The Gallery in Your Home

Have you noticed?  Gallery Walls are trending big time!  Yes, they are "back," not that all of us abandoned them the last decade but what is old is once again NEW and if you need further proof just search for "gallery walls" on www.Houzz.com or www.pinterest.com.  Really good news for those of us who love to collect and any of you professing "to be out of wall space."

Very simply a gallery wall is a place you hang multiple pieces of art as opposed to one large piece.  There are many categories of such including a "theme wall" (everything related to a specific topic such as horses), a "symmetrical wall" (using the same size and style of frame in multiples, evenly laid out), the "collection wall" (sort of a scrapbook of art, 3d items, letters, clocks etc.) and the new "around the black hole" wall (a way to help the flatscreen tv wall take on new life).

My favorite of course is the collection wall as I love to take my time viewing such a presentation and piecing together the story it tells about the person(s) who hung it.  The symmetrical wall is a fav of decorators and tends to be more formal. (See presentations of botanical prints hung equi-distance apart).  Either way I encourage you, right this minute, to start planning your own gallery wall....if you never took yours down then why not freshen it up a bit.

I won't waste the space here telling you how to perfectly plan and hang your design.  There are many sites on-line with helpful how-tos in making paper templates with guide lines and taping them up to check the layout.  This assumes you have all your pieces collected and ready to go...which is brilliant.

Here is a simple gallery to get you started.  Four pieces actually.  They are not as uncentered as they appear in the photo but I like the addition of table pieces added to the mix of the art on the wall.  Easy enough.

This is my hallway...we traverse it a million times a day as does anyone entering our home.  And it IS as off-centered as it appears.  Why?  Because it is constantly growing!  The wall started as a collection of pear art done by friends.  They were all lined up and neatly hung in a row -  I felt like I was visiting with the artists every time I walked by. But after a few years I had pieces that were not pears and I started moving things around a bit.

I like the way it is growing: different styles, different frames and notice the 3D sneaking in.  This is the happiest wall in my home because I know every single artist and love them dearly.  My life is not all organized and measured and neat as a pin, and I think this wall pretty much shares that.  Who knows what we will add next?

I already hear the practical of you  moaning about too many holes in the wall.  Well, we have discussed that and know that some day, when the mood strikes and the collection grows, we will "frame out" the space with white molding and paint the interior with a close (impossible to match) new coat of paint...after plugging the holes.  And then we start again.

There is no need to cease buying art (did you know I have some hung for viewing in my closet?)...just get creative in hanging it.  This wall may never make it past Interior Design 101 but if it makes us smile it is well worth every single off centered nail hole!

Here's one hot off the easel....something most coastal dwellers paint often....but my first ever:

Rolling In

24 x 12, oil on gallery wrapped canvas

needs no frame

In Living Color,

Cindy