Stairwell Gallery Wall

I love my boys. Obviously. I love pictures of them too.

I also love gallery walls. I think anything that looks great--like nicely framed pictures of my three favorite little guys--in small numbers looks better en masse. 

Since I haven't had the boys' pictures taken in a year and haven't had a real family picture done since Jared was making me look like I swallowed a watermelon, and since there are very few pictures of Josiah, I left some frames blank as well as some places to add more. 

I added my collection of frames to our stairwell. It's a pretty ugly part of our rental house. Old carpet, funny angles, poorly framed window, weird banister, crooked walls... Definitely helped things out to have a gallery wall to focus on! Besides, then you'll analyze if the frames are straight, not the walls!

Before we left our home in Iowa, I had created a little gallery wall in our striped hallway. I'd also added some colored mats (spray painted by me) to several black frames (also spray painted by me) that were in our living room there. So it worked out perfectly to have black frames, some white and some blue mats, mostly colored portraits but some black-and-white pictures too. I love how it turned out.

I don't have a method for hanging pictures in groups. I've found that the gut-and-eyeball method works best for me. I'm sure that's a professional term! I pick a large picture, stick it where I think it looks good, flip it over and eyeball where the nail should go. Only on this wall I have to use screws because of what the wall is made out of. I forget what it's made from, but I have to use super-sharp screws and a drill to get anything hung. 

Anyway, I try to keep the spacing between pictures to be relatively uniform. I like to line up corners to make things look even. I don't have any tricks, but this haphazard method works for me!

I included this oval frame with our family initial done with scrapbook paper. I like that it stands out among all the rectangular frames.

I liked so many of these pictures from this portrait session when Jonathan was 3 and Jared was 1! I used smaller pictures and laid them out like a scrapbook page. I added a ribbon and a cute label and really like how it turned out! There's another picture from this series of them with their Grandma Joycie. It's framed separately in the boys' room.

 This "LOVE" series was done by our friend Noelle. She took care of Jonathan and Jared the day Josiah was born. This is one of the activities they did that day. Later she gave it to us as a gift. Adorable!

Gary and I didn't make it anywhere else in the gallery, so I tacked up this little snapshot of us when we were dating. So happy together...

For Father's Day right after Josiah was born, I copied this Pinterest idea of each of our hands cut out of coordinating scrapbook paper. It's still one of my favorites.

And just to show you that nothing is ever truly finished around here, there are a few holes I'm planning to fill besides the obvious empty frames. I'd like to add a 5 somewhere, another G in there (added by photo edits in a couple pictures) and fill a couple empty spaces with another frame or two. So yeah, it will probably be done about the time I need to take these off the wall and start filling holes!

You know I'll keep you posted.

Do you have a gallery wall? Do you add to it? Change the pictures and leave the frames? Is it one color or a collection? Do you like to plan it out in advance and carefully mark the wall or just start pounding holes?