looks beautiful! And now you have me wanting to do a gallery wall...those look awesome!

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  18. Love gallery walls andddd love your new design :) Gorgeous girl!

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  19. Hi sweet girl . . I love a great gallery wall. We have one in our family room filled with special memories.

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  20. Your new blog looks FAB!!! Love the tops on creating the perfect gallery wall! I need to give it a try!

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  21. Love the new look! This is a fantastic post. You always see the end result but never how to create a great gallery wall. Maybe now I can finish my photo wall that I started almost a year ago.

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  22. Love the new colors of your blog design! Purple is my favorite :) Glad you post this cause I'm working on my gallery wall!

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  23. Hoo-ray!!!! The new design is live! It looks incredible- perfect choices on everything!

    And the gallery wall tips are fabulous- the hardest part for me is finding different kinds of art/prints/etc to work together. This advice helps! xo

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  24. thanks for these tips! i have been wanting to make one of these walls for a long time now and just haven't done it yet. i love how they look!!!

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  25. This is awesome! I'm going to hire you someday to do decorate my home :D and I LOVED your comment. I didn't even think of putting all of that together :D

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  26. awww your readers are so sweet!! I love the last gallery! Gorgeous and totally gave me some ideas for our playroom! XOXO

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  27. amazing tips!! i still think your gallery wall is beautiful :)

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  28. I love a well-done gallery wall! Also LOVE your new header...looks fab

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  29. LOVE the new blog look! Fits your personality well:-) xoxo

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  30. Totally STILL loving your new blog design!! It's perfection!! : )

    I did my gallery wall awhile back. I really do love it!! Great tips!

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  31. oooo! I loooove the new look, Michaela. beautiful :)

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  32. I love it! I think I need a revamp too. Maybe for my birthday. I'll have to check her out!

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  33. I love your new blog design!
    and I am loving the gallery walls- I would love to have one in my home someday!!

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  34. looks gorgeouss :) love the fonts and colours xx

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  35. i LOVE a wall full of frames!! i totally need to do this in my basement~! btw, love your new design!! :D

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  36. Blog looks awesome, girl! Thanks for the shoutout, too. I am in the process of making ANOTHER gallery wall over my staircase. What can I say, I just can't get enough of them.

    And just in case you are dying for some of those anthro letters like I was, here's a tutorial how I made my own.
    http://chrislovesjulia.blogspot.com/2011/02/something-you-want-oversized.html

    Chris Loves Julia

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  37. Great tips, girl! I've been wanting to do a gallery wall on the big wall in our living room so your ideas are very helpful!

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  38. I love your taste! The bright colors are so cheerful, great ideas :)

    xo galmeetsglam.com

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  39. i love gallery walls- a great and eclectic way to show off what you love!

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  40. Thank you so much for this post! A gallery wall is one of my big projects for this summer, and I'm definitely bookmarking this to help me out. : )

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  41. Thanks for the tips, can't wait to make my own gallery wall one day :-)

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  42. I've been wanting to do one forever, but felt like I didn't even know where to start! Thanks for helping solve my problem!! This was super helpful! :)

    ~Tiffany
    http://tiffanyd22.blogspot.com

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  43. loving all of this inspiration! and yes, your new blog design is gorgeous! congrats :)

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  44. The new design is great! I always struggle with asymmetrical gallery walls -- my designs always look off. Thanks for the tips!

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  45. this is great!

    sometimes they can be so overwhelming.

    and by sometimes.. all the time.

    so I just have a huge collage/inspiration board.

    makes it easy.

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  46. omg. love all of these. so inspiring. super excited i found your blog. I'm a new follower, I hope you will as well. I started my blog 2 months ago. It's all about celebrity fashion from the point of view of an LA stylist. I moved to cali last year after graduating back in the south and I can't get enough of your blog. Would love if you could stop by to see multiple post a day on all the latest celebrity fashion news. Would love your support. xoxo

    www.fashboulevard.blogspot.com

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  47. I love love love the new look of your blog. I have to say that whenever we have a house, I'm planning on putting in a fun gallery wall with a mixture of photos, mementos, and other special things. Thanks for sharing tips to a great gallery wall.

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  48. i know just the place i could make this happen in my house. and now i've got the inspiration. nothing left to do now but make it happen!! <3 EverRubyGirl.blogspot.com

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  49. You're a very talented designer. Really love the word murals you have posted.

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Thank you for stopping by! If you have a specific question, please email me at hello@michaelanoelledesigns.com. I always reply to emails! Have a blessed day! xoxo

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