Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

12 Tips to Create the Perfect Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

When you Don’t Love It, a room in your home can become a place to avoid. Last week I hung our TV on the wall in our living room, but was cringing because that big fat TV was screaming “Look at me! Look at me!” It was killing the cozy vibe I wanted to create in our room. This is the place that my family likes to chillax. It’s the room where wrestling matches happen and the room where we curl up by the fire. We watch movies and sports in this spot.  But, frankly, I didn’t love it. When I looked in the living room all I could see was a giant black elephant in the room.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

I agreed to let Pretty Handsome Guy pick out a big flat screen TV. But, I secretly devised a plan to keep me happy and let Handsome Guy have his big honkin’ TV.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

And I Created a Perfect Gallery Wall around the TV to de-emphasize its size and dominance in the room.

15 Tips for Creating the Perfect Gallery Wall:

#1 Start with a Level Line

Determine the area you want to install your gallery wall. Measure down from your crown molding or ceiling to the top of the gallery area.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

Insert a thumbtack or pin at that height. Run a piece of string from the thumbtack along the width of your gallery wall space. (It helps to have a friend hold the free end of the string, but you can use a piece of painter’s tape to hold it temporarily.)

Level the string and secure the opposite end with a thumbtack.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

#2 Create Paper Templates

Pull together all your frames and art. Create a paper template for each object. (Craft paper, butcher block paper or old dot matrix printer paper works perfect for this task.)

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

Use painter’s tape to secure the templates to the wall. Step back and look at the wall from across the room. Take a picture of the wall with your mobile device and look at the picture to see if you see any issues. Or face away from the wall and look at it in the mirror to look at the arrangement from another angle. Play with the templates until you Love It! I will be honest with you, this process takes a while. In the long run, you’ll love your gallery wall if you live with the arrangement for a few days before the final installation.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

#3 Pick a Color Palette

Choosing a color palette of 2-3 colors will help you create a cohesive look and make it easy to create a visually pleasing gallery wall. The easiest palette to work with is black and white, because you can use black, white and a variety of grays.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

You can also add a bold color to the mix and know that everything works with black and white!

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

#4 Use a Variety of Shapes and Sizes

For more visual interest, use a variety of shapes and sizes. Gallery walls that use the same frame for the entire collection can look stunning and orderly. But, for a more organic and eclectic gallery wall, feel free to play with many shapes and sizes. Your color palette of 2-3 colors will keep it looking unified.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

#5 Balance Larger and Smaller Objects

When working with several shapes and sizes, it’s important to balance your arrangement. Space larger items away from each other and preferably on opposite sides. Pay attention to collections of smaller objects as well. Your wall would look unbalanced if all the large objects were on one side and all the small art on the other.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

While spacing the object templates, use the trick in #2 by taking a photo or using a mirror while playing with placement.

#6 Use Consistent Spacing and Align Edges

Use consistent spacing between your art. Smaller collections can visually work as one large object if you space them closer together. But, use a larger space outside the collection that equal to the rest. Try to align horizontal or vertical edges with adjacent art. They don’t have to be hung in a uniform grid, but creating a shared horizontal or vertical line can help create a pleasing installation.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

#7 Group Like Objects

As mentioned in #6, you can group smaller objects together to fill a larger space. Use objects of the same color, material or shape together as a collection.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

#8 Mix Textures

For lots of visual interest, introduce several different materials and textures into your gallery wall. Break up black frames with wooden art, metal signs and even natural elements like feathers, branches, found objects, etc. The sky wall is the limit (ha, ha). Have fun using your imagination.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

#9 Use Good Wall Anchors, Hangers, and Bumpers

While hanging artwork, be sure to use picture hangers or anchors strong enough to hold your artwork. It’s so important to use a hanging hook or anchor that is designed to hold more than your art weighs. Watch the video on “Testing Drywall Anchors” to see why this is so important:

video-screen-shot-buildcom

Way to go Build.com for performing this test!

#10 Mark Hanging Hardware on Templates

This trick will save you time and save your walls from turning into swiss cheese! Set your template on the back of your art (the back side should be up) and poke a hole with a pencil where the hanging hooks, holes or wires are. Hang your template back on the wall.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

#11 Hanging Your Art Perfectly

Ready to hang your art perfectly the first time? Grab your picture hanging hardware, nails and a hammer.

Make sure that each template is level. For art that has visible holes, line up the art on top of the template. Hammer the nail or hook through the hole.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

Then simply pull and rip the template off the wall from beneath the art.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

For hanging hardware that is hidden. Hammer your picture hardware through the template lining up the hook or nail with the hole you poked through in tip #10.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

Tear the template off after you have your hangers installed. Hang your art on the hooks perfectly the first time!

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

#12 Make it Personal

Make your gallery wall a reflection of you! Use vacation photos, messages and art that has meaning to you and your family.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

I smile every time I walk into our living room. It is filled with memories and art that makes me happy.

Tips for Creating a Gallery Wall | Pretty Handy Girl

PHGFancySign

Disclosure: Thank you to Build.com for sponsoring today’s post and inspiring me to discover my #LoveItMoment 

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Installing a Wall Mount Flat Screen TV + Hiding Cords | PrettyHandyGirl

Installing a Wall Mount Flat Screen TV + Hiding Cords | PrettyHandyGirl

Do you have a flat screen TV? Do you have children? Wish you could mount your TV on the wall for space and safety? Or have you already mounted your TV, but the wires are visible and hang below your screen? GASP—not the dreaded visible wires syndrome!

Installing a Wall Mount Flat Screen TV + Hiding Cords | PrettyHandyGirl

Today I have a tutorial to show you How to Install a Wall Mount for your TV AND How to Hide those Unsightly Wires in a cable management system. SANUS sent me their Full-Motion TV Wall Mount and In-Wall Cable Management to use for this tutorial. Before you start thinking that you can’t do this, or that you have to hire an electrician to run power behind the TV, you don’t! And this is a very easy DIY project! The SANUS In-Wall Cable Management System is the coolest product. It allows you to hook up to an existing outlet elsewhere (within 60″ horizontally from your TV)! (Per FTC regulations, you should know that this is a sponsored post for SANUS, but I approached them after researching TV mounts and cable management systems. )

Genevieve Gorder has some good information about why you want to use a SANUS mount in this short video:

Why did I want to use the SANUS mount? Here’s just a few reasons:

Installing a Wall Mount Flat Screen TV + Hiding Cords | PrettyHandyGirl

You can pull your screen out from the wall or press it back to just a few inches away. (The arms extend a full 20″. Further than shown, because our cables are too short to fully extend.)

The power cord plugs into an ultra low profile in wall cable system. All wires are hidden behind the TV.

Installing a Wall Mount Flat Screen TV + Hiding Cords | PrettyHandyGirl

The TV can also extend and swivel from left to right. This allows us to be able to watch TV from the adjacent room! Which means the kids can eat pizza AND watch a movie because they can safely sit at the kitchen table and view the movie in the living room. Score one for Mom!  No more pizza stains on the rug or sofa.

Installing a Wall Mount Flat Screen TV + Hiding Cords | PrettyHandyGirl

Ready to learn how you can easily mount your flat-screen TV on the wall AND hide the wires? Let’s get to it! Read more

How to Install a Wall Sconce | Pretty Handy Girl

How to Install a Wall Sconce | Pretty Handy Girl

Do your wall sconces annoy you? Are they stuck in the 90’s, 80’s, or worse yet the 70’s? When I picked out these sconces several years ago, they were the only ones I could find that I thought were okay. But, with a living room makeover in the works, I decided to upgrade them for a more modern pair.

How to Install a Wall Sconce | Pretty Handy Girl

It’s time to learn how to install a wall sconce. Of if you are like Pretty Handsome Guy, I’m going to teach you how to install new “light fixtures that hang on the walls” (lest you think I was talking about a breakfast treat.)

scone

Whatever you call it, you can definitely do this. Ready?

Install a Wall Sconce Light Fixture Materials:

  • Screwdrivers (flat head and phillips head)
  • Light fixture

Optional: wire cutters/wire strippers

Install a Wall Sconce Light Fixture Instructions:

Turn on the lights you will be working on. Shut off the power to your light(s) at your circuit breaker. Check the lights to verify that the power has been turned off.

How to Install a Wall Sconce | Pretty Handy Girl

Removing the Current Light Fixture:

Remove the light bulb and glass shade. Unscrew the mounting nuts from the face of your light fixture.

How to Install a Wall Sconce | Pretty Handy Girl

Lift the light fixture off the mounting bracket and let it hang (or get a friend to help hold the fixture if it’s heavy.) Read more

La-Z-Boy Living Room Decisions | Pretty Handy Girl

La-Z-Boy Living Room Decisions | Pretty Handy Girl

Remember when I admitted to you that we sit on a dead couple’s sofa? I’m ashamed to admit it, but Pretty Handsome Guy and I have the same sofa that was handed down to us by my godfather when his parent’s died. Several years ago I agreed to stop bringing home inexpensive big furniture pieces. Instead, we decided to wait and save for quality furniture that would last a long time. During the wait, I made the best of an ugly situation and covered that old sofa in hunter green plaid in the 90’s.

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Then I bought a bright red slipcover for it in the early 2000’s.

CouchAfterFull

A few years ago, I added a white slipcover to hide it’s true identity.

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But, when guests sit on it, they know. I know it by the looks on their faces as their rear ends collide with the hard cushions. It’s like sitting on concrete. Not to mention that the sofa is small. Not just in width, but in height too.

I was talking to my sister the weekend we were working on the beach condo. She is an interior designer and she expressed her disgust with my poor excuse for a sofa, “Brittany, for heaven’s sake, you are in your 40’s! Grow up already and buy a new sofa.” I was shamed and agreed that we needed to find some time to go furniture shopping again. But, this was akin to driving a broken ox to plow through a muddy field (Amazing Race reference.) Handsome Guy hates shopping…especially when it involves looking at multiple colorful swatches and fabrics. I on the other hand don’t mind that part, but I’m particular about quality and comfort. Finding furniture that will last the abuse of our boys and last for decades is important to me.

We set out one date night to hunt down the perfect sofa and drag it home to our lair. We went to half a dozen furniture stores, but none of the showrooms felt right. One was too modern. One had cheap quality sofas. One store had a pushy salesman. (Am I sounding like Goldilocks here?) Sadly, we returned home empty-handed.

In a twist of fate, I was introduced to the new look of La-Z-Boy when they approached me about participating in the Design Dash. Before then, I never considered buying a sofa at La-Z-Boy because — you know — my grandfather had a big fat roll filled La-Z-Boy and it wasn’t stylish! Boy was I wrong!

I walked into that showroom and was blown away…as in “Shut the Front Door! This can’t be a La-Z-Boy showroom.” Read more