In my process of decluterring our home, I’ve been focused a lot on surface clutter. Our home is very open. Our laundry room, kitchen, dining room, entryway and living room are pretty much one giant room. Everything is WIDE open. So if there is too much clutter on the kitchen counters, the entire house can look messy. Same with the living room. I had a lot of family pictures in frames sitting on surfaces, mostly shelving in the living room and a small side table we have in the dining room. I gathered them all together and set them on top of Watson’s kennel (which is in our entryway. We never use our front door so it’s the best place for it…it stays out of the way).
I’m no expert on gallery walls, but I think there are a couple things I think are important when making one:
*Go with the flow. Don’t get too exact or hung up (no pun intended) on perfection and symmetry. It will make you nuts, and is not necessary. Just do a 'loose' arrangement of how you would like your pictures before you start.
*Frames don’t HAVE to be uniform, but I think it helps. All of my frames are the same kind from Ikea, with the exception of one. But that one is a black frame also, so it blends in with the other ones. However, I have seen gallery walls with mismatched frames and I think in the right space they can look really good. A little eclectic, but nice.
My wall ended up a bit symmetrical but as I add more photos to it, it will grow out and not be so ‘even’. Which is totally fine! I really like how it turned out.
However, I need some updated pictures of everyone. Like my parents. And my brother’s family. I have the pictures, I just need to print them out and get them hung up.
Oh, and I had two pictures of me and husband at our wedding, but I left those off the wall. I kept them in their matching frames on our small table we have in the entryway:
BEFORE:
I likey. I think the pictures are better on display on the wall AND they are keeping my surfaces clear. Win-Win!
