GREAT GALLERY WALLS: HOW TO CREATE ONE

I like the look of gallery walls, and often use them in my own spaces. The image above is from a small apartment I renovated and decorated. I find the key is making sure you have enough artwork to fill in the space, they don't look good if it's too skimpy. It's a great style, and can be an excellent way to use different frames and styles of art that you might have laying around. It can take some experimenting to get the layout perfect. I lay all the artwork out on the floor first, like a puzzle, and move things around until the overall fit looks right. From that point I choose the centre piece and hang that one first, hanging the others around that. In my opinion, it's not a perfect science. As you can see in these rooms it can be nice when colourful prints, photos and paintings are mixed together.

Sources:

Image 1:  Deb Nelson Design, photo by Janet Kimber

Image 2: houseandhome.com

Image 3: lonny.com

Image 4: unknown

B & A: THIS SMALL BEDROOMS POTENTIAL REVEALED!

At DND, we always love a good Before & After. There is something magical about seeing the possibility of what a room could be. When I bought my old 1844 house, there were many rooms that felt a little tired and dated. When I saw this space I wanted to lighten and brighten it up.

BEFORE

AFTER

Hereʼs what happened:

– All new walls and ceilings, although it doesn't show up in the before picture, all of the old plaster in this room was cracked and heaving on the walls and in the ceiling. New drywall and paint really changed the look.

– White paint! One of my favourites, I painted the walls, ceiling, floors and trim in white. This truly transforms a room!

–  One way to instantly brighten up a space is to expose more of the windows. Removing the sheers and full length drapery panels and going to custom made linen roman shades in the windows allowed more natural light to flow in.

– Room layout: the furniture placement in the 'after' picture is very different. The bed is placed in front of the window instead of on the wall on the right. Creative space planning had to happen in this room to fit that large antique cabinet you can see in the first picture.

There are terrific water views out both these windows! Iʼm going to be switching around the furniture in this room to see if I can capture more of the view! I'll be sure to share those results on the blog later this summer.

DIY: AFFORDABLE & STYLISH ARTWORK

I like to keep some inexpensive frames around that I can fill with any image to create some easy and affordable artwork. The art on the wall above are pieces I put together, matching frames with images. You can use antique prints, new prints or photography – whatever you have that works. Here is another piece in a white frame:

I've used an Ikea ribba frame and an old, vintage advertisement as the image. The frame comes in several different sizes and colours, so you can pick what works best for you.

Here's how this one looks finished (a bit hard to see the white frame):

This image is an old French, Hermes advertisement, you can sometimes find these on ebay or by hunting around at antique shops. I've found some great old images to put in new frames. I also often have a new matte cut to go around the image to fit perfectly. It gives it a custom framed look.