Guess what we’ve secretly been working on:
Hint: Read this.
More details soon. Until then, feel free to sing this. We can’t stop (and Burger probably wants to kill us).
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I’ve done almost the same thing in my dining room! I started with my favorite pics of my 3 kids to center it and have just built out from there-no planning, just kind of eyeballing. I use family photos-some color, some black and white and some are mounted on cream-colored burlap inside the Ribba frame. We’re hoping to cover the whole room this way. Can’t wait to see what your wall becomes.
What a coincidence! Just talked to my mom about doing a frame collage this morning. We were trying to figure out the best way, but now I will just read how you guys did it, and make it my weekend project. You guys are awesome!
Love it! And I love the whiteboard/magnet board idea for Clara. Although if it’s more than just for magnets then she may color away on the frame/wall too!
I just got some (cheapy cheap!) prints that you might love – they’re upcycled from NJ maps, and they’re <$6 with free shipping on Etsy. Enjoy! http://www.etsy.com/shop/awildtonic?section_id=7893596
Cute! Love it!
xo,
s
A woohoo! What a fun surprise to, by habit, click on over to YHL to find a brand new post! Take that momentum and run with it. Can’t wait to see the frames all hung up!
Wow like everyone else that commented, you threw me off with the late post! A little spring forward insomnia huh?
So, is it ever a good idea to put up pictures all will-nilly?
Haha, we’ve done it with mixed results. Sometimes it can work if you lay them out on the floor and just sort of transfer them freeform onto the wall- that’s actually how we did Clara’s gallery wall in both houses. And then we added to it as we went!
xo,
s
We planned out a photo collage too, and maybe we just got lazy, but we decided to get some picture shelves from Ikea instead (similar to what John made for Clara). Now we can rotate out art & frames without extra nail holes!
Great idea planning it all out like that first! Helps to get it looking ‘random’ yet ‘planned’. I want to do similar in my dining room, so thanks for the tip!
I was JUST cleaning up the million frames I had arranged on my floor, planning a gallery wall over my stairs! I’m glad I saw your post – I’d love to see your take on how to do this. These collections of art and photographs are popping up all over my house. Do you follow any guidelines about spacing it out, or just go with your eye? And do you have any thoughts about mixing unframed canvases in with the frames? I’ve been trying to keep the frames all white or all black in each arrangement, but I have this beautiful stretched canvas that I’m tempted to stick right in the middle… as always, love reading your ideas!
We love mixing and matching whatever we have (although we’re partial to white frames so that’s mostly what we own- but we also love canvas art and hope to work that in). And we definitely just space things out with our eye – more details soon!
xo,
s
Wow, thats a lotta frames-to-be :)
I try not to too often add to the crazy that must be your inbox with awaiting comments to approve but I am super stoked about your collage wall. I’ve been addicted to frame and mirror collages lately and concocting schemes in my head on how I want to do my own, haha. Looking forward to the final reveal.
ohhhhhh real time blogging, i love it, totally surprised!!
I like it! Why not keep it that way instead of replacing it with framed pictures? :) JK, ofcourse.
ok, so im your newest reader i think, and when i started, i realised you guys had come from a long way! so i decided to start from the beginning!!! it was a long process, but so worth it! i love where you guys are at, and since im a soon to be married gal,and i dealt (and am still painfulyl dealing) with making a house feel like a home, i looove seeing im not the only one! :) you guys have fabulous tastes,(and on a weird note, my living room is grey, with a charcoal sectional with yellow pops too! i swear i did that before discovering you guys!! lol.) cant wait to see how you guys will transform this house! xox
Oooh can’t wait to see it!
Your gallery wall is going to look faboooosh! Excited to see what ya’ll decide to frame.
The frames look great, but you should also consider the height of the lowest ones for when little Clara starts walking-grabbing-pulling. We have a frame wall that had to be moved up about a foot because of grabby hands…
Love your blog!
No worries! We plan to hang things down on her level extremely securely (so they can’t be pulled down) and teach her to “be gentle” but if at any point it just seems easier to remove those low lying frames until she’s older we’ll definitely do that. Clara first!
xo,
s
Turn the dog the other way and it’s like he’s guarding the lower frames from said “grabby hands”. haha
Haha. Love it. Our guard dog.
xo,
s
Fantastic! I love it! We are installing a new wall at the top of our stairs and I think it may be the perfect place for a gallery wall that used to go up-the-stairs. Ohhhh what a nice idea! Thank you thank you!
Looks great! Careful with those low lying frames though. My daughter just started walking and now I wish I didn´t have a single thing in my house lower than 2 feet. I can´t leave her alone for a second because she´ll grab/move/climb/break everything! So watch out for Clara with those frames!
Will do! We plan to hang things down on her level super securely (so they can’t be pulled down) and teach her to “be gentle” but if at any point it just seems easier to remove those low lying frames until she’s older we’ll definitely do that. Clara first!
xo,
s
At first I thought you might be taking your new couponing hobby to an extreme! :) Can’t wait to see how the picture collage will look-I would love to do something like this down the road!
I had to chuckle at the couponing comment
Haha At first, I thought you guys were channeling the entrance at target where they hang their weekly ad. Then I realized what ya’ll were up to. Clever.
Photo gallery with Sue snuck in somewhere!
The placement looks great! Looking forward to seeing what sort of art you put up there.
I see lots of laughs for little Clara ahead. Didn’t you mention her loving the sound of hammering?
Yes, she cracks up every time. We have to get it on video!
xo,
s
Your gallery wall is going to look terrific! As someone who wants to switch her wall around, but has been avoiding it because of the patch & touchup that awaits, I say put the hammer down. And get thee some Command strips.
Sadly our plaster walls call for more than those when it comes to supporting bigger frames (although they might work for a few of our 5 x7s). Oh well, it just means we get to break out the drill and the anchors. Fun…
xo,
s
OMG TOTALLY UNRELATED BUT I JUST PULLED OUT MY WASHINGTON POST AND SAW YOU TWO, CLARA, BURGER, KARL, AND THE NEW RUUUUGGGGGG ON THE COVER OF LOCAL LIVING!
DUDE!
CONGRATS!
P.S. The rug is da bomb!
Aieeeee! So excited! We haven’t seen it yet. Ahhhhh!
xo,
s
I opened my copy of The Washington Post this morning and there you were on the localliving insert! Great pic of all four of you! I LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog!
Ahhh – so excited! We haven’t even seen it yet!
xo,
s
P.S. I love that John said he would consider being a high school teacher. I am a high school teacher and some days I wish I were a blogger! :)
It’s shocking how good those adverts look taped to the wall. Can’t wait to see the real deal!
Love the late night post! and i havent seen the washing post yet but i cant wait to see it!
I love the way you guys have arranged the templates! It really looks great. We also have a giant photo gallery wall in our house. They can be a lot of planning/work but when they turn out right, they’re fantastic! There is one thing that we did that I think really made all the difference…at least for us. Like you guys, we put up all the paper templates but then we made an agreement to not actually hang any of the frames for a week. At first it was ridiculously hard for me because I didn’t like seeing the “unfinishedness” of it day after day but in the end, I’m really glad we did. During that week as we would walk by or sit in the room or whatever, we would separately – and without telling the other person – shift things. Sometimes it would be big changes like with larger frame templates and sometimes it would be ever so subtle. More than once something that was moved ended up being moved back to its original spot or turned to a different orientation than it began. Because of all the tweaks, it really seem like the wall sort of evolved into the most perfect configuration for that space. Plus, when everything was finally secured in place, there was absolutely no afterthought of “hey…maybe that would’ve looked better over there.” Truthfully, our final placement wasn’t too far off from where we began and we ended up not waiting the entire 7 days. After about day 5, we realized nothing had been moved in a day or 2 so we were ready to get to work!
And as far as Clara goes, as long as everything is safe then I think you guys are fine. I’m a firm believer in the concept that children more easily learn what is and is not for their hands when its familar stuff. Otherwise they learn that all the cool stuff is up high and maybe I should start climbing the walls to get to it. I also like the idea of using that frame you guys talked about a while back (the one that opens up so you can change out the art without taking the whole thing down) low so that she has her own little display area on the big wall. That seems like an easy way to start introducing the concept of “some things are to been seen with our eyes and not touched with our hands” sort of thing.
And by the way, I realize that I’m super long winded in just about every single comment I leave. Sorry, guys, it just happens before I even realize it!
Oh, fun! I can’t wait to see it. For a minute I thought you were going to start talking about some crazy, couponing system you have.
the real question is will you be wearing your parachute pants and leggins when “hammer time” actually happens??? If so, we want pics!
Oh heck yeah. Haha.
xo,
s
I love it already! You could just leave the magazine pages up and I would happy. Can’t wait to see it with the frames and all the art you decide to use. Oops I used the word art, Bob is going to have a field day with this one.
That is one awesome idea for spacing help and ideas. I am so going to steal it. You guys totally rock! Can I be like you when I grow up? Wait, I’m older than you are. Hmmm…how would that work??
It’s all Martha Stewart! She uses craft paper, but we’re cheap so we use free newspapers. Haha.
xo,
s
Just read an article about you guys in the local living section of my Washington Post. Great article and congrats on the book deal!
Ahhhh! We haven’t even seen it yet. So crazy!
xo,
s
book deal?!? How exciting! I just had to google around and found the article online. I can’t WAIT for a book! congrats, guys!!
Ahhhh, we still can’t believe it! We’re planning a big post about the article and the book this afternoon. After we stop hyperventilating.
xo,
s
\
Then I guess you haven’t seen that Nate Berkus called you adorable….
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Can’t. Breathe.
xo,
s
hahaha it really is a great article! love the pictures, too!
S&J – your hardcore fans are all off googling the article right now.
Love it!
First of all, I want to kill you. Now that song is stuck in MY head…
Second, YAAAAAAAY!!! SOOOO excited!!!! I am jonesin’ to get going on my walls but have been waiting for inspiration/help!!
THANK YOU!!! Love you guys!!!
Now THIS is Art! I love it. From far away all those colors look great – even if its only the place holder.
I was sipping my morning coffee this morning while opening up the Washington Post, only to find four very familiar faces on the front of the Local Living section! Congratulations on the wonderful article Petersik familiy! Your new living room rug looks perfect — and such an appropriate color for today! Happy St. Patrick’s Day : )
Aw thanks! We haven’t seen it yet but can’t wait! And we’ll be sharing lots of rug pics here soon!
xo,
s
should be GORGEOUS!! great idea to bring the photos down to the side of the console table! can’t wait to see finished!
With the exception of the painter’s tape, I actually kinda like the newspaper. It’s colorful, recycling, eye catching & different. The more I look at it, the more I like it.
I never would have thought about cutting templates out like that. Great idea!
We need to get you off the hammer and nails on onto the velcro for these collages. I made one of these and by hanging with velcro I was able to move them all around!!! and theres no holes when I mess up!!
Sadly our plaster walls call for nails and sometimes even anchors and screws. Good thing we love using the drill. Haha. And planning it out with a template first simplifies things.
xo,
s
exciting!!
check out this groupon deal i just got this morning:
http://www.groupon.com/gainesville/deals/fracture?utm_campaign=VisitorReferral&utm_medium=email&utm_source=anonymous
could look pretty neat to mix some of those frame-less prints in with the others to have some changes in texture.
Those look so cool! I was contemplating buying one and having my sister pick it up for me in Gainesville but then I saw shipping was included so that makes it even better! Now to choose a picture…
I stared at the arrangement on the table, admiring your little green bowl. Then I realized it was the tape. Looking good! Happy St. Patty’s!
Haha, hooray green!
xo,
s
Ooh, I hope you’ll include a little tutorial about hanging in plaster walls & what anchors you use!
i saw this first thing in the morning and thought that the link in the post would go to sherry’s blog about coupons. definitely a better method for gallery planning than coupon clipping. can’t wait to see it.
Can hardly wait to see it!
Thank you for posting this! I am planning to do something similar down the long hallway to the bedrooms in our ranch and couldn’t quiiiite visualize where to start and stop. DUH! Tape stuff to the wall and look.
This weekend, I’m doin this…thanks!