25 October 2012

Living Room Gallery Wall Install!

 Well, I finally put together my first little gallery wall in our living room! 


I was planning a gallery of travel photos for another spot, but after spending 3 months searching for something large enough to go over our sofa, I finally decided to do one in our living space :)  

Most of these frames had been collected over the past year, a few like the mirror are even older. To figure out the placement I measured the wall space above my sofa and then measured out the same square footage on the floor. Then I played around with a few different arrangements before settling on my favourite.

I thought about doing kraft paper templates to get the spacing right on the wall, but in the end I didn't bother. Using my measuring tape I figured out roughly where the mirror should go and then I referred back to the photo above to figure out the spacing for the rest of the frames.


I still want to do a gallery of our travel photography elsewhere, so I chose a collection of colourful and meaningful prints for this space. The green dome pictured is the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, his blessed resting place and the one place in the world I long to go most (image found on flickr). The little postcard in the top right is from a recent trip along the Pacific coast in Cali, an incredible vacation that my sweet husband surprised me with :)


The floral print as well as the oriental print are actually gift bags! When we visited the US I found these gorgeous printed bags on clearance at World Market and I loved them so much I cut them up and framed them - cheap and easy artwork! The papyrus calligraphy is from Egypt, and the other Arabic calligraphy pieces were DIYed. The lower one was a sticker I found at a local store called The Craft Souk, which I mounted on a plaque with some card stock and gold cord. The top print is our favourite line of poetry which I just typed out on my computer. 


This geometric print was one of my art pieces. I drew the same pattern in blue tones on a card I gave to my hubby on our engagement, but he wouldn't let me frame the original :) The pattern has a special significance for both of us. 

I love this little grouping! I was so tired of the huge blank wall in our living space and now it's come to life with so much colour.



A shot of the new gallery wall with a little peek at our updated living room - I'm waiting for a sunny day to take some pics of the space to share soon :)

4 comments:

  1. I have the same mirror. I spray painted it gold. It's in my daughter's room. I still haven't hung it up. I just haven't planned where I want to put it and what I should put with it. The gallery wall looks great! Love the collected feel!

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  2. I love that this gllery wall speaks a lot of who lives in the home - it is both beautiful and sentimental. Love it!

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  3. You have a lovely blog Samaa. Thanks for commenting on my quilt, I'm glad you liked it. You might like this wall hanging I did from Surah Maryam. http://sewjournal.com/2011/07/13/back-from-holidays-with-a-finished-wall-hanging/

    Also I don't know if you've seen this lovely Islamic Calligraphy wall decal site. Here's a link to it:
    http://www.iradaarts.com/

    Keep up the lovely posts

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    1. Thank you so much Munaiba Chachi! I'm so happy you came by and that you liked the blog :) And thanks for the link to the website as well! I'd seen those decals for sale at a conference but I didn't have their site - I think the sticker I used must be one of theirs!

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