A WALL GALLERY (ISH).

 I think I said it previously, but January I've given myself the challenge of decorating some of the walls in this home.  It's going fairly slowly, but I did tackle the big blank wall in the living room!

I had originally hung some photos on this wall a year or so back, but took them down when we were having our floors sanded.  I wasn't motivated to put them back up because I wasn't in love with the arrangement I had going on.  The largest photo in the grouping was an 8x10, and since the wall was so expansive it just seemed...small.

I pondered some larger print sizes, even 16x20, but when placed next to our 19 inch t.v. it made our television look....well, small.

Then the day came when our whole family when to Costco to look at a t.v. on sale.  The kids and I never actually thought Matt would go through with it, but the price was very good and we walked out of there with a 40 inch t.v.  So, not only could we now host movie nights and Super Bowl parties, we could also hang some larger photos without it looking ridiculous!

About the time of New Years I got an email from unitprints.com advertising their 16x20 prints were on sale for $10 (normally $20).  This was a great opportunity to order some big prints and save some big $$.  So, I ordered a 16x20 of each kid, plus two 11x14 sized prints, two 8x10 prints, and even an 8x12.  My goal in putting up "artwork" on the walls has been to keep it frugal and keep it personal.  My final total was definitely not "cheap", but I spent about $75 on all 9 prints with shipping and tax. (I should also note that I wanted professional quality prints, it may be cheaper to print at Target, etc. but I didn't look into that).

I will admit that when I received the package in the mail, I was a bit nervous to open it up.  The box was b.i.g., which meant the photos were b.i.g.  I honestly had never ordered anything larger than an 8x10, and now those looked puny.  

I should have taken a photo of the process, but I cut out each photo's dimensions from newspaper so I could place them on the wall.  This is where it started getting troubling for Matt.  Matt dislikes holes in the wall, which means he also dislikes photo galleries.  

Sometimes for fun, I like to show him Pinterest projects like this:

And then I act like this is a project I'd like to do.  This above gallery also contains a plethora of IKEA frames...another strong dislike of Matt's!

(sidenote:  I just showed the above photo to Matt and he shook his head in disbelief and commented, "That is so pointless...")

So, I do have to keep his preferences in mind when I decorate any wall.  Matt can be a stickler, but the truth is that he's usually right, and so I'm thankful for his judgment to guide me (most of the time)! 

I left the newspaper cutouts up for about a week and moved things around from time to time. Then I had to find and purchase frames.  I had 8x10 frames, but that was it.  I looked at a couple of thrift stores, but couldn't find anything I liked, let alone seven frames I liked.  I looked online (some frames are ridiculously expensive), but ended up purchasing frames at Target.  It was another investment, about $140, but I used some money from Christmas.
Then I laid out the frames on the floor (ideally I would not have left these on the floor for three days...thankfully none of them broke even though Evelyn walked across several of them several times!)

Finally one night Matt and the big kids were busy changing the oil in the truck and finding constellations (true story, he's a great dad), and Evie and I hung some photos.  I found out that I'm very bad at measuring and nothing really ended up exactly where it was suppose to (Matt made a joke that it's good I'm not a pharmacist), but I was pleased with the end result.

It was super bright and sunny today, so getting a great photo without glare was difficult.  However, I'm not going to complain about sunny and 50 degrees in January!

Yes, our "media cabinet" is a little small, that may change or it may not.  Eventually the t.v. will be in the basement.  And yes, that's an antenna from our rabbit ears in the corner!

Here's the photos a little closer, but with some glare.

The photos are from left to right: Evelyn (1 day old); scrapbook paper with "t";  Nathan (8) from last summer in WI; Ella (1 1/2) from a trip to CO; Ella (6) last summer downtown Sioux Falls; Addie (4) on a fishing trip last Summer in WI; Evelyn (2) last summer dtsf; Matt and Addie (3) a couple of summers ago at the Ingalls Homestead; Evelyn (2) at a CO Rockies baseball game; and Evelyn with Great Grandpa Bob (though you can't really see it in this photo below, it's more visible in the first photo).

The good news is that Matt also likes the end result!   I'm glad we went big; it's much more proportional and visually pleasing.  I've even left some negative space for growth in the future...though Matt does feel like adding anything is "completely unnecessary"!