Gallery of Stars

A friend recently called me up to see if I could come over and help her decorate her living room.  She had just moved into a new house and was feeling overwhelmed by all the big blank spaces, but she was also feeling nervous about hammering holes into her brand new walls.  Now, I’m no professional decorator, but I am pretty darn good at being a hammer-holes-into-your-walls advocate, so I cheered her along, and we came up with a pretty sweet gallery wall that we were both excited about.

Moral: don’t be scurred to poke holes in your walls. If the thought of hanging a bunch of stuff on your big bare walls freaks you out, my advice is to do it anyway! Then take it all down after a week or so, and see how much you miss it.  I bet you’ll miss it.

Here are a couple of great gallery wall makeovers for your personal inspiration and enjoyment now!

I love the unity of the yellow frames on this wall from Holly at Adventures Of An Almost 40 Year Old Intern. And that lone red frame too, what a rebel.  Major improvement on the light fixture too.

Or how about this death-defying labor of love from Better After reader JoAnne, who used “a scaffold and lots of anti-anxiety techniques” to take her wall from ho-hum to hoo-boy!  I love the unity again here with all the wood frames.

And lastly, this amazing gallery wall from my lifestyle guru, (I can call her my guru even though we’ve never actually met, right?) Jaimee Rose. Jaimee is a gallery wall aficionado. Jamiee teaches an advanced gallery wall course in college.  Martha Stewart asks Jaimee for gallery wall advice.  Ok, I made some of those up.

But Jaimee is not satisfied with just nailing up a random collection of stuff; she wants her walls to reflect the people and personalities they surround, like a museum.  This particular wall contains her grandmother’s hat and pages from her journal, and her fiance’s old varsity letter. So inspiring! Check out her nine steps for hanging a gallery wall of awesomeness on her blog Jaimee Rose.